Back when Movieline posted the bonkers-adorable trailer for genre master Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!!, about -- what else -- children studying at a school for ninjas, it seemed unlikely that the family-friendly manga and anime adaptation would go much farther than the genre/foreign crowd. However, that was before plans were reportedly in the works to adapt Miike's film into an Americanized remake. After all, every generation deserves their own 3 Ninjas!
Well, for me it was 3 Ninjas, a staple of my movie-watching youth. (Rock-y loooooves Em-i-ly... not Jen. Sigh.) That's one way a remake could happen: Focusing the broader kid ninja concept to a select one or three American child heroes who secretly attend a modern-day ninja academy by day and have to use their skills for good in the "real" world against terrorists and schoolyard bullies. They could even go Spy Kids and become actual operatives battling bad guys in a CG-enhanced adventure, one-upping that franchise with a 5-D presentation in which your theater chair armrest whacks you in the face every time a baddie gets roundhouse-kicked.
Of course, the original Ninja Kids manga created by Sōbē Amako (Rakudai Ninja Rantarō) is more akin to Harry Potter in its focus on the students and teachers at its Hogwarts-like ninja school, right down to the dorky, bespectacled child hero Rantaro who anchors the saga. Imagine: an elite academy for training young killers that's goofy and fun instead of vaguely creepy. Like D.E.B.S.!
Then there's the crazy idea of sticking to the original parameters of the manga, anime, and live-action film by setting it in feudal Japan, casting English-speaking Japanese kids, and retaining some historical and cultural accuracy to the premise. They are ninja kids, after all.
Miike's Ninja Kids!! premiered last month at the New York Asian Film Festival, where adaptation interest was reportedly piqued, but it has yet to set a U.S. release. More details on a potential remake will surely come as adaptation plans are confirmed. Meanwhile, leave your Ninja Kids!! remake hopes or predictions below.
· Takashi Miike's 'Ninja Kids' Set For Hollywood Remake [THR]