Lone Wolf and Cub Blu-ray Review
A stone faced Shogun Assassin by any other name would still smell as sweet. Wait, that's not right.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, September 24, 2012
My review of the
Shogun Assassin Box Set from earlier this year provides a cursory overview of how
Lone Wolf and
Cub and
Shogun Assassin intersect (and overlap), so I'll repeat it here for those who are perhaps unaware
of this franchise's rather convoluted history:
Everybody have their flowcharts ready? Okay, here we go: in 1970, a popular manga series called
Lone Wolf and
Cub appeared depicting the feudal Japanese adventures of an official executioner of the Shogun named Ogami Itto
who finds
himself ostracized after false accusations are leveled against him by a family of feudal lords known as the Yagyu. Itto is
consigned to a mercenary like life as a roving assassin, taking along his infant son, Daigoro, with revenge against the
Yagyu a primary goal. Two years after the manga appeared, the first of what would become a long running franchise of
Japanese film adaptations premiered, starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Itto. The first film bore the title
Lone Wolf
and Cub: Sword of Vengeance, and was followed in short order over the ensuing years by
Lone Wolf and Cub:
Baby Cart at the River Styx, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril, Lone Wolf
and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons and
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell. In the late
seventies, American producer David Weisman obtained rights to the
Lone Cub and Wolf film franchise from Toho
and with his partner Robert Houston recut the first two films (
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance and
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the River Styx), redubbed the edited version into English, and released it to
American markets as
Shogun Assassin in 1980. The film was deemed to be incredibly violent in its day (an
allegation
that completely ignores the patently cartoonish aspect of a lot of the violence), and in fact the reaction in overseas
markets (especially in Britain) led to savvy marketers using the alluring "banned" appellation once the film started
matriculating to home video. Weisman and Houston soon moved on to the third
Lone Wolf and Cub film, and
then to the succeeding sequels, bringing each of them out dubbed into English as
Shogun
Assassin 2, Shogun Assassin 3 and so on, though of course
Shogun Assassin 2 was in actuality the
third film in the
Lone Wolf and Cub franchise, since the first
Shogun Assassin had been cobbled
together from the first
two Lone Wolf and Cub outings. See why a flowchart was recommended?
Shogun Assassin has always been something of a cult phenomenon, a tendency that was given a new shot in
the arm when none other than Quentin Tarantino featured a snippet of the film in
Kill Bill Vol. 2.
As detailed above, since the first
Shogun Assassin film combined the first two
Lone Wolf and Cub
outings, other than this set being released in its original language, the only real difference in terms of the films
themselves is with both
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance and
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the
River Styx, which are now presented in their entirety. With that in mind, my original thoughts about the final four
films are represented
here with some small changes.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance 4.0/5
As is so often the case, in many ways the first film in this franchise is the strongest. Filled with a melancholic, tragic
ambience,
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance has its own share of patently goofy violence (sprays of
blood go insanely far throughout this film), but which also seems to deal the most realistically with the emotional
trauma suffered by Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama).
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance may also well come
as the most surprising film in the franchise to those only acquainted with the
Shogun Assassin versions, since
this film, while pushing right up to that silly line a couple of times, has a strange, almost poetic, quality as it details the
forced "fall from grace" that Itto suffers after he's framed by the nefarious Yagyu Clan.
The first film also beautifully details the ferocious bonds between father Itto and his cute little son Daigoro (Akihiro
Tomikawa). This is of course a fundamental element in the entire franchise, but again, it's handled with a degree of
effective simplicity in this film that tends to become a bit more cartoonish as the franchise goes on. What's also notable
in this film is Wakayama's performance, which manages to invest some incredible emotional content masked behind a
completely stoic appearance. The film also is filled with some nice period costumes and a good feel for feudal Japan in
both its production design as well as the often sumptuous photography which captures the beauty of the Japanese
countryside.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx 3.0/5
This second film, a lot of which was ported over to the first
Shogun Assassin film, both benefits and suffers from
now being seen in its standalone form. One of the things that the
Shogun Assassin film did was cut the first
two films together in such a way that one of the central elements of
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River
Styx—namely the three female Ninja assassins who chase after Itto and Diagoru—became an almost lunatic
element in the edited version. Here, as just one of a whole slew of competing alliances and internecine clan warfare, it
somehow loses a little of its fun factor, and
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx becomes a
decidedly more serious property as a result. While those acquainted with
Shogun Assassin may be a little
surprised at this rather drastic change in tone, in a way it more securely tethers this second film to the first
Lone
Wolf and Cub, and therefore seems more in tune with the general ambience set up by that first film.
