Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death

Reviewer: Walt Opie
Rating (out of 5): ***

Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death opens with a scene of our hero, Ogami Itto (a.k.a Lone Wolf), getting into a ferryboat somewhere in the Japanese countryside. There are a number of other folks in the boat and everything looks normal except for one oddity—a baby cart. Ogami Itto is traveling with an odd, heavy-duty baby cart that his young son (with a funky haircut) rides around in. The cart has wheels, but also floats, so when the ferryman protests that he can’t put his cart in the boat, Ogami Itto simply tosses the cart into the water and ties it to the back of the boat--son and all--and away they go!

Keep your eye on that kid and his baby cart. They produce a lot of the fun to be had watching this re-released 1972 Japanese samurai flick, now with obnoxiously bad English dubbing ("The thing we like best is a good healthy woman between our legs," one guy is made to say.) The original title to this film was "Baby Cart to Hades"--a better name if you ask me--and it is actually the third installment of the Lone Wolf and Cub Series. (Baby Cart to Hades is available on DVD, for the original language version.) No matter though because this is not a mini-series and the drama is fairly straightforward. Eventually everybody in the territory is out to kill Ogami Itto, for reasons that seem rather secondary. He is a bit like Caine from the old American TV series Kung Fu; he walks the earth and trouble finds him wherever he goes. The good news is that he’s a master swordsman and fighter, and as played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, he is believable enough and carries off the fighting with at least a shred of natural grace and dignity.

The young boy is used in inventive ways, as is the baby cart that, as it says on back of the DVD box, happens to be "weapons-filled" and "pimped out" almost as lethally as a James Bond automobile. There is also a bold warning on the box worth heeding: "Contains violence, nudity, and rivers of blood." While there weren't any actual rivers, there were plenty of spurting streams of the red stuff. Perhaps the most innovative, audacious shot in the film is during the climactic fight scene between Ogami Itto and another samurai when the camera actually takes the viewpoint of a freshly chopped off head as it bounces onto the ground. Is it any surprise that Quentin Tarantino is reportedly a big fan? Somebody should send a copy to Mel Gibson, too.

See also: Shogun Assassin 1.