Final Ninja Comments

A couple of more shots from that ninja film have been released by the production company. I think this is the last batch I’m going to comment on since I’m kind of ninja'd-out now and I did finish working on the film at least six months ago.

Anyway, this one is one of my favorites from the production. It features actors Masanori Mimoto and Nana Seino. These two were probably my favorite characters to photograph during the production since they were always making interesting expressions, especially Mimoto, who always takes his roles to heart.

This one was shot on the grounds of Iga Castle on one of the bigger days of the production. There were about a hundred extras (maybe more, maybe less, I didn’t count) and the art staff had built a long stretch of traditional looking stands selling this and that.

This is another one of Mimoto and is one of my favorites taken during the entire shoot (yes, I seem to have a lot of favorite shots). For this scene, we were shooting in some strip-mining place (don’t ask me where, I had to get up at 5am and just climbed into the bus, waking up when we arrived, wherever that was in Iga prefecture).

Near the end of the day the shoot split into two groups, with the action director dealing with Mimoto and Nana fighting a bunch of angry ninja. The action director shot the scene as one long take so all non-essentials had to hide behind rocks, but I got behind him and when I could, snapped away, hoping to god I could take good photos and stay out of the film camera’s way. I mean, he was spinning that thing this way and that! This one caught my eye right away and when I showed it to Mimoto he literally hugged me.

One actress I enjoy working with is Eihi Shiina. She’s always got a smile ready and is pretty much just a calm, happy person. Torakage marks the fifth time I’ve worked on-set with her. This photo was taken after the production returned to Tokyo. It was taken in a small room at a wonderful home tucked away in some woods above Tokyo. It was insanely hard to get because there were so many of us packed behind the film camera. Although it was the only useable shot from this scene, it’s a beauty (in my opinion). All it really takes is one good shot per scene, you know.

Well, that's about if for me and Torakage. I did my work and got my pay. Hippity hip hooray!

In other news, I finished up two big jobs. One the Takashi Miike film “Yakuza Apocalypse”. I had a bunch of English writing to polish off for the studio so they could close their files relating to my work on the production. I still have to write a set report for Eiga Hiho and Fangoria magazines, which I’ll do that later this month. I'll mention the other one when I have the strength and when things are cleared by the studio. 

I’ve started work on a few other films too this month. More on them at some future point, I suppose.

Until then…