is a 2011 Japanese family-oriented comedy film directed by

Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over 100 feature film, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films span a variety of different genres, ranging from violent and surrealism, b ...

. The film is live-action adaptation of the Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series ''

Nintama Rantarō is a Japanese anime series produced by Ajia-do Animation Works and Japanese broadcast on NHK since April 10, 1993. It is an adaptation of the manga series '' Rakudai Ninja Rantarō'', written and illustrated by Sōbe Amako. ''Nintama Rant ...

''. The film stars Seishiro Kato as Rantaro who is sent to a ninja training school by his parents. During the summer, they are challenged by a group of rival ninjas which culminates in a race to ring a bell on top of a mountain. ''Ninja Kids!!!'' had its world premiere at the

New York Asian Film Festival The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is a film festival held in New York City dedicated to the display of Asian film and culture. The New York Asian Film Festival generally features contemporary premieres and classic titles from Eastern Asia ...

on July 3, 2011 and was released theatrically in Japan on July 23 where it was the fourth-highest-grossing film in its opening week.

Plot

Set in the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

in early 16th-century Japan, the young ninja Rantaro ( Seishiro Kato) is born into a family of low-ranking ninjas. Rantaro is sent by his father and mother (

Shido Nakamura Shido may refer to: *A 'slight' or minor penalty in judo *Ali Shido Abdi, senior Somali politician and elder *Shido Fuyuki, a character in the Japanese manga and anime series ''GetBackers'' *Shido, Kagawa, a former town located in Ōkawa District, ...

and Rei Dan) to attend the six-year course at a Ninja Academy run by Denzo Yamada (

Susumu Terajima is a Japanese actor. Though he has played a wide range of characters, he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of ''yakuza'' figures, most notably in the films of Takeshi Kitano. Terajima made his acting debut in 1986's '' A Homansu''. He ...

). Rantaro's homeroom teacher is Hansuke Doi (Takahiro Miura) and head of the Ninja Girl classes at the school is Shina Yamamoto who appears as either a beautiful young woman (

Anne Watanabe is a Japanese fashion model, actress and singer, the daughter of film actor Ken Watanabe and his first wife Yumiko. In her modeling work, she is known by the mononym Anne.Kuhn, Anthony"For Japanese Women, The Past Is The Latest Fad" Career Wat ...

) or an older woman (

Tamao Nakamura (born July 12, 1939 in Kyoto, Japan) is a Japanese actress. Her father is kabuki is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is k ...

). After going home to his parents' farm for the summer holidays, Rantaro is joined by his schoolmate Shinbei (Futa Kimura) but they later decide to stay with Kirimaru (Roi Hayashi) and teacher Doi. One day, some Usutake ninjas arrive at the house of flamboyant hairdresser Yukitaka Saito (

Takeshi Kaga , real name , is a well-known stage and movie actor in Japan who is best known internationally for his portrayal of Chairman Kaga in the Japanese television show ''Iron Chef'' produced by Fuji TV. Biography Kaga was born on October 12, 1950, ...

) and his son Takamaru (

Takuya Mizoguchi is a Japanese actor. Mizoguchi is also a member of the 5-dimensional idol group DearDream from ''DreamFes!'' Biography *Mizoguchi made his acting debut in 2007. His appearance in the film '' Kamen Rider Den-O: I'm Born!'' published in the same ...

) in order to kill both of them. Yukitaka and Takamaru used to belong to the Uuetake clan, but Rantaro and his friends aim to save them by joining a contest that ends with a race to ring a bell on top of a mountain.

Cast

* Seishiro Kato as Rantaro * Roi Hayashi as Setsuno Kirimaru * Futa Kimura as Shinbei Fukutomi *

Mikijirō Hira was a Japanese actor. Starting as a stage actor in the 1950s, he also worked in film and television and was active until the time of his death. From the 1970s he starred in several of Yukio Ninagawa's productions, including an acclaimed role a ...

as Okawa *

as Denzo Yamada, academy head * Takahiro Miura as Hansuke Doi * Koji Yamamoto as Tobe Shinzaemon * Furuta Arata as canteen lady *

as Shina Yamamoto, as a beautiful young woman *

as Shina Yamamoto, as an old crone *

as Takamaru Saito *

Akira Emoto is a Japanese actor. Career In 1999, he won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in '' Dr. Akagi''. He also won the award for best supporting actor at the 7th Hochi Film Award for '' Dotonbori River'' and '' Hearts an ...

as Usetake ninja Choro *

Renji Ishibashi , born is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 15th Hochi Film Award The are film-specific prizes awarded by the '' Hochi Shimbun''. Categories *Best Picture *Best International Picture *Best Animated Picture ...

as Usetake ninja OB *

Yusuke Yamamoto is a Japanese actor and DJ. He was born in Aichi, Japan. His debut role was as Tsurugi Kamishiro, a.k.a. Kamen Rider Sasword, in ''Kamen Rider Kabuto is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the sixteenth installment in ...

as Suzutakano Yoshiro * Yuma Ishigaki as Do Sukarasu

Release

Released in 2011, ''Ninja Kids!!!'' had its world premiere at the

on July 3, and premiered in Canada at the

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival, also known as Fantasia Fest or simply Fantasia, is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on fantasy, horror, sci-fi and cult genre films. Regular ...

on July 16. After the premiere, negotiations were reported to be underway with a major production company for an American remake of the film. It had its theatrical premiere in Japan on July 23. It was the fourth-highest-grossing film on its opening week in Japan grossing $1,060,634 and has grossed a total of $3,436,468.

Reception

''Ninja Kids!!!'' has received generally positive reviews. ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' gave a positive review, praising the film's energy while noting that "the film may enchant or completely turn off a viewer with its bizarre attempt to give the characters the exact same looks as their animated counterparts". Tradepaper ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the film a favorable review stating that it had "joyous energy that propels its pint-size protagonists through a rapid-fire succession of slapstick gags, each more outrageous than the last". Film Business Asia gave the film a seven out of ten rating, noting that "in the second half, the film loses its initial playfulness and becomes more like rote silly comedy". Andrew Chan of the

Film Critics Circle of Australia The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) is an association of cinema critics and reviewers. It includes journalists in "media, television, major national and state papers, radio, national and state, online and freelance writers, Australian ...

wrote that "''Ninja Kids!!!'' is a massive disappointing effort from such a capable director. Sure some fun can be had and the class of kids are fun to watch, but it is only a manner of time before the same antics you once fall for, becomes quite frankly annoying and eventually regrettably bored".

Sequel

A sequel, called , was released on July 6, 2013.

Notes

External links

* {{Takashi Miike 2010s children's comedy films Japanese children's films Films directed by Takashi Miike Japanese martial arts films Films based on television series 2011 films 2011 martial arts films 2011 comedy films Films scored by Yoshihiro Ike 2010s Japanese films