Movie Review: Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow (2004) directed by Tensai Okamura
Yukie Fujikaze is a popular young actress most famous for starring in the title role of the “Princess Gale” movie series, as a ninja princess with “rainbow chakra.” Sadly, while she is indeed a skilled actress in addition to being photogenic, off-camera Yukie is dead inside, unable to shed natural tears or enjoy interacting with fans. She also has personal reasons for never going back to the Land of Snow from the Land of Fire, so when it’s announced her next Princess Gale film will be shot there, she attempts to flee.
Her escape is thwarted by trainee ninja Naruto Uzumaki, who got distracted from learning about his latest mission by seeing her escape from pursuers. Eventually, his mentor Kakashi Hatake and fellow trainees Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno catch up, and it’s revealed that their mission is to “escort” Miss Fujikaze to the Land of Snow and protect her there. Kakashi has been to the Land of Snow before, which is one of the reasons his team has been assigned to this mission.
It turns out that Yukie is secretly Princess Koyuki, the rightful ruler of the Land of Snow. Ten years before, her uncle Doto Kazehana murdered her father and stole leadership of the country. Yukie barely escaped with her life, and buried herself in the role of an actress, cynically believing Doto and his supporters were too strong for her to fight. Her manager Sandayu Asama is actually a samurai warrior from the Land of Snow who tracked her down a few years back and has been manipulating events to get his princess back home so she can overthrow the usurper.
Doto himself has recently figured out who Yukie is, so the movie crew bringing her back to her homeland just saves him the trouble of sending his Snow shinobi warriors all the way to the Land of Fire. Doto has a bit of motivation beyond just seeking power. His late brother bankrupted the country’s economy investing in various technological innovations in the hopes of “bringing spring” to a land of eternal winter. There’s a final “treasure” locked away beneath the Glacier of Seven Colors which he hopes will pay for the industrial base needed to turn the high technology into military might so he can conquer the neighboring countries. And it just so happens that the princess is wearing the key to the vault.
This was the first Naruto animated movie, which takes place relatively early in the continuity (though of course not affecting the continuity back in any way.) This is the first time Team Seven has to cope with technology in advance of what they’re used to. Chakra armor that enhances the Snow ninja’s special abilities while protecting them from outside special abilities, a chakra drainer used as a restraining device on Naruto, a railroad, an airship and the knife-launching equivalent of a Gatling gun. That last one is especially effective against the low-level rebel troops who die in droves.
There’s some fairly meta stuff here, as the movie is also about the making of a movie, and the director and crew share their philosophy of the craft. Yukie has lost her belief in happy endings being a real thing, but Naruto is determined to bring this story back to the shounen battle genre.
Naruto is the one who gets all the important emotional beats and solo screen time, but Sasuke and Sakura get to be equally effective in combat. And unlike the standard series, Sakura’s book smarts are shown by her doing math in her head to predict the direction of an attack. Kakashi shows his cool adult skills against the leader of the Snow shinobi.
The animation is a slight bump up from the TV show, and the fights are exciting. The music’s also pretty good, though the image song is a bit soppy.
I am a bit dubious at the “happy ending” in that it looks nice, but without some factors they’re not bothering mentioning, it’s going to be an ecological disaster.
Content note: Fantasy violence, some lethal, including the death of a named character. Yukie abuses alcohol. Very young viewers might find the death scene especially upsetting.
While the movie does a basic job of explaining of who Naruto is, it leans pretty heavily on the viewer having read the manga or seen the TV show. (The Nine-Tails shows up for a moment with no foreshadowing or explanation.) Primarily recommended to new Naruto fans who haven’t already seen it.
