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Lone Wolf and Cub



Based on the best-selling manga series, the six intensely kinetic Lone Wolf and Cub films elevated chanbara to bloody, new heights. The shogun's executioner, Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama), takes to wandering the countryside as an assassin—along with his infant son Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) and an infinitely weaponized perambulator—helping those he encounters while seeking vengeance for his murdered wife. Delivering stylish thrills and a body count that defies belief, Lone Wolf and Cub is beloved for its brilliantly choreographed and unbelievably violent action sequences as well as for its tender depiction of the bonds between parent and child.

Sword of Vengeance

The inaugural film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series immediately thrust Itto Ogami into the ranks of the all-time great samurai movie icons. In this installment, the Shadow Yagyu clan plots to solidify its power by taking Ogami's coveted position of shogun's executioner for its own. The legendary assassin escapes with his infant son, Daigoro, and swears vengeance.

Baby Cart at the River Styx

In this exploitation-cinema classic, which took the action and graphic violence of the Lone Wolf and Cub series to delirious new heights, Itto Ogami and Daigoro continue their quest for vengeance through meifumado, the spiritual way of "demons and damnation," pursued constantly by the Shadow Yagyu clan and the shogun's spies.

Baby Cart to Hades

Unfolding in an idyllic countryside that contrasts sharply with the violence that occurs within it, the third Lone Wolf and Cub film follows Itto Ogami and Daigoro as they continue their journey and stumble upon a crime scene involving a group of lowlife swordsmen from the watari-kashi class.

Baby Cart in Peril

In this distinctly lowbrow entry in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Itto Ogami is hired by the Owari clan to assassinate a tattooed woman who is killing her enemies and cutting off their topknots. Meanwhile, Daigoro is separated from his father when he follows a pair of traveling street performers outside of town.

Baby Cart in the Land of Demons

Balancing physical action with Buddhist musings on life and death, the most spiritual of the Lone Wolf and Cub films finds Ogami's combat skills put to the test by five different warrior-messengers.

White Heaven in Hell

In the final Lone Wolf and Cub film, star Tomisaburo Wakayama decided to make the sort of wild movie he'd always wanted to: one in which Lone Wolf battles zombies and Daigoro's baby cart zips improbably across an icy landscape on skis.


SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital restorations of all six films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
• High-definition presentation of Shogun Assassin, the 1980 English-dubbed reedit of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films
• New interview with Kazuo Koike, writer of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series and screenwriter on five of the films
• Lame d'un père, l'âme d'un sabre, a 2005 documentary about the making of the series
• New interview in which Sensei Yoshimitsu Katsuse discusses and demonstrates the real Suio-ryu sword techniques that inspired those in the manga and films
• New interview with biographer Kazuma Nozawa about filmmaker Kenji Misumi, director of four of the six Lone Wolf and Cub films
• Silent documentary from 1937 about the making of samurai swords, with an optional new ambient score by Ryan Francis
• Trailers
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay and film synopses by Japanese pop culture writer Patrick Macias

Wow, it even has Shogun Assassin as an extra feature.

I knew about the Kazuma Nozawa interview, and figured that they also talked about Lone Wolf when they interviewed Kazuo Koike (I assume it is from the same session as their Lady Snowblood interview,) but the other extras are a pleasant surprise.

cdnchris wrote:Wow, it even has Shogun Assassin as an extra feature.

Amazing! This will certainly be near the top of my end of the year release. The Lone Wolf series is just absolutely wonderful / hilarious.

Shogun Assassin is even a fantastic work in itself (the music during the desert fight sequence is a highlight). Oddly Shogun Assassin was the work of Bobby Houston - who's had a very interesting and bizarre career. A relative of mine used to work for him, and I was always surprised by his career path. He was in the Hills Have Eyes (as the young man who keeps doing backflips) but then went on to earn an Academy Award with his partner at the time for The Children's March (rather superb short documentary).

Has anyone seen any of the Shogun Assassin sequels?

I'm guessing from the trailers I watched these are pretty schlocky? The good kind?

It depends on the entry. The films are very stylish with surprisingly classical storytelling for the most part. I prefer these over the other two series Criterion has released.

And of course while Lady Snowblood provided some inspiration for Kill Bill Vol 1's big showdown, Shogun Assassin itself gets aptly namechecked at the end of Kill Bill Vol. 2 for its own parent-child bonding scene!

Amazon has this mispriced at $39.99. Order now before it's fixed! Cheaper than even the 1/2 sale at Barnes andf Noble.

Amazon has this mispriced at $39.99. Order now before it's fixed! Cheaper than even the 1/2 sale at Barnes andf Noble.

Will Amazon honor this mistake? I know their policy is to give you the lowest price listed up until shipping, but is there a chance they will cancel these orders? I cannot see them comfortably eating that cost.

They'll honor it if they keep the listing. They might cancel the listing (and therefore all orders) and relist it though

I ordered it to when I saw it. Can't lose. You either have it guaranteed cheap or we get the B&N price at $5-10 more.

Despite my dislike of the cover, this is still the most exciting release of November for me. Together with Chimes at Midnight and The Executioner, this is one of the few releases this year I want on release day.

By the way, I'd probably suggest that Arrow or somebody with the rights should look into some of the other (though arguably lesser) films based on Kazuo Koike manga: Crying Freeman (which has an anime series and a 1995 live action film made by Christophe Gans) and Princess Blade (which is a vaguely sketched in post-apocalyptic remake of the Lady Snowblood theme).

It always seemed to me that the animated Crying Freeman was particularly bad and more interesting in being rather exploitative than anything else.

domino harvey wrote:They'll honor it if they keep the listing. They might cancel the listing (and therefore all orders) and relist it though

It looks like they're going to honor it. The listing in my order history is their official (now $99.95) listing.

Maybe they realized this was the only way I was going to give them money instead of Barnes & Noble.

Yeah I also just looked. It cost me about 50 with shipping, so I guess that fine enough. I find it funny that because of an Amazon glitch I will finally have my first Criterion.
BTW what are the discounts on B&N regarding box sets? I have seen many times that when they have their 50% off the boxes aren't 50% off, but rather 20/30...

Were these films the ones that inspired that episode of Bob's Burgers where Bob and Louise bond over a samurai film about the hero and his child?

No, that was Road to Perdition

mfunk9786 wrote:No, that was Road to Perdition

..which was in turn influenced by the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

xoconostle wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:No, that was Road to Perdition

..which was in turn influenced by the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

It was a joke.

*red face*
Perils of expedient response. :-)

Ribs wrote:Beaver

3 movies per disc, and the 3rd disc dedicated to extra features and Shogun Assassin ? Come on... #-o
They managed to give Shogun Assassin a vastly superior video bitrate despite being the only one sourced from an older master.

On a side note, it looks very nice... but green-ish (and a bit pale) ?

So relieved this turned out fine! The second film in particular is a masterpiece of 70s samurai cinema.