The central plot of
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx finds Itto agreeing to dispatch a traitor of
the Yagyu Clan, while at the same time the female Ninjas are trying to dispatch
him. Itto and Daigoro are
spoken of in hushed, almost reverent, tones by the public at large during this film. They are a feared sight, for Itto's
penchant for slicing and dicing anyone who stands in his way has become part of legend. That very fact also points out
a central flaw that will continue to hobble this and subsequent
Lone Wolf and Cub outings: Itto has become
larger than life, which means that his tribulations seem minor in comparison to his outsized reputation. What made the
first
Lone Wolf and Cub such a riveting experience was that Itto's sad fate seemed absolutely
human in
scale, despite the hero's incredible fighting ability. That human scale begins to be sacrificed in this second film, and
unfortunately only becomes further jettisoned as the franchise continues.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades 3.0/5
The third
Lone Wolf and Cub outing is a disturbing piece that may have
some of the cartoonish elements
that have dotted the franchise thus far but which nonetheless preserves its primal elements and makes the film seem
much more historically relevant (if not particularly accurate) as
a result. Having now watched this third outing after having seen the first two
Lone Wolf and Cub films in their
entirety immediately preceding watching this one, I was actually more impressed with
Baby Cart to Hades than I
was when I watched it as the "second" "
Shogun Assassin film. Daigoro is a little older now, but still is
transported around in the perambulator (which is tricked out with a
number of feudal versions of spy thriller gizmos), and as Itto and son traverse a river in a ferry, Itto notices he's being
tailed, no doubt by the Yagyu.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades has a fair degree of violence toward women dotting its
landscape, with two unfortunate women meeting their fates early in the film in a really unsettling rape scene and then,
somewhat later, with a longer running arc that features a woman whom Itto initially notices on the ferry and who turns
out to be a hapless unfortunate about to be sold into prostitution. Her tangle with her pimp-seller is a visceral
sequence in the film, and it places Itto in the unusual position of being a protector rather than a killer.
Though it retains a lot of the tragic power that made the first
Lone Wolf and Cub so visceral,
Lone Wolf and
Cub: Baby Cart to Hades is hampered by an overly anecdotal structure that lurches from segment
to segment and which robs the film of much continuity or momentum. The film is often incredibly ludicrous despite its
best efforts to take itself seriously, something which becomes completely apparent in the patently ridiculous final
showdown, which will have some frustrated viewers screaming to the bad guy,
"Just shut up and die already!".
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril 3.0/5
If the steely faced demeanor of Itto chopping and hacking his way through any number of bad guys hasn't been
enough for you, this next outing offers the additional allure of a leading lady nemesis who is heavily tattooed and isn't
above slaying her foes topless. (It should be mentioned that several of the
Shogun Assassin films feature at
least passing female nudity). Michie Azuma portrays Oyuki, the female assassin of a feudal warlord, who has gone
rogue and is seen in the film's opening moments dicing and slicing her way through a bunch of supposedly superior
males in a forest. The film initially seems to be poised to have a cat and mouse game between Itto, who has been
hired to kill Oyuki, and the resourceful woman, but it takes a somewhat surprising left turn after this initial set up is
developed.
