Mission: Iron Castle (1970) [N/A]

Release Date:
February 7, 1970

Original Title:
忍びの衆

Alternate Titles:
A Band of Ninja
Ninja 9: Mission Iron Castle
Shinobi no Shu

Genres:
Action | Crime | Drama | War

Production Companies:
Daiei Film

Production Countries:
Japan

Ratings / Certifications:
 N/A

Runtime: 79

The Shinobi-no-Mono series was so successful that Daiei Studios dipped into the well one more time, making the best 60′s B&W ninja movie ever seen in the otherwise color-dominated year of 1970. Issei Mori directs Hiroki Matsukata as the reluctant leader of a small band of spies charged with kidnapping a noblewoman from a heavily ninja-proofed castle. The finality of the air slowly began to fill like smoke, and in all that had become dark the loyalty of the Ninja who dared to go shone like light as they entered a world shrouded in mystery. Things do not go as planned in what is possibly the darkest and most fatalistic of the already noir-ish 60′s fare. Both the decade and it’s distinctive style of shinobi cinema went out on a high note with Mission Iron Castle.

Additional information:

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Art Direction:
Shigenori Shimoishizaka

Director:
Kazuo Mori

Director of Photography:
Fujio Morita

Editor:
Toshio Taniguchi

Lighting Director:
Reijiro Yamashita

Original Music Composer:
Hajime Kaburagi

Original Story:
Ryōtarō Shiba

Screenplay:
Yamada Takayuki

Sound:
Iwao Ôtani

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