Shadow Warriors: Hattori Hanzo
6.3
“Eiichi Kudo's strangest film that started the Shadow Warriors ball rolling”
The tale takes place around 1650, after the death of the third Tokugawa shogun, when ronin were expelled from Edo, the military capital. During the political instability following the death of Iemitsu Tokugawa, Hanzo's Iga ninja clan battles against the Koga clan as various factions vie to seize power. The child shogun Ietsuna is kidnapped but turns out to be hidden under (or over) everyone's noses in a castle turret which is reinforced by a comic book villain, the fire-spitting black ninja. The good ninja has to get through all the traps & save the child.
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Cast
8 people
Teruhiko Saigō
Upper Hanzo
Also in
No Side Game
Masamune Shogun
Mikio Narita
Matsudaira Izu Mamoru Nobutsuna
Known for
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable
Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War
Ken Ogata
Koga Shiro Samurai
Known for
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
The Ballad of Narayama
So Yamamura
Masayuki Hoshina
Known for
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Tokyo Story
Aiko Morishita
Chisato (Orie)
Also in
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Saving My Stupid Youth
Emi Harada
Kohagi (sister of lower Hanzo)
Ueda Takanori
Tokugawa Letsuna
No other roles listed
Tsunehiko Watase
Lower Hanzo
Known for
Battles Without Honor and Humanity
Antarctica
Eiichi Kudō Director · Yamada Takayuki Screenplay Tôru Nakajima Cinematographer
First release February 23, 1980 · Produced in Japan · Original title 影の軍団 服部半蔵
Production
Toei Company
Production
Japan
Produced in
Languages
Original title
影の軍団 服部半蔵
Original language
Japanese
Spoken on screen
Japanese
Release dates
Japan · February 23, 1980
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
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Some details come from TheTVDB.