Recapping Criterion’s Lone Wolf & Cub Films

Arguably, many United States viewers probably first became familiar with the “Lone Wolf & Cub” series of ultra-violent samurai films through the edited compilation film “Shogun Assassin” in 1980.  That film had a notable shout-out in 2004’s “Kill Bill: Volume Two” and that was when I had first dug into what this series was about, having only previously seen glimpses of the films.

With Criterion releasing a box set of the six films on Blu-Ray in 2016, it seemed like perhaps the best opportunity yet for curious viewers to get familiar with this series.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

This was sort of your classic bad co-worker story.

Ogami Itto was the Lone Wolf and he was the Shogun’s executioner.  This was apparently an oddly popular job, as one of Itto’s colleagues decided to kill Itto’s wife (with the help of three ninjas) and then tried to frame him for supposedly betraying the Shogun.  Well, Itto figured out the plot really fast and killed his rival but the rival’s family was in on the whole operation too and… long story short, Itto still ended up losing his executioner job and was left wandering around as a for-hire assassin.

Daigoro (aka the ‘cub’) was his son, who he now has to care for in the aftermath of his wife’s death.  Early on, Itto tested his son to see if the kid liked swords and the kid passed the test – lucky for him, since otherwise Itto was going to kill him for being soft.  Granted, Itto thought that death was the preferred option in that case, as the cub could then be with his mother in the afterlife and not stuck on Earth in the killing business.

The back half of this first installment involved the duo getting their first job, taking out a chamberlain guy’s rival chamberlain clan.  That clan had taken over a town and, after taking the job, Itto ended up captured there for a while.  Eventually – and predictably – he ended up kicking major butt.

At this point, I should interject to set the stage for the sort of template that this movie (and others in the series) would follow.  These were odd movies in that they gave the impression of being very formal Japanese period films but then events on screen went bananas every time an action scene occurred.  The violence was exaggerated and very bloody.  At times you would have thought that it was parody but the action was never played that way.  The result of this tension in tonality was a rather unsettling film.  I left this point about above but when a film opened with a toddler getting beheaded – part of the whole ‘executioner’ gig – it certainly set a particular tone.

And don’t worry, the film wasn’t afraid of sex either.  There was one scene, when the duo was on the road early, where a woman driven crazy by the loss of her child decided that she needed to breast-feed the Cub.  Itto was just fine with that suggestion – a free meal for the boy, I guess.  There was later a graphic sexual assault that Itto charitably avenged.

Later, while Itto was briefly a hostage, his captors demanded that he have sex with a town prostitute while they watched.  This was an undeniably odd request, played up as if they were trying to humiliate him.  Itto delivered – to save the woman’s life after she gave consent (and, frankly, seemed honored that the Shogun’s former executioner wanted to take on the task).  Heck, she later even talked up his performance to some other hostages.  And, yeah, the requesters were eventually amongst those that later felt the slice of Itto’s blade.

A notable flashback dual was very impressive, involving Itto defeating an adversary amid a field of tall grass by use of a mirror strapped to his forehead.  This tactic seemed sort of like cheating or at least a little bit of a stretch but it was brutal times and the bad guys were most certainly cheaters too.

At roughly one hour, twenty minutes, this film moved briskly and was obviously never boring.  From the shocking violence to the twisty plot, it was easy to see why the film quickly spawned a series after finding an audience.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)

This sequel to “Sword of Vengeance” hit theatres a mere four months after the first film had been released.

Itto and his son, Daigoro, rolled into another town and managed to get hired to figure out who in the town’s clan was looking to sell out their secret indigo dye process to the Shogun.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Yagyu – the group behind Itto’s original frame-up and firing by his Shogun – continued to track Itto in his travels.  This time, they sent in an elite female ninja squad.

The ninja women were quite the group, using disguise and gimmicks from the start.  Right off the bat, they were tossing straw hats that contained disguised blades.  Of course, Itto made short work of (most) of them.

All was not right in the aftermath though, as Itto had to recover by a river with help from Daigoro.  And female ninja leader Sayaka showed up, but was disarmed by Itto before seemingly cozying up to his domestic situation!  And, yes, nudity ensured, but for the good of her getting out of the pesky wet clothes that she would have otherwise gotten cold in.

The movie’s climax amid some sand dunes was awesome.  Itto tracked down the traitorous indigo dye master and his protectors, the Hidari Brothers.  A crazy epic sand dune fight ensued with Itto pretty much defeating everyone in what was, predictably, a bloody massacre.  The indigo dye master did not live.

