The Shadow Hunters

1972 chanbara (sword fighting) flick starring Ishihara Yujiro.

During the corrupt rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, three cold-blooded killers live only to deliver death to their elusive prey--ninjas! These are the Shadow Hunters. A simple task becomes deadly when the three assassins are hired to ensure that a vital deed is safely delivered to Edo. Along the way, ninja, double-agents, and sexy female assassins will team up to deliver a deed of their own--a dirty deed of death to the Shadow Hunters.

This film fits right in with the classic cheesy 70s chanbara flicks including cheesy 70's mustaches, hairdos and music. Add in some decent sword fighting scenes, ninja acrobatics, and a little female flesh, and it all adds up to an entertaining night of movie watching, especially with a bowl of popcorn and some Newcastle Brown Ale. Probably the most entertaining character is Sunlight, one of the Shadow Hunters. Sunlight sports a thick mustache and pimp-like fur coat and spends much of the movie womanizing and flirting. Later, Sunlight takes a spear through the chest like it was mosquito bite. There are a lot of rolling heads and gushing veins in this movie as would be expected but also an extreme scene where a topless female assassin is cut down in a pretty shocking fashion.