hyped garbage

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Spliced together from a couple of early '70s movies in the manga-inspired LONE WOLF & CUB series, SHOGUN ASSASSIN enjoys a bit of a cult reputation in the UK after it made its way onto the banned list when it first came out. It's a reputation that precedes it, with tales of spraying arterial blood and gore all over the place, and despite the hype the movie does live up to expectations. Despite the dodgy idea of editing movies together, it actually works in this instance, thanks to the simple narrative which essentially sees a lone samurai warrior pushing his kid along in a cart and tackling a series of assassins and ninjas along the way. It's as easy as that.The film has a very distinctive feel to it and anyone who's at all familiar with early '70s Japanese cinema will recognise the kind of cinematography and acting you see. It's all very cold, with minimal dialogue and stern expressions, and there are some quite beautiful moments in places thanks to the camera-work. The idea of having the boy narrate the tale is a clever one and the father-son relationship makes things more than watchable. Of course, we're all here for the action, and it doesn't disappoint as there are tons of inventive battles and skirmishes, each different from the last. Our hero, Lone Wolf, must battle all kinds of people, from gangs of ninjas to female assassins, lords and heroes and finally a trio of masters with some truly nasty weaponry in store.It's pretty sadistic, and expect severed limbs and plenty of blood geysers all over the place. Tarantino sure as heck got a lot of inspiration from this film when he went on to make his KILL BILL flicks. I really enjoyed SHOGUN ASSASSIN, which didn't flag for a moment; it's sometimes weird, sometimes different, always watchable, with an unconventional pair of heroes, humour in places, and a ton of well-staged action to recommend it. It's certainly left me with a longing to watch the original six-film series and see the full story...

The "Lone Wolf and Cub" series began in the 1970s as a manga by Kazuo Koike. This morphed into "Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance" and "Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx", the first two in what would become a sequence of seven feature films. Each film finds actor Tomisaburo Wakayama playing Ogami Itto, a nineteenth century ronin. Ogami wanders the Japanese countryside accompanied by his young son, Daigoro. As the whole world is out to kill them, Ogami and Daigoro take part in a series of incredulous action sequences.These action sequences are "Lone Wolf's" main claim to fame. Amongst fans of 1970s exploitation films, the series is renowned for its bloody, ridiculous and cheesy-but-cool violence. Our heroes are constantly battling samurai, ninjas and female warriors, each battle climaxing with geysers of blood, dismembered limbs and gratuitous decapitations. Characters hold their action poses, others scurry funnily in wooden slippers, whilst everyone delights in exhibiting elaborate special combos. Love them or hate them, films like this would result in hundreds of copycats, would influence countless video-games, would influence the aesthetic of future action movies, cartoons and comics, and would add numerous motifs, quirks and trends to the grammar of cinema."Shogun Assassin" was released in 1980. Directed by Robert Houtson, it was created by splicing together footage from "Sword of Vengeance" (1972) and "River Styx" (1972), the first two "Lone Wolf" features. The result - designed specifically for Western audiences - is a choppy and shapeless film in which plot is sacrificed in favour for an endless procession of violence. American grindhouse junkies of the 1980s loved it; they'd never seen anything quite like this before. But to purists, the film was mostly an insult. To them, "Shogun Assassin" lacked the gravity of other "Lone Wolf" features, even if it did ultimately offer the same weird blend of goofiness, hyper-violence and sentimentality.7.5/10 – Stupid but iconic. For more serious fare, see Kurosawa's "Ran", Okamoto's "Samurai Assassin", Yoji Yamada's samurai trilogy ("Twilight Samurai", "The Hidden Blade" and "Love and Honour"), "47 Ronin", "Kiru", Hiroshi Inagaki's "Samurai Trilogy", "Goyokin" (1969), "Chushingura" (1962), and the great Masaki Kobayashi's "Samurai Rebellion" and "Harakiri".

Shogun Assassin is a combination of the first 2 movies of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" saga, this "adaptation" was intended for the American grind house circuit and British cienemas, but probably it got a release in other western countries too.Just the fact that this movie is just an adaptation, you would expect something dreadful and horrible....but it's not ! The dubbing is great, but sometimes it gets hilarious, the soundtrack is awesome and it was composed especially for the Shogun Assassin edit, not for the original movies ! The action is cool and well choreographed, with lots of sword fighting and lots of blood, including lots of bloody sword slashings, some finger chopping and decapitations ! The movie is not boring at all, check it out !

Recap: Lone Wolf is a samurai bound by honor to his master. But when said master, the shogun begins to fear him and tries to have him assassinated, those bonds are broken. What is worse, the assassins only manage to kill his wife, leaving Lone Wolf and his young son on a mission for vengeance.Comments: This has a very different style. It is very exaggerated in every way, and I would almost describe it as cartoonish (not surprising considering its source). Everything is either ascetically minimal or over the top exaggerated. Lone Wolf on one hand says almost nothing, but his swordplay is all over the top. Bodies, blood and gore literally flies in every direction. Effects and sound are equally exaggerated to emphasize the action. So it is clearly different from many other movies. If this is in part because its Japan, whose movies often exaggerate to emphasize, dialog for instance, I can't say.If you can accept the style, it is a entertaining action movie. And mark my word, it is pure action. There is very little dialog, and what is said is almost all a narration by Lone Wolf's son. This makes the movie rather one dimensional, but it is not a big problem as it don't seem to aspire to be more. It will never be confused with a masterpiece, but still a entertaining movie that has had a rather big impact.6/10