Mania Grade: A
Disc Grade: A-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Stars: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ohki, Shoji Kobayashi, Kayo Matsuo, Shin Kishida, Akihiro Tomikawa, Katsuhei Matsumoto, Kanji Ehata, Izumi Ayukawa, Reiko Kasahara
Writer: Kazuo Koike
Director: Kenji Misumi
Distributor: AnimEigo
Original Year of Release: 1972
Retail Price: $26.95
Extras: widescreen; English subtitles; trailers; liner notes

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LONE WOLF & CUB 2

The saga of Lone Wolf & Cub is one of the most influential stories to ever come out of Japan. It began as a comic series by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, serialized every week in Manga Action magazine. The premise of the story is deceptively simple: Itto Ogami, the Shogun's executioner, is betrayed by his political enemies and his wife is killed. Refusing to commit suicide, Ogami chooses to instead become a rogue samurai. Considering himself dead already, he takes "the road to hell" seeking vengeance. Left with his infant son Daigoro, he offers the baby a choice between a sword and a play ball, leaving it up to fate whether they go down the path of vengeance together. With Daigoro traveling along in a deceptively rickety-looking babycart, Ogami become an assassin for hire, available to kill anyone for their standard fee of 500 ryo (gold pieces). The comic became an instant hit in Japan, and eventually filled dozens of fat paperback volumes.

The success of the manga led Shintaro Katsu (of Zatoichi fame) to produce a film series based on it. The films created an even bigger sensation in Japan. The combination of violence with a strong dramatic premise, excellent direction and good performances made the films instant classics. In the USA, the first couple entries were dubbed, combined, and re-edited into two features, most successfully in well done SHOGUN ASSASSIN. During the late '90s, AnimEigo issued the original six films in excellent editions on videotape and laserdisc, complete with carefully translated subtitles and educational liner notes. This summer, AnimEigo has begun to issue fresh transfers of the films from new 35mm prints on DVD, available first directly from the company website, and later available through the usual retail outlets. This system allows AnimEigo a margin to deal with the frequent difficulties involved in procuring and translating foreign film elements without missing set street dates, while giving their loyal fans the first crack at new product.

This second entry in the series takes as its center the eyes of little Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa). They take in everything, from the dance of butterflies to the sight of his father, Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama), slaying assassins of the Yagyu Shadow-Clan. In SHOGUN ASSASSIN, this viewpoint was taken a step further by having Daigoro actually narrate the story.

Ogami won the right to pass unmolested by the Yagyu in Edo, but he's traveled far since then. Spymaster Ozuno (Izumi Ayukawa) brings orders from Lord Retsudo Yagyu to Sayaka (Kayo Matsuo) of the Akashi Clan that Ogami is on his way into their territory, and they must kill him. Her clanswomen prove their capability to Ozuno by cutting his strongest warrior to pieces. The Edo Chamberlain of Awa has hired Lone Wolf to kill Makuya, headman of the indigo farmers (who provide precious dyes to the textile industry). The Shogun has sent the Hidari Brothers (the infamous Gods of Death) to bring Makuya to Edo, putting the secret of the Awa indigo dye in jeopardy. Each Hidari has a lethal specialty: Benma uses a claw weapon, Tenma a club, and Kuruma an armored glove.

Adapting stories from the manga series, the film at times bears an episodic structure, while maintaining an overall story arc. One such episode has little Daigoro required to nurse his father back to health. Then cowardly Yagyu agents kidnap the boy in an attempt to draw the Lone Wolf out. On the road to Akashi to catch a ship, Ogami is faced with waves of attackers. First the Akashi clanswomen, then Ozuno's warriors take him on. Sayaka poses the only real challenge, fighting him to a draw. The ship they board holds not only Sayaka, but the Gods of Death as well, making it a very hazardous voyage.

The fight choreography in BABY CART AT THE RIVER STYX - much of it drawn directly from the manga - is incredible. It's also incredibly bloody; fans of samurai films had grown used to seeing a lot of killing on the screen, but never before had the slaughter been presented so graphically, with blood gushing and splattering about freely in slow motion. The westerns of Sam Pekinpah, which dared to actually show realistic bullet wounds, had a similar effect on people. However, director Kenji Misumi presents this violence - and everything else in the film - with taste and style, always framing his shots in just the right way. Like Daigoro, we're allowed to see all, yet retain our innocence.

AnimEigo's laserdisc version of the film is wonderful, but the new transfer for DVD is even better, with a sharper picture and richer colors. Their previous subtitles included extra above-the-matte annotations to the translation which explained certain terms and phrases in more detail, and here you have the choice of seeing all these subtitles, none, or just the annotations. The detailed liner notes are both retained on an insert "file folder" and available as a disc feature. [Note: AnimEigo prefers to use Japanese style name conventions, while I use the reversed names the Japanese present for foreign trade.] The disc also contains the original theatrical trailers for two of AnimEigo's upcoming Lone Wolf DVDs, plus two of their upcoming Zatoichi discs.