When the Shogunates greatest secret is stolen, the fate of the nation hangs in the balance. The Shogunate sends an incompetent cop, Tanaka, to Kyoto to act as a stalking horse. Hoping the thieves will kill Tanaka and the Ninja Spies will kill the thieves. But what the Shogunate doesn't realise is that Tanaka's even more incompetent assistant Mondo is in fact the leader of a gang of revengers for hire, there motto is "Sure Death" (or your money cheerfully refunded). Mondo doesn't know that everyone knows about the secret, but they all think he does. Poor Mondo, he not only has to deal with crazed Shogunate extremists, oddball ninjas, crooks who work for the Emperor and bicycle riding foreign death squads. He also have to deal with a wife and a crazy mother-in-law!
Acting
Makoto Fujita's deadpan Mondo vs. escalating absurdity around him.
Production
Jidaigeki aesthetics colliding with foreign death squads on bicycles.
Writing
Nested deceptions where everyone knows something someone else doesn't.
Director
Jo Hirose
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 'Sure Death' refund motto parodies actual Edo-period service guarantees, applying consumer protection logic to assassination.
Jidaigeki films of the 1980s often subverted samurai codes for comedy; this one adds foreign elements as deliberate genre disruption.
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