Shogun Assassin

This film is not for the faint of heart. It's also not extremely realistic, what with blood spurting in all directions at almost every turn. However, it's not intended to be realistic. It's a fantasy ride. It's intended to be entertaining to those who enjoy film making of this genre, and to serve as a vehicle for a hero. And Lone Wolf is a hero of grand stature with a talent for defending himself and his own. And throughout the film, as he's pursued by hired assassins he defends himself and his child with style and brutal grace. Throughout the film, the glorious examples of extreme bloodshed are observed by his young son who accompanies his father... the son narrates the film in a manner that's almost mesmerizing in its effectiveness as events unfold.

This film has some of the most stylish and expressive swordsmanship you're ever likely to see. And throughout the bloody brutality and edged weaponry action there are some examples of the kindest and most humane exchanges you could ever imagine, particularly between father and son... some profound, some humorous, some just simply ordinary.

This film is hard to find and it's almost never seen on pay cable anymore, although Cinemax used to run it on occasion some years ago. However, it's still around in some video rental stores and on some of the auction sites now and then, so if you spot this film somewhere grab it. It's an amazing way to spend an evening, watching Lone Wolf and child take on the world. I looked a long time before I found my copy in an older video rental store that was going out of business and was selling off tapes. I bought it for four dollars... I'd have paid MUCH more for this obscure little gem of a film that was actually edited together from episodes of a Japanese TV series that aired in the early 1970s.

Watch this film with an open mind and with acceptance. It's a journey into furious bloodletting, subtle glory, and profound dignity.

I was working for Mark Lindsay at wonderland, when the project fell in his lap. most of the additional soundtrack was performed on a Prophet 5 synthesizer along with a jupiter 8 keyboard. the zings and sound effects as weapons are used was created on a EMU (a wall sized synthe made of individual modules) and was recorded on a Trident flexymix console. Michael Lewis and Mark Lindsay worked so cohesively as if they were one and the same. The working title for one of the longer songs was "chinks in armor"

this movie was banned in 1983 in the USA because of the scene where wet and freezing the three travelers huddle together naked an the little boy flicks the nipples of the fem fatal and the nipple gets hard. fairly risqué for the time.

years later the only place i could get a copy was from England.

I imagine that many Japanese cinema purists look down on Shogun Assassin, viewing it as bastardised art, the film consisting of the juiciest bits from the first two classic Lone Wolf and Cub films edited together and re-dubbed for the US market. I, however, see the film as a fond reminder of the video nasty era when, against the wishes of the BBFC, I proudly owned an ex-rental, big box VIPCO VHS copy of the movie; it was one of the highlights of my collection, a gloriously violent saga that introduced me to the world of unflappable samurais and arterial spray, for which I will be ever grateful.

Of course these days the censors have seen sense and all of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies are available in their entirety on DVD (pristine prints in their original language with English subtitles, no less); but while it's great to see the movies as the filmmakers intended, I still get a kick out of Shogun Assassin's incongruous American voice-over, grimy 80s synth score and erratic editing, elements that take me back to a time when collecting banned movies was a challenge and the viewing seemed more rewarding as a result. As soon as Daigoro's narration kicks in, I'm back in the darkened bedroom of my youth, revelling in all the stylish blood and violence wreaked by super cool rōnin for hire Ogami Itto (Tomisaburô Wakayama), enjoying the fact that I'm sampling forbidden fruit, and it tastes good.

Released today, film fans across the world would be throwing copies of Shogun Assassin onto bonfires because technically, it is 100x worse than the type of 'rip offs' that people keep accusing Tarantino of lately. Essentially, Shogun is the first fifteen minutes or so of Sword of Vengeance followed by the majority of Babycart at the River Styx copy and pasted into an 80 minute film, with the addition of bad dubbing and some seriously cool music. But, as it stands, Shogun Assassin was 'made' in 1980 and did the full trip around grind house theatres so it has gained a cult following. So today it is looked back on as classic hack and slash cinema, as Kill Bill will probably be in twenty years time as much as some purists hate to admit it.

Speaking from my current state of mind I would say screw Shogun Assassin and go for the six Lone Wolf and Cub films. Even as a cure for film geeks lust for blood and guts, Shogun Assassin seems kind of strange. I never really understood why Houston didn't c & p some of the much more epic scenes of carnage from Babycart to Hades or Babycart in Peril. Still, the fight with the Hidari brothers (or 'Masters of Death' as they are known in Shogun) is one of the coolest in all six films. John Carpenter later used the brothers as prototypes for his '3 Storms' in Big Trouble in Little China, but if he was 'homaging' River Styx or Shogun Assassin we will probably never know.

Ultimately, Shogun Assassin works in the same way as Kill Bill, as a gateway to grind house cinema for the masses. How many people realise, respect and take advantage of this is where the problems start. Regarding Kill Bill, thousands of people see the films and see them as original without realising their true purpose. But it is difficult to argue that both films are not taking advantage of underseen cinema.

Alas, three paragraphs and I haven't actually said if the film is any good. The truth is, I will probably never watch it again because there isn't much point if you are into the LW & C films. But I won't have been introduced to 70s Japanese samurai 'grind house' cinema, which I regard as the best action genre there is, if it wasn't for Shogun. So I can't say it is rubbish, and to be fair, if you haven't seen LW & C it is far from crap, showcasing some of the coolest fight scenes ever filmed along with some seriously awesome music (which is the main reason I still have love for Shogun). Of course, the dubbing completely ruins Wakayama's performance and the Yagyu female ninja leader is turned into a useless loose end.

But Shogun's existence is important and a godsend is stopping 70s Jap samurai cinema from falling into nothingness in the west. If you don't know samurai cinema, watch Shogun once and you will turn into a nerd like me and become instantly obsessed with Japanese cinema. I would never know and love a lot of the films I do now if it wasn't for Shogun, and for that I hold it in the highest regard. Well, sort of.

I loved this movie but I couldn't even begin to explain why. On paper it is terrible. The movie is made with bits of footage from other movies. It's dubbed. The story line is basic and irrelevant to why I like the movie. Not a great start and yet, once I started watching it, I couldn't stop.

I used to listen to Wu Tang CDs when I was a kid and the Genius GZA album Liquid swords borrows a bunch of lines from this movie. I always thought they were cool but I didn't know they came from this movie.

The part that is hard to explain, is that my wife, who doesn't like martial arts flicks or gore, also liked this movie.

This isn't the kind of movie that you see by accident on TV. You'll probably have to buy it on DVD to see it. I waited for it to be on Netflix but eventually gave up and ordered a copy for $10.

I'm glad I did. This movie inspired other movie makers and despite its age, it is very cool from start to finish. I promise you won't get bored. People talk about how the footage from taken from other movies but it is the new sound track that is added that makes it special and deserving of being judged as a movie in its own right.

It ends very suddenly and I wasn't 100% satisfied with where they left it but in general, its and entertaining experience that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to movie fans. In a world where it is hard to find something different, sometimes you have to look to the past to find something new.