Starring: Kôichi Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono, Daisuke Gôri

A dark fantasy set in feudal Japan, Ninja Scroll spins a wild yarn about a wandering samurai, Jubei Kibagami, who’s hired to thwart a lesser lord’s plot to smuggle a boatload of gold from under the Shogun’s nose. Protecting the shipment are The Eight Devils of Kimon, a nasty gang of super-powered toughs with the likes of a blood-drinking golem, a blind swordsman, and an insect-controlling dwarf in their ranks, all led by a psychotic immortal from Jubei’s past.

An imaginative and lurid sex-and-violence action flick, Ninja Scroll has had more success in the U.S. market than it ever had in Japan. The movie helped usher in a wave of interest in Japanese animation in the 1990s when it became a video store staple alongside titles like Akira and Ghost in the Shell.