To ask, “Is Ninja Scroll any good?” is a silly question; the concept of whether or not this is a “good” movie is moot. Fans have long digested this film, and to give a single opinion of it, thumbs up or thumbs down, is to send a single drop of water into a bucket long since overfull. […] The film gained notoriety mostly for its violence, not because it was a masterpiece of modern cinema; this was the sort of thing Junior High students traded around between each other in secret and college students watched as a rite of passage.
Countless others watch it while inebriated (using any means necessary, legal or otherwise), and others still watch it for inspiration when directing action sequences. No matter how you slice it (pun intended), Ninja Scroll is not admired for its touching, poignant story, or amazing character development, so if by chance you’re one of the three people on planet Earth who haven’t seen this movie, you’ve been warned. People like to watch Jubei hack up grotesque monsters. That’s really all there is to it.