Daigoro becomes the actual focus of a large swath of this film, when he
wanders away from his tricked out baby carriage and ends up getting lost. That puts him in a series of predicaments
culminating in an excitingly staged showdown with a nefarious member of the Yagyu family, which in turn leads to a
showdown between
the Yagyu villain and Itto, who through sheer determination has managed to track down his missing son and is
hopefully about to be reunited with him.
Only after this somewhat circuitous route does the film finally return to the supposedly central conflict between Oyuki
and Itto. The film then takes
another unexpected turn after that battle is actually dispatched rather quickly in a
relatively anticlimactic fashion, with a return of two Yagyu clan members who have differing responses to Itto after
having done battle with him. There's the expected gorey finale which actually sees Itto fairly badly wounded. This
third installment is a definite step up from the second, with a more cohesive plot (despite its twists and turns), and
some outlandish but extremely effective action elements. Itto becomes less of a stony faced cipher in this film, if only
because his efforts to find and protect Daigoro finally rehumanize him, if only a little bit.
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons 3.5/5
This film bears certain similarities to another martial arts film which highly influenced Quentin Tarantino and the
Kill
Bill films, namely the great Shaw Brothers classic,
The Five Deadly Venoms. Like that film,
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby
Cart in the Land of
Demons posits a quintet of characters who each have individual talents and, in this case, individual
knowledge that will help Itto perform what turns out to be his major task in this film. There's strangely also a
somewhat extra-Japanese historical aspect to this film, as it becomes evident that Itto has been enlisted to help calm
some turmoil caused by an evil warlord (is there any other kind?), who has locked away his true heir, a son, and placed
a daughter he fathered with his concubine in his place, the girl now fitted out to appear male. The locked away heir
may remind some of British history, while the girl made to appear male will of course remind some of Disney's
Mulan.
Daigoro once again wanders off in this film and gets mixed up with a female pickpocket, but rather than being a
distraction from the main Itto plot, this subplot actually works quite effectively as a mirroring technique, as both father
and son are beset by questions of honor, loyalty and duty and how properly to respond in the face of adversity.
Dramatically, this is probably the best of the sequels, though it still bears the imprint of ridiculously over the top battle
sequences that feature huge splatter elements and near laugh out loud lunacy. Once again women are shown to be
no less than formidable opponents, and there's some interesting suspense in the third act of this film as Itto attempts
to divine the true motives of a woman who wants to hire him to kill the scheming warlord.
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell 2.5/5
This might equally have been called
Lone Wolf and Cub: Snowbound, for the final act takes place in a frost
covered
environment that has some odd results, including the iconic baby carriage becoming magically fitted with sled blades
instead of wheels. This is in some ways the
silliest of the
Lone Wolf and Cub films, yet it manages to
nonetheless be immensely entertaining most of the time, especially since it seems—until the final moments—to finally be
bringing the long simmering conflict between Itto and the Yagyu Clan to a head.
The film also benefits from a supernatural element, as the particular Yagyus in this film practice black magic, lending
some of the proceedings a sinister air. This is in some ways the least "traditional" outing for Itto and Daigoro, and in
fact it seems largely divorced from the original source material in tone and content. There's also little doubt that at the
time of the film's production it was probably seen as just another cog in the
Lone Wolf and Cub wheel, as the
ending is set up for yet another outing with the nefarious Yagyu Clan (which has never occurred—to this date, anyway).
Despite the frozen ambience of the final portion of the film, this is a surprisingly scenic and even epic journey for Itto
and Daigoro (who is
considerably older and more capable now, making his "home" of the baby carriage seem somewhat anachronistic). If
this outing may seem like the filmmakers were stretching a little too hard to invest the series with new life (kind of like
the late entries in the
Charlie Chan franchise), there's no denying the film's basic entertainment value, which
while as gory as ever, has a surprising energy for a
sixth trip back to the
Lone Wolf
and Cub well. That said, having watched it again now in a sequence with all five original films which came before it,
it struck me as more
of a letdown than it initially did, with a sort of slapdash quality that robbed it of some of the visceral impact of the best
outings in the
Lone Wolf and Cub franchise.