Kozure Ôkami: Meifumadô

This installment (#5) in the 'Babycart' film series finds Ogami Itto and Ogami Daigoro (played by respectively Tomisaburo Wakayama and Akihiro Tomikawa) recruited to protect the honour of a clan from its own leader, who is trying to pass off the offspring he sired on his concubine as his true heir. Much of the film moves at a slower pace than others in the series and there is a lengthy interlude in which little Daigoro, separated from his dad during a festival, has his own adventure. This sequence drags a bit although it is entertaining to see the stoic cub demonstrating baby-bushido as he is flogged for maintaining an honourable silence (like father, like son). Once the sanguinary twosome are reunited, the action picks up until the grand guignol finale, which even by the grim standards of this bloody series, is a bit shocking. The convoluted plot doesn't make a lot of sense (as others have pointed out, if only one of the waylaying samurai had died immediately when impaled on Itto's blade (as so many others have), the entire complex test-message scheme would have failed). That said, no one watches the Babycart series for tight plots and cohesive narratives. 'Land of Demons', the penultimate entry in the series, is notch below the previous installment (the splendid 'Baby Cart in Peril', with its topless, tattooed female assassin) and a bit less over-the-top than the final adventure, the frosty 'White Heaven in Hell' (with its incestuous impalement scene), but remains a watchable entry in the bloody, great series.

I was interested in seeing how director Kenji Misumi would pick up the series again. He directed the first three movies but the previous one, "Kozure Ôkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro", got directed by Buichi Saito. would Kenji Misumi continue on the same trend he had started the series in, or would he go with the successful more western style of approach Buichi Saito brought to the series.

The answer would be the first. Kenji Misumi pretty much continues what he had started. This is not a bad thing of course, since all of the first three movies were great and entertaining ones but it just makes it a little bit less accessible as a movie for the western audience. This style was however also more appreciated in Japan itself, so the switch back is quite understandable.

The movie starts off kind of slow and uninteresting and I wasn't too fond about its storytelling but it soon finds its old form. It actually turns into one of the more stronger movies out of the series, also story-wise. The movie does feature some great memorable moments in it, perhaps even more so than was the case with any of the previous movies. It's a very entertaining movie and its fight sequences are a pleasure to watch. It's being highly original and creative with some of its moments.

It's awesome to see how Ogami Itto is taking on whole armies again. You would think that by now his reputation would had exceeded him and people would know better to cross swords with him. The Japanese are however too noble and proud to just runaway at his sight or perform harakiri right away. Luckilly for use though, since it means that the movie gets action packed and features plenty of fountains of blood again, especially toward the ending when the movie becomes really more and more action filled and spectacular.

Such an awesome and entertaining movie.

9/10

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These movies were infamous for their incredibly brutal and bloody swordplay sequences, but equally impressive IMHO was the leading actor- Tomisaburo Wakayama a.k.a. "Lone Wolf" was surely the greatest martial arts star ever. The command and authority with which he wielded a sword (and other weapons) was just phenomenal. The blade truly was an extension of himself, and his use of it was the definition of lethal, with none of the unnecessary/show-off flourishes so desperately thrown about by today's wannabes. He had incredible presence and charisma- easily on a par with the likes of say Eastwood or Bronson- with eyes that reflected pure death, and the desolation in his soul. There were moments in the "Babycart" series where you'd swear he was the personification of his namesake, the Wolf. You never doubted for one second that he WAS shogun executioner, masterless samurai, assassin for hire. One look at him in action, and you could readily understand why his enemies trembled at the mention of his name, and ran from him in sheer terror. Alas, Lone Wolf is one with void now, but his legend will live on forever in these films.

Forget Toshiro Mifune. Forget Takakura Ken. Forget Sonny Chiba. Forget Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and any of those wire-reliant ballet dancers from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And CERTAINLY forget any American martial artists that you could care to name. Tomisaburo Wakayama was, is, and forever shall be, THE MAN!

Where the Lone Wolf and Cub adventure has been delightfully frenetic up to this point, the fifth film is a decided change of pace. Much more deliberate and pensive, Baby Cart in the Land of Demons spends an unusual amount of time in one place, toying with a more nuanced (at times even confusing) story, while also fleshing out an important supporting character. Young Daigoro, stone-faced son of the wandering master at the center of this great storm, finally gets his close-up and proves to be every bit as determined, soft-spoken and unflappable as his father. His scenes are the ones that stuck with me afterward, resonating in a way that felt fresh while also remaining loyal to the saga's identity. Daddy, meanwhile, has his hands full with a difficult five-pronged onslaught and a pair of complex, intertwined kill contracts. His actions at the film's climax once more cast the character in dark grey fabric, a recurring theme for the series, and prove that (where duty is concerned) he hasn't changed all that much from the very first time we met. Less visceral and rubber-tendoned than any of the earlier entries, and perhaps overly ambitious with that tangled primary storyline, it's good stuff if a touch below the standard its brethren have thus far maintained. An outlier in many ways.

Master film-maker Kenji Misumi returns in the Lone Wolf and Cub series to helm the fifth entry, Baby Cart in the Land of the Demons, and if you thought even just for a fleeting second that this would be anything but orgasmically violent and existentially mystifying, you just don't have enough confidence on the man.

Picking up the story of the Shogun's former executioner Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro, this is another tale of betrayal, political intrigue and murder. The Kuroda Clan is in deep trouble, trouble that Ogami Itto's fierce opponents, the Yagyu, want to exploit for their own benefit. Ogami Itto is paid his usual fee (500 gold pieces of course) and bloodshed ensues.

Now as a chambara and LWAC fundamendalist, I will confess upfront that the combination of stylized comic-book violence and the existential, quasi-mythic look at both historical Japan and the genre conventions that form chambara, are a sure win in my book. It might not be as groundbreaking as the first two entries in the series, it is after all following a now well-tested tradition, but it is done with such conviction and deliberation that one has to pay notice.

As with other serialized characters of the chambara universe like Zatoichi or Nemuri Kiyoshiro, it is exactly that it simultaneously meets our expectations as a pure Lone Wolf movie that doesn't disappoint the way Hollywood sequels do and that it breaks the traditional forms of the period drama that make even a fifth entry of this tried and tested recipe so good.

The plot is of secondary value to the actual journey of Itto and his son. They have been through the crossroads at Hades and now into the land of the demons and there is no turning back. What pushes them through piles of dead bodies is revenge, and I say "them" because Daigoro has made his commitment to follow the same path of blood as his father, their fates inextricably linked through life and death; yet as with other Lone Wolf movies revenge is but a vague part of the storyline. A skeleton that gives these movies form and reason to be but they take life beyond that.

In Lone Wolf and Cub's case their journey is an existential fable bathed in blood, like they are doomed to cut their way through the land for all time and it is through the act of killing that their existence takes meaning. It takes one look at Ogami Itto's grim stare to realize that if there is a god and he would dare to appear in front of him, Itto would swiftly cut him down and move on his path. Takashi Miike understood all this crystal clear when he made Izo.

Speaking of blood, yes, there will be lots of it. It's a staple of the Lone Wolf movies and I wouldn't have it any other way. Arterial sprays, chopped heads and bodies sliced in half. And then there is Tomisaburo Wakayama, the man, the myth, crafting the most mesmerizing character role of his career.

Strongly recommended as are all the other Lone Wolf movies. Watch them in order though.