Baby Cart: Le paradis blanc de l'enfer

The Lone Wolf and Cub or "Babycart" series of movies are a joy to watch. There's never a dull moment during Ogami and Diagoro's travels across the land they call "hell".

White Heaven in Hell is the last installment to a great series. Ogami must face what's left of the Yagyu Clan including Lord Retsudo. Ogami must kill them all to avenge Azami's (Ogami's wife) death.

This movie displays some great choreography (as always) Tomisaburo Wakayama is that good with the sword I sometimes tend to believe the guy is a real "masterless samurai". Although some of the fight scenes are a little confusing (the fight with the girl and the throwing daggers) on a whole this movie displays jaw-dropping sword fights...including an amusing final showdown battle in the snow.

And as usual, the movie displays some weird techniques of eradicating others...including daggers through the head, and even a rocket launcher! This may sound weird, but that's Babycart for you. But it works...in a weird kind of way,

In my opinion, Tomisaburo Wakayama is certainly up there with the likes of Toshiro Mifune...if better.

The end of what's possibly the best samurai saga ever.

8/10

Fabulous conclusion to a fine series with less dubious samurai philosophy and more creative and marvellously choreographed fighting sequences. The stupendous snow scenes that open and close the film are jaw dropping and whilst watching could only imagine the filming difficulties. Subsequently I discover that these relatively short scenes took some six weeks to film with the youngster playing the cub crying at the pain of the cold and his 'Papa' near to collapse on several occasions. It is a remarkable episode in many respects and not least with regard to the cinematography which seems even finer here with some truly wonderful moments. i think I actually gasped when the opposing forces appeared on the brow of the snow clad mountain-side. The ending here differs from that in the manga partly because the film actually came before the story had been concluded - so keen apparently were the film makers to carry on with the series. Far from being a let down, as I feared it might be, this sixth and final film in the series is a fine way to conclude what, overall, is a most enjoyable and magical experience - with rather a lot of bloody violence.

The sixth and last of the "Lone Wolf and Cub/Baby Cart" series of films shows how artistically well-done films can make even the most ludicrous ideas work. During Ogami Itto's journey to the final showdown with his arch-enemy Retsudo, leader of the evil Yagyu clan, we witness everything from incest bordering on necrophilia, zombie samurai who can burrow in the ground like worms, the usual assortment of mutilations, a battle on snow skis, and the most elaborate baby cart weaponry yet--including automatic armor plating! As usual, the images are beautifully composed, the action is splendidly choreographed, the plot ideas are wonderfully outrageous, and the funky music score is cool perfection. Any of this out of context would be silly; in context, it's almost sublime.

The sixth entry in the Lone Wolf and Cub saga ... and the last one. Since it has been a while I don't think they'll ever do another one ... although I guess you could go animated. Would be fitting since these are based on an Anime. And the blood and nudity might be a testament to that too. You can tell this is quite over the top, to say the least.

This adds a finale with snow ... just fantastic. I would not call these exceptional tension filled (you kind of know your main character will not perish ... at least until the end of the movie), but they are fun, if you are not too politically correct or easily offended. If you are, stay away from these ... The ending of the series (at least movie wise, never read the animes) is quite ... well let's say it is quite open. If you think this not satisfying ... well I would totally understand it ...

Episode six of the hematic chronicle of Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and his son finds the twosome in the frigid north of Japan, where the snowy slopes provide a pristine white canvas for the drifting-killer's bright red splatter-art. As the story arc begins to wind down, Itto finally faces off against hordes of heinous Yagyu clansmen led by the one-eyed Lord Yagyu Retsudo (who by now has pretty much sacrificed his entire family in his quest to kill the 'Lone Wolf and Cub'). In addition to mundane threats of swords, spears and flying daggers, the portly but deadly anti-hero also faces the Tsuchigumo, a secretive clan of sorcerers who send their burrowing minions after him. The film is a return to over-the-top grisliness after the relatively sedate 'Land of Demons' (1973), with lots of hissing, scarlet geysers and at least one person sliced in half (but the real money-shot is an memorable, one-of-a-kind incestuous impalement (in more than one sense)). As usual for the series, the direction and cinematography is great although the music sounds more like the score for a '70s Motown cop-drama than an Edo-era chanbara. Wakayama continues to be great as the less-than-imposing but über-competent vagabond assassin and Akihiro Tomikawa is fun to watch as Diagoro, his toddler-son (and co-killer), who travels in the formidable 'babycart'. Unfortunately, production politics brought the series to a premature end, with the vile Retsudo running off to fight another day, which sadly never comes (at least in the cinema, the finale can be seen in the eponymous manga). Good, gruesome fun for fans of stoic swordsmen, jidaigeki, and splatter movies.