But what about Sayaka?  Well, she turned up at the very end to confront Itto but waved a white flag when he drew his sword.  She knew that she would lose! 

And onward the lone wolf and cub went.

There were some innovative ideas going on in this sequel.  The female ninjas were an interesting idea and one couldn’t help but think of “Goldfinger” with the deadly flying hats.  The sand dune fight had some brutal moments with pumping blood flying all over the clean sand.

There were also some really bad ideas displayed by the film’s antagonists, like if you were going to fight Itto, you certainly wouldn’t want to burden yourself by having a straw basket hat on your head.  That tactic opened the film in a memorably, horrific confrontation that ended badly for Itto’s pursuers.

Note that the majority of the “Shogun Assassin” re-edit film was made up of this movie, with the first movie really being edited down in a ten-minute opening for background.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)

Itto and Daigoro were on the move, traveling down a river with a woman.  Itto used his sword as a cool mirror and noticed that the group was being followed by ninjas from the Yagyu clan and eventually maneuvered into a position to kill them.

The story jumped away from Itto for a while to introduce a ronin named Kanbei, who was wandering with a group of three other fighters.  Kanbei was at least somewhat honorable and punished one of his companions after the ‘bad’ three raped a mother and daughter.

Itto happened along and killed Kanbei’s two remaining companions.  Itto then confronted Kanbei but the two ended up calling the confrontation (which amounted to some stoic posing) a draw and each went their separate ways… for the moment.

When Itto arrived at an inn with the women from the movie’s opening, audiences learned that she was going to be sold off as a prostitute.  While protecting the woman from that fate, Itto got into a confrontation with the local yakuza (led by Torizo, a woman who used pistols!) and took the woman’s place in a torture beating.  When Itto survived the torture – which was quite elaborate as he was dunked repeatedly via rope into a water barrel – and the woman was allowed to be free.

Itto then ran into a one-armed man named Tatewaki who was associated with the Kakegawa clan.  Tatewaki was secretly the father of Torizo.

The film’s endgame finally started to take shape as Tatewaki and Torizo wanted Itto to kill Sawatari, who was an evil governor who had wronged the Kakegawa clan.  Sawatari happened to be visiting the area soon and that visit seemed like the perfect time to have Itto take him out!

As Sawatari’s men started arriving in the area, Itto ended up fending off Sawatari’s personal bodyguards while also having to deal with yet-another-Yagyu-ninja-attack.

Needless to say, by the climax of this film, Itto had a lot on his hands!

In what could only be described as completely ridiculous, Itto went on to single handedly defeat Sawatari’s entire dozens-of-men army.  The special weapons that he employed – including a quasi-machine gun (!) in the baby cart – came in very handy!  The entire conflict then ended with Itto killing Sawatari.  Hit job accomplished!

But that wasn’t the end of the movie, as the ronin Kanbei (remember him from the earlier ‘draw’ with Itto?) was a loose end to tie up.  Kanbei turned up for a rematch with Itto that led to Kanbei being defeated with a severe wound.

Viewers learned Kanbei’s full story as he lay dying.  Kanbei had seemingly been disgraced while not following protocol.  A convoy with Kanbei’s master in it had been ambushed and Kanbei had left his master’s side when he saw an opening that allowed him to kill the attacking lord.  Despite being a hero, Kanbei’s act of not staying by his master led to his being expelled.

Upon hearing the story, Itto agreed that Kanbei had done the right thing and Kanbei killed himself via seppuku while Itto acted as his ‘second.’

The final scene of the film was amusing, with Torizo considering running off with Itto.  Her own men stopped her from pursuing this flight of fancy with the warning that Itto was a ‘monster.’  She looked downright rabid for Itto though and who could really blame her?

It needn’t be pointed out that this ended up being quite a dense film with many new characters and associations.  The entire late portion of the story with governor Sawatari’s army was as nuts as one might have imagined.

It was also the most problematic film of the series for having such a rape focus.  I mentioned the opening mother-daughter situation but there were a couple of other scenes that either hinted at rape to come or came very close to it happening.

Interestingly, this entry in the series put more of a spotlight on gunplay than had previously been a factor (there were pistols at play beyond the baby cart gun).  This was a surprise of sorts given how sword-heavy the action had been in the first two films.  Don’t worry though, there were plenty of swords here too.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972)

This fourth film in the series marked the third film in a row that introduced a very capable female warrior.  This time it was Oyuki, a tattoo-covered assassin.

