Customer Reviews

Shadow Warriors - The Complete First Season

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kage no Gundan Hattori Hanzo (Shadow Warriors) is an excellent series with a mix of drama and action. Sonny Chiba is great as Hattori Hanzo by portraying him with emotion. The rest of the cast did a great job and there is a heavy amount of big cast of guest actors and actresses. The action sequences are good to watch especially when Hanzo and his band of Iga ninjas finishes off the enemies. If you are big into jidaigeki (period drama), you might want to try and see this one. I've seen this series repeatedly over and over since I got a hold of it.

If you are into martial art movies and ninjas this is a must have. This is where Quentin Tarrentino got some of his ideas for his Kill Bill series. Hence the Taro Hanzo sword. It is in Japanese with english subtitles. The nice thing too about this series is it is not edited for American Television. So expect to see more blood shed and a little nudity. For mature audiences. Some may complain about the video quality, but you have to realize when the series was made. I feel the series is well written for the most part and draws your interest with excitement. Hanzo is one awesome respected ninja leading his Iga Clan of ninjas against evil in feudal Japan. Enjoy.

anyone who loves ninja movies this is the collection you need. sonny chiba
loosely recreates the life of noted ninja leader hanzo hattorie. and his
band of iga ninja these dvd's are awsome lots of action, intriege and passion. and true ninjutsu martial arts and weapons and explosives.
its a must see for any and all practioners of ninjutsu.ive read the
current ninjutstu grand master Masaaki Hatsumi actually helped durring filming of these movies.

Great ninja action but for that price it should have been restored or remastered to restore contrast & color.

If you like Ninja storylines, you'll love Kage No Gundan (this first series). Sonny Chiba plays Hattori Hanzo, the leader of the Igas who were framed and then relinquished of their duties as official spies for the Shogunate ten years prior. The Igas only want to be left alone and have peace in the land, but their successors, the Koga are paranoid that the Igas want their old title back. Meanwhile, the new Shogun is a child, and that is cause for political turmoil. The guardian of the new Shogun enlists Hanzo and his band to fight the bad guys and keep peace in the land.
I think what makes this series great is the diversity of the episodes. Although it is formulatic (after all, it is a tv show from 1980), each episodes contains great action scenes, drama and comedy. Sonny Chiba is great in this, and it gives him the opportunity to play serious killer, understanding leader, and silly undercover guise. And if there is one thing that Japanese cinema, television included, does well, is that of the tragic romance - and sure enough, this series has it, which involves Hattori Hanzo. All in all, a great televison series.

A must have for anyone interested in early Ninja/Samurai TV series from Japan. First in a series featuring Sonny Chiba (Chiba Shinchi) as Hattori Hanzo the chief of the Iga ninjas. Good action, decent storylines, and very good acting by a variety of supporting characters. Subtitling is decent and easy to read. This is one of the main sources of inspiration for Kill Bill. Only available in poorly copied bootleg VHS and DVDs for many years so it is great to have a quality transfer at a very reasonable price. I hope they put out the rest of the series soon.

We found this series very enjoyable. I bought it because I wanted to see how Shinichi/Sonny Chiba became associated with Hattori Hanzo, since in movies Chiba tends to be a supporting character or bad guy rather than H.H. himself. I am not disappointed: we like the characters, the stories, and the combination of action, drama, and humor. At about $30 per hour-long episode it is a very good deal.
I only have two complaints:
1) we want to watch more but only the first season seems available;
2) Chiba's Hattori Hanzo does not say "VERY GOOOOOD!" even once! :o)
(Maybe it's because the H.H. in Okinawa who makes the exquisite blade for
B. Kiddo/"The Bride" is meant to be a descendant centuries later.)

Where I grew up (the LA Metro area) we did not get cable tv until like 1982 and actually quality has been in a steady decline ever since.
We had 3 independent stations (I remember my dad let me stay up late on a school night to watch the Deer Hunter uncut on KCOP) and very local UHF channels (18,22,52,and 28 which was PBS) where I watched this series when it originally aired here on Sunday night, right on the heels of the very popular Yagyu Conspiracy (also starring Chiba that was a spin off of the movie which I highly recommend).
And at the same time my other favorite show New Wave Theatre was also on every week on the same channel!!!
This is the best in the series of 'Kage no Gundam' productions, I think it went up to III or IV and should have ended with II. This was cool b/c in the Yagyu Conspiracy the Iga were used as pawns and now we got to view it at the 'grunt' level - whereas the YC was like a typical war movie and KnG was like 'Band of Brothers'.
It would have been way better to watch the YC first b/c it would give background and context to this show, especially all the theories of what was happening during this period (there is a reason why there is so many movies and anime about this period b/c it is a mystery) as well as a look at the 3 headed beast of Japanese politics.
I am looking forward to this, but have to admit I will miss the commercials, especially the used car salesman 'JAX' - imagine a Japanese Jerry Lewis, who learned the trade from a Texan. My mom would get pissed at us every week b/c we would say 'oh look it's your boyfriend'-she hadn't figured out that if she ignored us we would have stopped. So every week she would get all huffy while me and my dad would laugh, it got to a point where we would just look at each other and she would get pissed.

Man I miss UHF...I think I just really miss my dad

So, while we in the United States had to suffer shows like the A-Team and Magnum PI, the Japanese were getting authentic ninja espionage and samurai intrigue with shows like Shadow Warriors. I guess the closest we got was Lee Van Cleef's "Master" show, and that's not saying much. Anyways, this is a great show, slightly more serious than Chiba's other classic works such as "Shogun's Ninja" and "Ninja Wars", but it's far from dull. And don't be put off by the price - you get hours upon hours of shows and a well-packaged boxset. If you enjoyed Kill Bill, or movies like Lady Snowblood, the Mas Oyama Trilogy or Shinobi no Mono, you will not be disappointed.

This series is very good and I am waiting eagerly for the second season to came out.
The plot of each episode is good. Most of them are not very original but some are.
The fight scenes are excellent.
There is some nudity . Chiba disguises itself as a bath house owner and so there are many scenes with female customer showing their breasts. The ladies that appear half naked are beautiful so I can only applaud.