Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (AKA Shogun Assassin 3: Slashing Blades of Carnage)

Dir: Buichi Saito

1972

*****

The Lone Wolf and Cub series (known as ‘Wolf taking along his child’ in Japan) started out as a manga comic created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. First published in 1970, the story was later adapted into six films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, four plays, a television series starring Kinnosuke Yorozuya and is widely recognized as an important and influential work. Lone Wolf and Cub chronicles the story of Ogami Ittō, the shōgun's executioner who uses a dōtanuki battle sword. Disgraced by false accusations from the Yagyū clan, he is forced to take the path of the assassin. Along with his three-year-old son, Daigorō, they seek revenge on the Yagyū clan and are known as "Lone Wolf and Cub". A total of six Lone Wolf and Cub films starring Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Ittō and Tomikawa Akihiro as Daigoro have been produced based on the manga. They are also known as the Sword of Vengeance series, based on the English-language title of the first film, and later as the Baby Cart series, because young Daigoro travels in a baby carriage pushed by his father. The first three films, directed by Kenji Misumi, were released in 1972 and produced by Shintaro Katsu, Tomisaburo Wakayama's brother and the star of the 26 part Zatoichi film series. The next three films were produced by Wakayama himself and directed by Buichi Saito, Kenji Misumi and Yoshiyuki Kuroda, released in 1972, 1973, and 1974 respectively. The more famous Shogun Assassin (1980) was an English language compilation for the American audience, edited mainly from the second film, with 11 minutes of footage from the first. Also, the third film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades was re-released on DVD in the US under the name Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death. While I love Shogun Assassin and the weird American child narration, you can’t beat the originals and they should be watched over the edited remake. The fourth film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (released in the USA as Shogun Assassin 3: Slashing Blades of Carnage), unlike the first three films, was directed by Buichi Saito. It felt marginally different in style and somewhat slower in places but I loved the slight change in direction and I thought it really lifted the series. The film starts with a somewhat reoccurring theme of breasts, as we see Oyuki, a tattooed female assassin – the renegade member of a daimyō's personal bodyguard detail – killing every man that is sent up against her. Along with her deadly use of the short blade, she strips to the waist while fighting to reveal elaborate tattoos on her chest and back. On her front is a kintarō (a big red super-strength baby) grasping her left breast. A portrait of a mountain witch covers her back. She then cuts off her victims' topknots, or chonmage, which brings dishonor to the dead man and his family. Ogami Ittō, the disgraced former shōgun's executioner, or Kogi Kaishakunin, is soon hired to kill Oyuki. He tracks down the tattoo artist, who explains that she was a "fine" woman who did not scream as he dug into her flesh with his needles. Meanwhile, Ittō's 3-year-old son, Daigoro, has grown restless waiting by the baby cart his father uses to trundle him about in. He goes exploring and finds a pair of performing clowns on the street. When the clowns finish their performance, Daigoro follows them, hoping to see more. But the clowns shoo him away, saying it's time to go home. Now, Daigoro has wandered too far. He is lost, and has become separated from his father. Agents of the Ogamis' mortal enemies, the Yagyū, are never far away. A procession of them, accompanied by the sound of gongs and annoyingly loud shrieks, sends Daigoro into hiding. Ittō must give up his search rather than risk an entanglement with the men, so he travels on alone. Daigoro spends days looking for his father, searching in every temple in the countryside. He enters one temple and sees a figure at the altar praying, but it is not his father. Rather, it is a man whom Daigoro immediately recognizes as someone who is unfriendly. The man follows Daigoro, who wanders into a grass field as it is being lit on fire by farmers. Unwittingly, Daigoro is surrounded by the flames, but he proves his resourcefulness by burying himself and surviving. The man then turns his sword on Daigoro, who raises a stick to defend himself, and in that instant the man realizes who Daigoro is – and more importantly, who his father is. Just then, Ittō comes into the picture, and the two recognize each other. The man, it turns out is Gunbei Yagyū, the outcast son of Retsudo Yagyū. Gunbei and Itto had competed for the post of shogun's executioner, and Gunbei's fierce swordsmanship surely would have won him the post, but in his over zealousness, he ends up pointing his sword at the shogun – a taboo movement that costs him the job and makes him an outcast. His brothers are killed as a result of his shameful actions. Ittō and Gunbei now have a rematch, but Ittō is much improved and is ready for Gunbei. With a swift stroke, he chops off Gunbei's right arm. Gunbei then begs Ittō to kill him, but Ittō refuses, saying there is nothing to be gained from slaying a man who is already dead. With Gunbei out of the way and father and son reunited, the action then turns on finding the tattooed killer, Oyuki. He first stops at a settlement of street actors that Oyuki was said to be a part of. He talks to the elder and hears more of her story, and it happens that the elder is Oyuki's father, who is opposed to her actions and cooperates with Ittō. Ittō finally locates Oyuki at a hotspring and witnesses her in action against more vassals who have come to try to kill her. Then her nemesis, her former instructor who raped her and set her on her bloody vendetta, shows up with his flaming sword and blazing eyes. But she is no longer in his sway, and when he sees her tattoos, he is distracted and killed. Finally, Ittō and Oyuki must duel, and he makes quick work of her. She dies a splendid death, as Ittō says, without having to disrobe (again). Retsudo Yagyū, meanwhile, has been playing politics. He manipulates a local daimyō into bringing in Ittō, but Ittō is able to use the baby cart and its weapons to escape from the daimyō's palace and take the man hostage. As Ittō is leaving the area with the daimyo along for safety, he is attacked by the Yagyū. The daimyō is killed by some musketeers and Ittō goes headlong into battle, telling his son Daigoro that he is entering the "crossroads to hell". It is a fierce battle, ending with Ittō and Retsudo in combat. They trade blows – Retsudo gets a blade in his right eye and Ittō a sword in his back. Ittō kills the swordsman who stabs him, but Retsudo gets away. Daigoro finds his father and with great effort, pulls the sword from his father's back. Despite being severely wounded, Ittō carries Daigoro to the cart and slowly pushes it away, seeking medical treatment for himself. Watching over the scene is the now one-armed Gunbei, who is happy to see Ittō live to fight another day. Daigoro seems to spend less time in the baby cart in this episode as he he is clearly a bit older but the attention to detail is great. You can see nearly every scar Ittō has received in the previous films and by the end he begins to feel more and more vulnerable while Daigoro gets stronger. The first three films feel a bit like their own trilogy and Baby Cart in Peril feels a bit like a fresh beginning, while it still carries on from where the last film left off. The fighting sequences are brilliant and the new characters work well, although the back story interferes somewhat with the overall continuity. By this point most franchises have had their day but Baby Cart in Peril gave it a spring in its step and sharpened its sword somewhat.