(also known as ''Band of Ninja'') is a 1967

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima. It is based on

Sanpei Shirato , known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist and essayist known for his social criticism as well as the realism of his drawing style and the characters in his scenarios. He was considered a pioneer of the controversial ''gekiga'' genre o ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

''Ninja Bugeichō''. Rather than being an animated adaption, Ōshima decided to simply shoot the panels of the manga in order, adding narration and zooming and panning techniques.

Plot

The son of a murdered feudal lord meets a renegade

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

helping peasants and farmers rebel against

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

Cast

*Yuki jutaro - Kei Yamamoto *Akemi -

Akiko Koyama is a Japanese actress. She made her screen debut in 1955 and appeared in nearly 90 films. In 1960 Akiko Koyama married film director Nagisa Oshima, and appeared in some of his films. Selected filmography * ''Night and Fog in Japan'' (1960) * ' ...

- Hikaru Hayashi *

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

- Fumio Watanabe * Akechi Mitsuhide -

Shigeru Tsuyuguchi is a Japanese actor. Biography Tsuyuguchi was born in Tokyo and raised in Ehime.Nihon Eiga Jinmei Jiten　2　190-191 He attended Ehime University, but withdrew before completing his degree and joined the Haiyuza Theatre Company in 1955. His c ...

*Kagemaru - Rokko Toura

References

External links

* 1967 films Films directed by Nagisa Ōshima Japanese black-and-white films 1960s Japanese-language films Live-action films based on manga 1960s Japanese films {{1960s-Japan-film-stub