Baby Cart: Dans la terre de l'ombre

This one and "Peril" are by far my favorites. In the opening scenes we see Ogami wipe out three ninja and it must be seen to be believed. I particularly liked the character development in this film. Itto meets Magomura Kanbei, a disgraced ronin much like himself. It appears Kanbei has a death wish and the reason is uncertain until the end of the movie. He is a very interesting character. Ogami is tortured by yakuza to save a prostitute who killed a pimp in self defense and this is how he is led to his next commission. Great story, and action that is second to none. His quick draw in one scene is so fast I swore the film was sped up. Well, it wasn't. The man is that good. Another plus, there's Hamada Yuko. She is one good-looking woman. This is a very enjoyable movie that can be viewed many times and it never gets old.

You know when in sequels (this being the third movie in the series), certain things get an upgrade without any explanation? Well this happens with the baby cart here. And the baby is quite tech savvy ... or let's say participates more in the fights. Sort of, which is a nice touch. And I actually had to laugh out loud during the last battle, well at the start of it, when ... well you'll see and understand when you see what they do ... amazing.

And quite ridiculous, but that is what the movies are about. Blood gushes, squirts in very big fashion. Nudity and other things included. And our macho hero in the center of all of it. Do not take the movies for real and try to remember they are fiction, not telling you how to do things or be educational in any way, shape or form! It is imperative to never forget that, because otherwise you'd be close to cancel those movies. Sleaze and down and dirty nature is what they relish on. You may despise that (I am actually surprised that the rating is so high, but it probably only means, that only those who are not easily offended watched them), which is ok, but don't deny them others, who can differentiate ...

Ogami Itto is Lone Wolf. His infant son Daigoro is Cub. They are on Demon Way to Hell. Along the way, they encounter a ronin named Kanbei who is desperate for a duel with Itto. They rescue an enslaved girl. His heroism impressed yakuza madam Torizo and she hires him for an assassination.

This is the third movie in the series. Whether it's the guns or the warrior with a name, this one has a much more spaghetti western feel. I love Kanbei and his struggle for moral clarity. I also love Torizo's introduction and her character. I love Daigoro's tricking the gunslinger. I like this one the most so far in the series.

This is an AnimEigo re-release of "Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades" which is the third movie in the Lone Wolf and Cub or "Baby Cart" series. As far as I could tell, these were the changes from the original movie.

1) The English sub-titles were removed and instead the Japanese was dubbed over with English.

2) The left and right edges were trimmed off to fit the image on a standard TV set. This is most obvious at the beginning where the title and related material gets cut off enough that you had to guess at what some words would be.

3) The color is excellent and it's apparent AnimEigo worked hard to clean up the original media.

The DVD runs for 89 minutes. Unlike "Shogun Assassin" #1 which combined elements from three of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies Shogun Assassin 2 is just one movie from the original series. As far as I can tell, nothing was cut.

It seems that with this movie, the third out of the Kozure Ôkami-series, they picked a sort of different approach. This time the movie gets a bit more personal and dramatic, which goes at the expense of the movie its action. However once you get over this and get more into the movie itself, you'll still be grabbed and entertained by it as well.

It's not even fair to say really that this movie does not have enough action in it. The movie still features quite a lot of fights and at the end Ogami Itto even takes on a whole army by himself. Still by comparison it's all a bit toned down and there is also less blood. The entire series is basically known for its fountains of blood but this movie does not provide the best example of this.

It's less entertaining but its a more solidly written story than its predecessors, as it seems. The first two movies were mostly adventurous ones in which lone wolf and cub wandered the country, meeting all kinds of people and getting into all kinds of problems. This movie does more clearly follow one story-line, that from beginning to end is basically all connected, without ever wandering off with its story and follow some side plots with it. Not everybody will like this and I must admit that I wasn't too fond about the approach the movie was taking at first but as the movie progresses it becomes more solid and you can also tell what the movie was heading towards to during its first half.

It seems like a weaker movie out of the series at first but once things start to take off you should be able to appreciate it different approach and see this movie as simply yet another great once within its great series.

8/10

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