Itto was hired to kill Oyuki after she had seemingly been on a rampage, killing every man who had been sent against her and then cutting off their top knots to bring them dishonor (a point that would later come up as quite harsh on her part).  Of course, she did so topless so that her extensive tattoos could be seen.

Itto started his hunt for her by checking in with a local tattoo artist but managed to lose Daigoro when he wandered off with some clown-types (at least that’s kind of what they seemed like – street performers of some type?).  Of course, the Yagyu clan used the opportunity to try to seize Daigoro but he managed to escape their clutches.

While Daigoro tried to reunite with his father, he encountered a potential enemy man in a temple and was soon trapped in a field fire with the man looking on.  Daigoro survived that fire by burying himself underground.

Itto finally found Daigoro in the aftermath of the fire and he recognized the man pursuing his son as a Yagyu outcast named Gunbei Yagyu, the son of Retsudo Yagyu.  Gunbei had won the Shogun’s execution post ahead of Itto but was exiled when later improperly pointing his sword at the Shogun.

Itto and Gunbei faced off, with an improved Itto besting Gunbei by cutting off his right arm.  As if to further torment the man, Itto then refused to kill him.

The film rolled into its final act at this point, getting back on track with the Oyuki pursuit.  Some detective work led Itto to Oyuki, with him watching as she killed her former instructor.  The instructor’s rape of Oyuki had been the catalyst for her killing spree, which viewers saw play out in flashback a few minutes ahead of their final duel.  One note about that duel: The instructor had a flaming sword that he appeared to use to distract opponents but Oyuki one-upped him by flashing her tattooed bare breasts, allowing herself an opening to quickly dispatch the man.

Despite Oyuki’s justification, Itto did go ahead and duel her, killing her rather quickly.  He was respectful in her final moments and in creating a nice funeral pyre for her body.

The film wound down with Resudo Yagyu working with a local daimyo to seize Itto.  That plan backfired when Itto ended up taking the daimyo as a hostage.  That whole encounter led to a furious fight with Itto against Resudo but Resudo escaped for now (minus his right eye).  Itto barely survived having a sword stuck into him by one of Resudo’s sword masters and Daigoro saved his father’s life by pulling the sword out (obviously not always a great thing to do but it was fine in this case).

Itto did manage to recover from the fight well enough to load Daigoro into their baby cart and continue on his journey.  As they were leaving the area, the audience was made aware that Gunbei had seen the battle and seemed pleased by the result.

This entry in the saga finally gave Daigoro more of a spotlight than in the past, although him getting separated from his father seemed somewhat wonky due to how few people were in the town and vicinity when it happened.

Some of the fights that Itto handled in the middle of the film with groups of attackers were really fantastic.  A fight with attackers covered in gray dust contrasted against the red blood from their severed limbs was gorgeous and disturbing.

It was hard to actually fault Oyuki for going on her killing spree and her character’s tragic backstory made Itto’s killing her somewhat unsettling.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)

Itto’s next job was unusual in that it involved him besting what ended up being five different assassin-messengers.  That series of confrontations took up the bulk of the first half of the film and their deaths were nasty, including a man burned alive and another whose death left an impressive amount of blood in the water of a river.

Itto would learn a little more about the overall situation from each of the assassins (and be paid a little bit more of the overall job that was awaiting him).  With the five dispatched, that job was eventually revealed to involve a daimyo who was planning on passing off his daughter as heir while keeping his (older) son captive.

The daimyo’s plan was at risk of being exposed by a rogue priest who was traveling to the shogun with the news.  Complicating matters, his travel escorts were from the Yagyu clan.  Itto’s mission was to stop that rogue priest from delivering the letter, thus keeping the daimyo’s unorthodox success plan in place.

While all of this was going on, Daigoro (of course) again managed to get separated from his father.  This time, the separation was masterminded by a female pickpocket amid a town festival.  Both the pickpocket and Daigoro were apprehended by the town’s officers but Daigoro was released after refusing to rat out the woman.  His refusal came amid a public flogging while Itto looked on – seemingly impressed by his son’s fortitude at keeping quiet.

The story wrapped up with Itto killing a number of people – big surprise, right?

The final act kicked off with a boat scene involving the fleeing priest whereby Itto took control of the compromising letter.  So, that primary mission was accomplished and one might have assumed that the story was wrapping up.

Well, a twist was then introduced that the daimyo’s daughter had actually been born to a concubine.  Itto learned this fact from a woman named Shiranui, who booked Itto on a contract to take out the daimyo’s entire family and reinstate the captive son.

