Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

BA_Harrison I saw this film knowing nothing about it (I bought it from ebay — it was cheap), and having not seen the director's earlier film, Samurai Fiction. I was pleasantly surprised.The film has loads going for it if what you're after is an entertaining, funny and visually stunning movie — we get Indiana Jones-style booby-trapped castles, sexy girl ninjas in leather mini-skirts, cool ninja-dudes in indestructible armour, beautiful female contortionist thieves, and baddies with fists of steel. The action is sufficiently over-the-top and everything is accompanied by a pounding techno soundtrack.What more could you ask for?

bloodandpopcorn From the great Hiroyuki Nakano who proved himself with "Samurai Fiction" comes an entertaining, if not wholly fulfilling, Ninja movie!If you enjoyed Samurai Fiction, then you should have a blast watching Red Shadow. It's one of the most entertaining films to come out of Asia in the past few years, with some really breathtaking stunts, great costumes and sets, and some charismatic characters. Still, at the end of the film I felt a bit that a little something was missing. I still can't quite put my finger on it. Stylistically, Red Shadow is at least on par with Nakano's earlier masterpiece. The cinematography is beautiful (and in glorious color this time), and Nakano gives us some extremely cool crane shots. The humor is there, as is the respectively tongue-in-cheek tone, but Red Shadow takes a slight turn for the melodramatic in the middle, and I think that might be where it's biggest stumble was. I won't go into details, as it would kind of spoil an important bit of the film, but the fun, light-hearted film that makes you feel as if you could jump, flip, and spin through the air suddenly stops and takes a more dramatic tone. It's a brief break, though, and a necessary one to set up the characters for the second half. It's problematic, though, because it divides the film into two very distinct segments, so much so that they could almost be different films!Still, it's not that big of a flaw. Just a little irritating in hindsight. There are others, though: a slightly anti-climactic ending, a couple of plot holes, but nothing that really takes that much away from the film.The characters aren't quite as interesting or charismatic as those in Samurai Fiction; that stops the film from being much more than entertainment. This review has been pretty negative in tone, but it's really just from the high standard Nakano had set for himself. From another director, Red Shadow would be a great achievement. It's extremely stylish; the techno-rock soundtrack is very cool and somehow works well in context; the costumes look incredible; the special effects are subtle and convincing; the stunts and acrobatic feats a really awe-inspiring; the comedy succeeds almost without fail. It's certainly worth a look, and if you're prepared for the quirky comedy/romance/action tone, you should really enjoy Red Shadow.Pick up the Media Blasters DVD. It's a really great 2-disc set.

rustyangel13 THE RED SHADOW: I've seen the future of the Japanese "new-age" ninja / samurai cinema and it's the supra-hip RED SHADOW film directed by HIROYUKI NAKANO (of SAMURAI FICTION fame) and starring ANDO MASANOBU (the absolutely psychotic, but absolutely cool Kiriyama from the Greatest Japanese film of all time, BATTLE ROYALE). Hopefully this movie will do to the "new-wave" ninja genre what SEIJUN SUZUKI (BLOOD, PISTOL OPERA, BRANDED TO KILL) and TAKASHI MIIKE (FUDOH, DEAD OR ALIVE, TOKYO MAFIA) did for the modern "neon-pop" Yakuza scene. But all that aside, RED SHADOW, simply put, is a flashy, hip (I know this word keeps coming up), stylish, "live-action" comic book, martial arts comedy made into one long jazzy music video. Just sit back and enjoy because it's nothing but colorful, snazzy eye-candy mingled with mindless high-gloss fluff and it's very, very fun to watch. As for the plot of the movie itself, Ando stars as the ninja, AKA KAGE (the RED SHADOW) and along with his bumbling ninja-buddy, the BLUE SHADOW and their female partner (and love interest), ASUKA (or ASKA, however you wish to pronounce it), they go out on important missions to capture or steal information for their master who's goal is to keep the peace throughout the kingdom which is about to erupt into civil war. As the movie progresses, we meet all kinds of samurai (both good and bad) and the many "specialty" warriors (zany characters you'd see in a fantasy Anime). But the real story starts to take shape when we meet the newly crowned, PRINCESS KOTO (played by MEGUMI OKINA), who's in jeopardy of loosing her castle and army to a traitor from among her own family members. And if this person succeeds, this will surely bring the entire kingdom to the brink of war. So, it's up to the RED SHADOW and company to expose this threat, save the Princess from the evil-doers, and prevent the impending civil war. So from what's you've just read, you can expect it to be very traditional, very simple, pretty basic, and straight to the point. Which (in this case) actually works excellent for this movie. There's no real plot twists to worry about or mysteries to baffle the viewer (the "bad guys" are shown right from the start and their intentions are stated very early on) so it's an hour and a half of quirky, martial arts foolishness (very similar to the much overlooked SCREAMING MAD GEORGE zany KUNG-FU RASCALS flick) and wacky characters doing wacky things. I used to always say that JET LI's super-hero, Kato-inspired, action frolic, THE BLACK MASK was the closest thing to watching a comic book on the tv screen but RED SHADOW now grabs that coveted title. So, kick back, check it out, and simply enjoy.

obsidian-8 After Samurai Fiction this is another attempt at pushing a classical Japanese movie genre in the new century. Even the bad guy from the before mentioned movie has a cameo with what seemed to be the same character. Without getting in the story too deep, it's quite complex and with my limited understanding of Japanese I couldn't catch every twist of it. But it was great fun all the same. It delivers fast editing, new style martial arts and a sound track of electronic and guitars that fits very well the fast paced action-sequences. I hope to see a subtitled version someday so I'd understand a little more of what's going on and why, but I strongly recommend it, if only for the looks of it.