Mumon: The Land of Stealth or, Don't Judge a Ninja by his (stealthy) Cover

Yoshihiro Nakamura's follow-up to his film The Magnificent Nine (featured in Eiga Sai 2017) is far more action packed than its jidai-geki brother. Based on a novel by Ryo Wada, it's the story of Mumon, the most skilled Iga ninja out there. He's also very lazy, selfish and money-minded, doing work only for the right price. You can't exactly blame him: he's the product of a culture of mercenaries. In the world of Mumon, the Iga Ninja are avaricious thugs who no longer value human life; when they are surrounded by all sides by the forces of Nobunaga Oda, conflict brews between the factions of ninja and samurai.

When I saw the trailers for this movie, I was expecting something along the lines of a bloody action film with cool badass ninja techniques and Samurai skill, but Mumon subverted my expectations. The film can be considered a companion piece to The Magnificent Nine in the ways it deconstructs and critiques capitalism and materialistic attitudes in contemporary Japanese society. While The Magnificent Nine shows us what can happen to a society that is grounded in both capitalism and humanism, emphasizing the collective good over the sake of any single person, Mumon shows us what happens with a capitalist society that is greed-driven and self centered.

The samurai aren't any less honorable either, as they engage in the murder and conquest of territories not their own, where allegiances to lords are flimsy and political marriages are the norm. For most of the movie, it's hard to root for any one faction, as each one possesses their own pros and cons, a sea of shades of grey. The politicking is quite fascinating, however, with both sides deceiving each other in grand schemes geared towards their own goals. At the very least, it was a blast to just go along for the ride.

The film, however, suffers from an inconsistent tone. It shifts between deadpan comedy during one moment to very serious drama during the next. While Nakamura manages to pull it off with The Magnificent Nine, it's much less effective here.

Fans of Arashi member Satoshi Ohno will no doubt enjoy the film, and he's pretty good as Mumon. The rest of the cast are quite capable as well, with notable performances by Yusuke Iseya, Jun Kunimura (whose minor role resonated throughout the film) and Satomi Ishihara.

Mumon: The Land of Stealth feels a bit off, but the end product is intriguing, and a far cry from anything I'd expected. If you liked The Magnificent Nine, I think it's worth checking out.