Lone-Wolf-and-Cub-a-Thon, Part 1 - Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

Director: Kenji Misumi

Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Tomoko Mayama, Yunosuke Ito, Fumio Watanabe

Country: Japan

Rating: (not stated; but head decapitations, rape, nudity, sex, and loads of gore sounds like an R to me)

Run Time: 83 minutes

We are about to embark on an epic six part journey (including a special bonus chapter) into the most bad ass franchise in action movie history! I say that a lot of action scenes or movies are the absolute best all of the time. However, you can hold me to this claim when I say that the Lone Wolf and Cub series is the most bad ass series of action movies you will ever watch in your entire life (next to any John Woo film starring Chow Yun Fat, the entire Zatoichi series, and any film Jackie Chan did in the 80's and early 90's). That I know for certain, ladies and gentlemen.

The Lone Wolf and Cub series (based on the manga of the same name) follows the adventures of Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro as they push their baby cart of death across feudal Japan. The series is based somewhere in between 1603 and 1868 during the Edo period in Japan. Samurai films set in the Edo period of Japan tend to deal with wandering ronins (masterless samurais; case in point, Ogami Itto). The Edo period also marks a time when the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate would try to destroy any rival clan in order to maintain their power. These themes and historical occurrences set the groundwork for what occurs during the six Lone Wolf and Cub films. 

The very first film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance, is both an origin story and the kind of adventure that you would see in a sequel to such a film. With the help of flashbacks, Sword of Vengeance explains how Itto and Daigoro ended up on the road alone in the first place. The film balances this with a second plot where Itto must rid a poor village of its corrupt captors and rulers. It does all of this in a mere 83 minutes and still makes time to pack some bloody as hell action scenes.

Itto gives Bryan Mills a run for his money as the best movie dad of all time.

Sword of Vengeance opens with one of the boldest and straight to the point scenes I have ever seen in an action film. A young lord around age four or five is walked to a room dressed in all white. He is sat down on the ground and told to hold a small fan in his hands. Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama), the head executioner, walks into the room and pours water onto his sword. He raises it over the kid's head and strikes down to behead the child as the screen cuts to black. How bold an opening is this? I love how Itto literally walks out of the darkness while wearing a black outfit. It makes for one of the most ominous introductions of all time. I also love how the film shows the harshest execution that a "second" (the role of a man to slice off one's head) can endure; that being slicing off a poor kid's head!

And while Itto has a newborn son named Daigoro and a beautiful wife, all great things have to end in order for him and his son to become the Lone Wolf and Cub. In the quiet of the night, three ninjas sneak into Itto's home and murder his wife and place a memorial tablet to the Shogun in Itto's memorial shrine. When the police come the next day, they find the tablet and question what Itto has been praying about in his shrine (hinting that he wishes for the Shogun's death due to the memorial tablet bearing the Shogun's emblem). Shocked and astonished, Itto realizes that the men belong to the Shadow Yagyu Clan. The Yagyu Clan orchestrated to have Itto removed from the position as the head executioner in order for them to claim and control the position. Itto makes quick work of the men and discovers that Retsudo (Yunosuke Ito) of the Yagyus is behind everything.

When guards come the next day to witness Itto and Daigoro's seppuku (a.k.a. harakiri; ritual suicide to retain honor), Itto reveals that he has no intention of giving into the Yagyu's plans. With a sword in one hand and his baby in the other, Itto slices up numerous guards and duels Retsudo's son. Even though Itto and Daigoro are allowed to leave after defeating Retsudo's son in a fair fight, they must never return to the province and wander the countryside the rest of their lives. And while the Yagyu Clan vows to never attack Itto ever again, we all know that is a promise that they cannot keep (plus there are five sequels, they are bound to show up again).

Get used to the color red. These films are painted in the dang thing.

Now Itto is without a job and on the road, he displays a banner on his son's baby cart stating that he is an assassin for hire for 500 gold pieces. The rest of Sword of Vengeance deals with one of Itto's many assassin for hire adventures where he must rid a village of cruel invaders who plan on assassinating a wandering politician. Even though I love the origin story in this film, this separate adventure is my absolute favorite part of the film.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance strikes an incredible balance between exploitation (rape, excessive nudity, geisers of blood, limb decapitation) and respectable Kurosawa-esque samurai drama (themes of honor, slow and meditative storytelling, strong performances, memorable characters). There aren't many films out there that take time to show how honorable and great a hero is while also showing him chop off a child's head. I normally detest gory and exploitative cinema. However, the Lone Wolf and Cub films have such creative characters, action scenes, and powerful lessons in them that they transcend exploitative filmmaking. It's also worth mentioning that the Lone Wolf and Cub films and the two Lady Snowblood films were big influences on Tarantino's Kill Bill saga.

Several movie fans and critics consider Sword of Vengeance to be slow in contrast to its balls to the wall sequels. They claim that the series didn't find its stride and confidence until Baby Cart at the River Styx. And while it is true that Baby Cart at the River Styx best represents the series with its insane action scenes, I still love the hell out of Sword of Vengeance. I really enjoy how slow and meditative this film is even though there are only three fight scenes. There is an incredible sense of tension and build up throughout the film too. While I enjoy the flashing back and forth in the first two acts of the film, the final act of the film is one of the most unbearably tense and rewarding pay offs in action history.

Case in point: these films don't mess around.

