3 Ninjas Meets Spy Kids in Trailer for Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!!

From the mind that brought you Ichi the Killer, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Sukiyaki Western Django, and most recently, the gorgeous samurai pic Thirteen Assassins comes... a goofy children's martial arts comedy about youngsters at an academy for ninjas! After the jump, watch the trailer for Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!!, two minutes of silliness based on the long-running anime series Nintama Rantaro.

Ninja Kids!!! premieres in Japan in July -- months before Miike's deliberate 3-D period samurai drama, the Cannes entry Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, debuts -- and stars Seishirô Katô as Rantaro, its rambunctious, bespectacled kid hero.

Western kid flicks that immediately come to mind include Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids franchise and the 1992 classic 3 Ninjas ("Light up the eyes, boys!"). After watching the latter, what child of the '90s didn't dream of taking ninja lessons and owning a set of shuriken before puberty?

Ninja Kids!!! is set to play the New York Asian Film Festival, which incidentally has an amazing line-up planned. More info here.

[Filmsmash via MovieCityNews]