Lone Wolf and Cub (all films)

Once in a blue moon you come across a movie that touches your soul.  It’s like love at first sight.  You feel like this piece was made just for you and you know instantly that you’ve got something incredible on your hands.  My latest encounter with this special sensation came in the form of Lone Wolf and Cub.

Based on the manga of the same name this series of films (six in total) follows the saga of former shogun executioner Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama (Black Rain)).  He was setup by the Yagyu clan to look like a traitor so he would lose his prestigious post.  He also finds his wife murdered while their one year old son, Daigoro, survives the ordeal.  Ogami vows vengeance for all of this disgrace but doesn’t outright go after the Yagyu.  Instead he and his son, now three or four years old, become assassins that wander the country.  They drift from one assignment to the next and leave a shitload of carnage in their path.  They are on “the demon way in hell”.

Look I’ll try not to bore you by going on and on about how undeniably badass and unbelievably beautiful this series is.  It’s also very intimidating because I know I won’t be able to do it proper justice.  So here are just a few brief things.

These films are gorgeously made.  Most of the time scenes take place outdoors, or at least you can see to the outside, and the filmmakers photographed the Japanese landscape wonderfully.  There’s certainly a lot of respect for nature and all it gives to us.  The variety is stunning as well.  We visit open fields, rock quarries, snow covered mountains, hot springs, sand dunes and a million other locations.  There’s always something different and nice to look at.

And holy shit is this series violent.  I mean the body count alone is off the charts.  According to moviebodycounts.com (I shit you not that’s a real site) the last film, White Heaven in Hell, racks up 169 kills.  And that’s only one out of six!  Jesus, so many fucking people die.  They’re mostly done in by Ogami’s untouchable skills as a swordsman which you would think would get kinda dull after a while, but it somehow doesn’t.  It’s so much fun to watch the man take down everyone in sight with astonishing gracefulness.  The films even introduce this repeated scenario of Ogami going up against dozens and dozens of bad guys as a climax starting with the third one, and each and every time it’s fuckin’ crazy.  I think my favorite of those is at the end of Baby Cart in the Land of the Demons.  Maybe that’s because it was the third time putting together a sequence like that so they figured out the most exciting way to do it.

Most of the deaths are pretty gnarly too with vivid bright red blood spraying like a goddamn firehose out of some poor bastard’s body when they get the sword taken to ‘em.  It’s gloriously over the top and that helps to define the series.  But these movies aren’t trying to be funny (at least I don’t think they are).  There’s plenty of magic, impossible maneuvers and situations where our protagonists power their way out of certain death, but it’s all presented straight up as if you come across this shit every day.  I applaud the filmmakers for making something so stylized and never once winking at the camera.

Everyone does a great acting job in this but Wakayama stands above all as Ogami.  He has such a strong presence and he never compromises his formidability or his honor.  He will cut down anyone without thinking twice (including women and, oh fuck, children) but he also clearly loves his son.  He would never allow anything to happen to little Daigoro and will always protect him.  Ogami keeps his word, sticks to his mission and is one badass motherfucker.

Ok, here’s how I would rank the movies from best to really fucking good:

Baby Cart at the River Styx (film 2)- A masterpiece from start to finish and probably the most even all the way through.  And I guess this is where John Carpenter got the three storms from for Big Trouble in Little China because the Hidari brothers (or “Gods of Death”) are dressed almost exactly the same and they each wield their own unique weapon.  Although, the Hidaris use way less magic, if any.  Actually Carpenter more likely got this idea from Shogun Assassin which took the first two Lone Wolf and Cub pictures and mashed them together for the US market.

The Hidari Brothers

The Three Storms

Sword of Vengeance (film 1)- You got your classic setup movie that actually only hints at how insane the series progresses.  It’s very good and definitely your starting point if you plan to take on this sonuvabitch.

Wow, that's one of the coolest title screens ever

Baby Cart in Peril (film 4)- This one may be the most visually varied and striking.  You got different shit like a sorcerer with a fire sword, a topless lady out for revenge that has a tattoo of a demon child groping her tit and crucial backstory for our main villain.

Don't you dare fuck with her, she'll slice you wide open

Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (film 5)- At first Ogami must face and defeat five separate warriors to achieve the whole story of who they want assassinated and why.  Then there’s a weird middle section that focuses on Daigoro and his unfortunate run in with a pickpocket.  Finally Ogami proceeds with the task he was hired to perform at the beginning of the film and ends with the best of the big battle sequences where Ogami takes on fifty plus dudes all by his lonesome.

Ouch

Baby Cart to Hades (film 3)- A little too much rape in this one which I guess is why it ranks lower for me.  But there’s a cool virtue fight between Ogami and this mercenary that eventually carries through.  Maybe that should’ve been more of the focus.

Looks like Ogami has his hands full in this one

White Heaven in Hell (film 6)- The head of the Yagyu throws his last couple of guys (and gal) at Ogami and Daigoro to try to finish this.  I guess by the sixth installment things started to feel a little same-y but it’s still fantastic and does a good job of fleshing out the main villain and his clan even more.

A lot of blows to the head in this series

Now even though every picture is episodic there are common threads that run throughout.  The biggest is the Yagyu threat.  This guy and his people really hate Ogami and want to see him wiped off the face of the earth.  The other commonality is that a little more background gets dished out to show you how and why Ogami and Daigoro are in their current state of affairs.  By the end you really get a good understanding of how everything fits together.  So I guess what I’m trying to say is I would recommend watching the films in the right sequence to get the full effect.  And trust me, you want the full effect.

Let’s wrap it up.  These stories and characters are timeless.  It’s about restoring honor, preserving integrity, slashing various body parts off, enduring in the face of death, showing your four year old son it’s ok to kill bad dudes, protect the defenseless (sometimes), maintain a code and all that great shit.  A huge theme in here is not fearing the path you’ve selected for yourself.  In almost every movie (if not every single one) someone points out to Ogami that he and his son are essentially dead men walking or questions their actions and his response is always the same: they’ve chosen their way, they’re walking in hell.  Interestingly I don’t think destiny is ever mentioned.  They never say they’re being guided by a force or that events are set in stone and they can’t alter them.  Instead they take the approach that every action is their own and they will stick by those decisions even if it costs them their lives.  No regrets, no worries.  They’re incensed, almost possessed to fight every step of the way and keep moving forward.

I know this was criminally underwritten because there are so many things I didn’t bring up like Daigoro’s crazy haircut, the awesome fuckin’ soundtracks, the empowering female presence throughout the series, the baby cart Ogami wheels around that’s full of hidden blades and guns that he frequently uses to annihilate his enemies with, every film is a lean mean eighty mins and so much more.  But the best thing to do now is shut up and let you take in these masterworks for yourself.  You won’t regret it.