As I stated before, Itto's claim to fame is that he will complete a task or a quest for 500 pieces of gold. He always asks for the same amount of money no matter what the task may be. Whether he has to assassinate a corrupt ruler or rescue a captive woman, Itto will take on any challenge. Sword of Vengeance introduces this tradition of the franchise by showing Itto cleanse a village of its marauding invaders in the final act. Every sequel introduces more and more tasks that occasionally involve the Shadow Yagyu Clan, Ogami Itto's sworn enemy.

Tomisaburo Wakayama gives an incredible performance as the calm, cool, and collected samurai Ogami Itto. He is the greatest sword fighter of all time and no one stands a chance against the guy. I love how Wakayama is a fairly heavy set actor with a large face and a big body as well. He's not some lean and chiseled samurai actor like Tatsuya Nakadai or young Toshiro Mifune. He's a big dude and proves that no one should judge an actor by their size (just look at Sammo Hung, the dude is huge but still kicks major ass in Hong Kong action flicks all of the time).

Child actor Akihiro Tomikawa doesn't get much to do in this film as Daigoro. Because the film mostly consists of flashbacks, we usually see Daigoro as a newborn and not a five or six year old. I want to stress that Daigoro's presence becomes much stronger in the sequels as he develops over the course of the films. A typical viewer might think that the young child Daigoro would be nothing other than a dumb baby who doesn't help his father. And while Daigoro doesn't pick up a sword and fight ninjas like his dad, he eventually helps out numerous ways and proves himself a strong and honorable child.

Every child's ordeal: which toy to play with.

Since this is a samurai film, themes of honor and dedication are heavily prevalent. One of the best scenes in the film involves Itto giving his young Daigoro the decision to live or to be killed. If baby sized Daigoro chooses the ball, Itto will kill him and send him to his mother in the afterlife. However, if Daigoro chooses the sword, than Itto will let him live and join him on his quest to wander the countryside. After several seconds, young Daigoro naturally chooses the sword. When Itto picks up his son, he states, "I am sorry. You would have been happier with your mother." Talk about tough parenting tactics!

There is also a great scene that showcases Itto's willingness to save others even if it means sacrificing his honor. Several bandits in a village challenge Itto to a duel because they believe him to be faking that he has no skill. Itto's plan is to play dumb until the time to strike the bandits arrives. As the men beat on Itto, a prostitute named Osen tells them that Itto would probably lose anyway and that they should leave him alone. The lead bandit than asks for Osen to have sex with Itto in front of the bandits for their viewing pleasure. When she denies, the bandits threaten to kill her. But Itto steps in and says he will have sex with her in front of everyone so as to save her life even though it is a dishonorable thing for him to do. I know this is probably a weird scene taken out of context. But within the context of the film, this is a very important scene that showcases how great a character and person Ogami Itto is.

Unlike the action packed sequels, Sword of Vengeance has only three action scenes; the beginning, the middle, and the end. The first two action scenes take place during Itto's flashbacks. I love the sword fights in this film; they are arguably some of the bloodiest, goriest, and intense sword fights I have ever seen. The choreography is top notch and the blood spurting effects and limb dismemberments are unforgettable.

What a headache.

I love the intense build up to the final action scene of the film. Itto sits passively and allows the bandits in a village to threaten people's lives for an entire act of the film. There is an incredible amount of tension in these scenes because you know that Itto is eventually going to strike back against the bandits and destroy them all. And when that time comes, it is so worth the wait. The leader of the bandits finally realizes who they are facing and tells all of his men that they have to leave now and leave the Lone Wolf and Cub alone. 

Ogami Itto rolls up with his son in a wooden cart and stands before his enemies. When the first bandit scoffs at Itto's skills, Itto pulls a handle off of his cart to reveal a hidden blade! He hurls it into the bandit's chest and immediately kills him. From that point on, Itto chops off bandits at their limbs, takes off their heads, slices their stomachs open, and even cuts heads in half down the middle! 

It is important to note that Ogami Itto barely uses his cart as a weapon in this film. He pulls a blade from the cart's handle, creates a spear from the two outer handles of the cart, and leaps behind the cart for cover when a man fires muskets at him. What is great about these improvisations with his son's cart is that they come completely out of nowhere. The film never establishes that Itto has a baby cart of death. We just think that it is a typical old cart. But nope, the cart is actually a death machine and Itto uses the hell of out of it in the sequels as it goes on to become a sled, spout blades from its wheels, and even fire bullets!

Retsudo sports the most evil of eyelashes.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance is one of the best action packed samurai films I have ever seen and one of the best action films of all time as well. You can bet your butt it'll move up high on my Top 100 Action Movies of All Time List at the year's end. Tomisaburo Wakayama gives one of the best performances in action cinema as he fully embodies the quiet and somber Ogami Itto. I love Wakayama's performance so much that I would compare it to other iconic action performances such as Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, Bruce Willis as John McClane, Toshiro Mifune as Sanjuro, and Chow Yun Fat as Tequila Yuen. Sword of Vengeance is one of the few exploitation films that I would defend any day. Highly recommended to fans of action cinema, samurai pictures, and crazy blood splattered films like Kill Bill.

Rating: 9/10 - A crazy samurai picture for the grindhouse audience. One of the very best.

Franchise: Lone Wolf and Cub
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972, dir. Kenji Misumi)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972, dir. Kenji Misumi)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972, dir. Kenji Misumi)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972, dir. Buichi Saito)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973, dir. Kenji Misumi)
Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974, dir. Yoshiyuki Kuroda)