Lone Wolf and Cub

Tomisaburo Wakayama stars as Itto Ogami, a rogue samurai who transports his infant son from town to town in a wooden cart sporting a banner that reads "Child and expertise for rent" in this series of six samurai action films adapted by Kazuo Koike from his own hit manga series. The screen franchise launched with Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972), directed by Kenji Misumi, who models his distinctive graphic style on the clean, sharp lines of the artwork in the manga series. The fights are savage—blades slash, limbs fly, and blood spurts like geysers—and Ogami has a secret weapon: a spring-loaded arsenal of 18th-century weapons hidden in the baby cart. Misumi adds an inspired cinematic device: when Ogami enters battle the world falls silent, literally, until his sword strikes with a distinctive swipe. Misumi directed all but two of the films in the series, which continues with Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972), in which Ogami battles a female assassin sent by the Yagyu clan and his son launches weapons from the cart; Baby Cart to Hades (1972), which finds our hero undergoing ritual torture in order to save a virgin sold into slavery; Baby Cart in Peril (1972), directed by Buichi Saito; Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973), in which Ogami must defeat five retainers, each carrying 1/5 of his fee and assignment, before he can even begin; and White Heaven in Hell (1974), directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda, which wraps the story with Ogami's final revenge. These Japanese genre classics—which carry a certain cult cachet in the U.S.—have been newly remastered, and are presented here with extras including 1980's Shogun Assassin (the English-dubbed reworking of the first two films), new interviews, archival documentaries, and a booklet. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)