Kozure Ôkami: Sono chîsaki te ni

The 6 Lone Wolf & Cub films are all utterly brilliant, as is the TV series of 3 seasons.

The composite Shogun Assassin film is incredible if you've not seen the Japanese releases (& should be seen 1st if you are unfamiliar with the films).

The Manga series is one of the greatest comics ever written & drawn.

Then there is is this disrespectful & dull 'updating' . Updating must mean downgrading & devolution- it retains virtually none of the charm, ingenuity & dynamics of any of its predecessors.

There's some good acting & bits of music, but the complete character change of the main protagonist destroys any affinity this film claims to have with its inspirational source material.

Of course all of us who love the other versions will still want to see this version , however bad it is. While other more interesting & successful films by Kazuo Koike deserve attention ,such as Bohachi Bushido: The Villain .Demon Spies ,and the much later The Princess Blade.

After the original Lone Wolf comics, films and TV series came out in the seventies, the character stayed off the movie screens until this film came along. A radical reworking of the main character, Ogami Itto, the Lone Wolf, is the most notable aspect of this production.

Condensing the entire Lone Wolf story cycle into one movie, the filmmakers concentrate on Itto's goal of revenge against the Yagyu clan who killed his wife and ruined his reputation. They skip the hired assassin plot line almost completely! The story cycle was never completed by the original movies although the 1973 TV series did finish with the ending from the manga. The filmmakers also dispensed with the famous baby cart so son Daigoro is always walking with his father.

These changes are mild in comparison with their vision of Ogami Itto. He's portrayed as a sensitive father who can't bring himself to kill his own son, crying and screaming when he tries to do it. This is a far cry (sorry) from the character as played by Tomisaburo Wakayama. You knew his Ogami Itto would kill his own son if fate decreed it. Yagyu Retsudo, originally a wild eyed maniac who is bent on killing Itto even if it destroys his own family, is presented here as a moral character who is torn between admiration for Itto and duty to his clan's evil plans. As played by the famous Tatsuya Nakadai, this new Retsudo works in a way. Unfortunately the same can't be said for Masakazu Tamura playing Ogami Itto. Tomisaburo Wakayama was so intense that it's hard to imagine anyone comparing well. Even Kinnosuke Nakamura who played Ogami Itto on the TV series, which was apparently more popular then the films, worked in the shadow of Wakayama. Masakazu Tamura is too low key although he handles the action well. One of the strong points of the original series was that you would get glimpses of a moral and sensitive man under the demonic exterior. The film is decently shot but once again the stylistic direction of the original series puts this to shame.

Some people like this film. I don't.

While I understand the points made in Chung Mo's critique, I still have to insist that Tamura's performance gratified me. Admittedly it is with some bias that I get that evocation from Tamura. What I mean from that bias is that I had so enjoyed Tamura's version of NEMURI KYOSHIRO with Tamura's brooding presence. Somehow that same presence can be found in his portrayal of Ogami. Here, though, there is the additional emotional component of sensitivity, which coupled with the brooding presence, created a charismatic characterization.