True to his word (and original contract), Itto delivered the problem letter to the daimyo.  He then revealed that he knew the truth behind the daimyo’s dishonorable actions.  All hell broke loose with Itto killing the daimyo’s guards and then going after the daimyo, his concubine, and, not to be forgotten, the illegitimate daughter who was supposed to be the heir.  While you might think that it was pretty heartless of Itto to kill a young girl – you’d be right – he at least had the excuse that she had verbally ordered for the daimyo’s guards to kill Itto first.

The legitimate son then became head of the clan, thus preserving the clan and saving everyone’s jobs within the clan.

The last few minutes of the film circled back to Shiranui, who was pleased to have saved her clan.  She did kill herself though, an act of loyalty of sorts to the daimyo that she had helped (justly) bring down.  As she was ending her life, Itto and Daigoro were heading off to their next adventure.

This fifth film in the series had a few nice twists.  It featured the return of director Kenji Misumi, who had taken the fourth installment off after handling directorial duties on the first three films.

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)

The multi-film storyline involving the Yagyu clan finally moved back into the spotlight in this final series installment.  The Shogun was understandably upset by the Yagyu clan’s inability to kill Itto.

From the film’s first frames, there was a special vibe, with the snow-covered locations being an inspired change of pace for the series.  It didn’t take a genius to assume that the snow was going to be covered in bright red blood very soon.

By this point, Retsudo Yagyu was down to his last child – a flying-dagger-throwing daughter named Kaori.  The first ten minutes of the film set her up as a formidable warrior.  Could this be the one to finally overcome Itto?

That would be a ‘No.’  Despite all of the build-up, Kaori exited the film rather quickly.  After her introduction, Itto again used his machine gun within the baby cart to stop some assassins hidden behind a wall.  Soon after being sent on her mission, she tried to assassinate Itto and instead managed to get herself killed.

Having used up all of his legitimate children, Retsudo turned to the black-magic-wielding Tsuchigumo clan and their leader, his illegitimate son Hyouei.  Hyouei brought with him three warriors with some odd Earth-burrowing powers.  It was all pretty sinister.

Hyouei was defeated with around twenty minutes left in the film, but not before trying to rape his sister while he was near-death in an ugly scene that seemed to be present mostly to include nudity and rape in a film that was otherwise devoid of either (for once in the series).  Hyousei’s crime was interrupted by Retsudo and he died mid-rape but Hyousei’s sister requested death for both of them and Resudo granted her request.

The saga came to some semblance of an ending when Itto took on Resudo’s combined army forces.  As an ending for the film and an (unplanned) ending for the series, it was very satisfying.  The scene for this showdown was atop a beautiful snow-capped mountain, with the snow predictably becoming splashed with blood as Itto defeated… basically everyone.  Literally all of the combined forces that Retsudo seemed to have left attacked Itto on that mountain in what eventually became a downhill skiing spectacular with blade-on-sled mayhem and what had to have been the stunt budget for most of the film.

Amid that conflict, the baby cart was used as a sled, its final supporting feature moment in the series.  I still couldn’t explain how there was a literal machine gun again fired from the baby cart but it was cool and helped even the odds, so I went with it.

Of course, Resudo managed to get away yet again.  He vowed his revenge on Itto but the conclusion of the film series with this volume meant that closure to the Yagyu-Itto conflict would need to take place in another medium.

There was a nice wrap-up moment with Itto and Daigoro reuniting after the climactic battle and, as far as the films would go, their journey continued into an unknown future together.

One strange aside – the James Bond theme appeared in little bits in the music during the film, sort of disguised but not really.

Conclusions

There were no further “Lone Wolf and Cub” films after the sixth entry.  The film series ended amid disputes over a television series.  The manga that the films were based on did continue, ending in 1976 after wrapping up a story that spanned roughly 8700 pages.

Unlike in the films, the story did have a definite conclusion with (spoiler) there ultimately being a final confrontation with Itto and Retsudo.  Itto died during what amounted to a stand-off and Daigoro ended up administering a final death blow to Retsudo, although Retsudo essentially allowed himself to be killed to end the long-running violence.

While these films gained attention in the United States in various ways, such as with the release of the compilation film “Shogun Assassin,” I first became aware of them in roundabout fashion.  First Comics published a portion of the Manga that the films were based on from 1987 until 1991, with Frank Miller helping to push the series at the time.

DVD releases of the film series in the 2000s gave way to Blu-Ray releases in the 2010s.  If someone was interested in these films, it’s never been easier to jump into them.