I’m sorry, do not take the three exclamation points in my title for an indicator that I am in any way excited about this news. Rather, Takashi Miike’s film is actually called NINJA KIDS!!! with the exclamation marks built in like it’s THE INFORMANT! or REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA. But only Miike could get away with three.
Anyway, what the hell is going on? Well as per usual, Hollywood has spied something that was successful in another country, and now wants to do it here. Miike’s NINJA KIDS!!! (I don’t get tired of writing that) was based off a long running children’s show in Japan, and his live action version was a family friendly hit in that country.
THR reports that Hollywood is hoping to have that same result here, and rumor has it Warner Bros. might be the one behind the forthcoming US remake. So what’s NINJA KIDS!!! All about? Here’s a very non-official plot synopsis that will tell you:
This big budget, big screen version of popular Japanese kid’s show Rantaro the Ninja Boy (running for 1,437 episodes and counting!) this is like Harry Potter if Harry Potter was a ninja who hid underground and killed people with bamboo darts and ninja bombs. Young Rantaro is from a family of low class ninjas and he’s sent off to first grade at Ninja School by his parents who hope that one day he’ll grow up to be a respectable middle class ninja. But he’s hardly at school for five minutes when a classmate – literally – has the snot beaten out of him, the headmaster starts exploding and more wild and wooly ninja tricks than you can hit with a throwing star are zipping off the screen.
Alright, as much as I hate remakes, this sounds like a totally awesome idea for a movie. I also would like to go to ninja camp right now.