Many American fans of samurai cinema were introduced to the Lone Wolf and Cub through the spliced-and-dubbed version Roger Corman’s New World Pictures released in 1980 under the title Shogun Assassin. For this hybrid flick, director Robert Houston lifted the back story from Sword of Vengeance and combined it with much of the plot of the second film, Baby Cart at the River Styx. Although this hybrid, exploitation-flick version delivered the goods in terms of action and bloodshed, it lacked the poetry and characterization of the original films (which was, after all, pretty much what New World was going for).

Like many Japanese films, Sword of Vengeance has also seen an Americanized remake. The Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven (the English title being a literal translation of the original Japanese); Yojimbo became A Fistful of Dollars; and Rutger Hauer’s Blind Fury was based on the Zatoichi films. In this case, Sword of Vengeance inspired the pleasing 2002 Tom Hanks film Road to Perdition.

Fortunately for chambara fans, noted anime distributor AnimEigo has released all six Lone Wolf and Cub films on VHS and DVD as part of its Samurai Cinema line. In this review, we’ll take a look at the first film in the series, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance. The AnimEigo DVD is an absolutely superb presentation of this excellent film, and should have fans of samurai flicks clamoring to own it.

The film opens by showing the taciturn samurai Ogami Itto peforming his duties as the Shogun’s official executioner. Since anyone worthy of the Shogun’s attention would be executed by seppuku (ritual suicide), Ogami’s job was more specifically to act as second, decapitating the victim in a coup de grace after he stabs himself in the stomach.

In this case, a small boy – barely a toddler – is led by a retainer past a crowd of wailing soldiers. The retainer asks the boy – a young lord, clad in spotless white, whose family must have displeased the Shogun in some way – to kneel and hold a paper fan against his belly in an imitation of the seppuku rite. Ogami (played superbly by the gravel-voiced Tomisaburo Wakayama) steps in and introduces himself, and a helper sprinkles his unsheathed katana with water in what appears to be a purification ritual. Ogami betrays no emotion and his sword rises and falls in a single, clean stroke.

After the credits, we see Ogami pushing a cart with an attached banner reading “Child and expertise for rent.” He’s accosted by a deranged woman, who plucks Ogami’s young son – a boy of about two named Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) – from the cart and babbles that it’s her child. She even offers him her breast, and – after receiving a subtle nod from his father – Daigoro nurses. A mortified relative begs Ogami’s pardon, explaining that the woman recently lost her own son to a fever, and then asks if she might rent Daigoro. Ogami rumbles that no fee is necessary, as the boy was hungry anyway.

Through a flashback, we learn what placed Ogami and his son on the Assassin’s Road. Jealous of Ogami’s lofty and trusted position as the Shogun’s official executioner, the Yagyu clan sends ninjas into his compound. They slay Ogami’s wife Azami (Reiko Kasahara) as he offers prayers at the family shrine for the souls he’s dispatched. After Ogami rushes to the dying Azami’s side, the ninja sneak into the shrine and place an object on the altar.

Azami has barely expired when the Shogun’s inspector, Yagyu Bizen-no-Kami (Taketoshi Naitô), arrives. He shakes his head ruefully at the carnage in Ogami’s house, but he has bigger fish to fry. He bears an accusation of Ogami’s treason, signed by three men who then committed seppuku as token of their honesty. Bizen-no-Kami demands Ogami lead him to his shrine, where the latter is astonished to discover a death tablet bearing the Shogun’s seal (the implication being that Ogami was praying for the Shogun’s death). Ogami immediately realizes that the Yagyu have set him up, and explodes in a flurry of swordsmanship. Watching from a distance as Ogami and Bizen-no-Kami face off in knee-deep water – a condition that favors the former’s combat style – the shaggy-haired head of the Yagyu clan, Retsudo (Tokio Oki), sees Bizen-no-Kami fall to Ogami’s sword.

That night, Ogami offers his infant son a terrible choice. He proffers a red ball and an unsheathed sword. If Daigoro chooses the toy, Ogami says, he will send the boy to join his mother in death; choose the sword, and they will walk the path of demons together. He acknowledges that the boy can’t understand the choice he needs to make, but Daigoro crawls to the sword anyway. Regretfully, Ogami tells Daigoro that he would have been happier if he’d chosen the ball.

(A major difference between Shogun Assassin and the original Lone Wolf and Cub films is that the latter lack the narration by Daigoro dubbed in – by Sandra Bernhardt, no less! – for the former.)

The next day, representatives of the Yagyu arrive straight from the Shogun with a freshly signed death warrant, and discover Ogami and his son already clad in white death robes. They compliment Ogami on his customary propriety, but he interrupts them with a low, ominous chuckle. The robes, he says, are not token of their accepting death, but rather of their departure from the world of men. With that, he slices the death warrant with his sword, and another battle begins – with Ogami carrying Daigoro under one arm, yet!

As mentioned in our review of Shogun Assassin, when Ogami Itto goes to work with his sword, the resulting battles are swift and bloody. Ogami’s opponents gush jets of bright blood like piñatas full of red paint under high pressure. Although those Ogami decapitated in his former official capacity probably didn’t fight back, he remains a deadly, skilled practitioner of bushido – the Martial Way – easily capable of defeating dozens of lesser-skilled warriors.

Worse for the Yagyu, Ogami reveals for the first time the cunning that, coupled with his mad skills with a sword, gives him the edge even when outnumbered: He strips off his death robe to reveal his official executioner’s robes, which are emblazoned with the Shogun’s crest – and therefore, the Yagyu men are forbidden to touch it.

Realizing that Ogami has his men checkmated, the visibly frustrated Retsudo offers a deal – if Ogami will change his garb, he can face Restudo’s son in single combat. Ogami agrees. On the field of battle, Retsudo gloats at his strategy: The son will attack with the sun at his back, blinding Ogami at the critical moment. But Ogami, who fights with Daigoro strapped to his back, reveals that he’d not only anticipated the Yagyu’s move, but also prepared a countermeasure. He ducks, and a mirror strapped to Daigoro’s forehead reflects the sun into the son’s eyes. A moment later, Ogami relieves the son of his head. In a nearly freeze-frame shot, Ogami holds the pose from the end of his sword stroke, while the son’s body, jetting blood from the severed neck, stands briefly before toppling.

All this action would seem like plenty of plot for any chambara flick, but as we’re reminded when the flashback ends, it’s just the back story! The film gets down to business as three samurai discuss hiring the notorious assassin Ogami for his customary fee of 500 ryo. But how can they be sure the man they hire is the genuine article? Two of the samurai agree to attack Ogami during the negotiations. They tell their leader that they hope they’re killed, for then Ogami would prove himself worthy of the job to save their lord. And indeed, Ogami does just that, slaying the two men without even bothering to look around, sheathing his sword calmly as they fall, and then resuming negotiations as if nothing had happened, heedless of the two dead warriors bleeding all over the tatami behind him. (To be fair, the “let’s attack-Ogami-as-a-test” device is used several times in the manga, so he’s probably used to it by now…)

The remaining retainer hires Ogami to kill a group of rogue samurai who have holed up in a mountain spa accessible only via a rickety rope bridge. The three leaders are the bodyguards of one of the enemies of the retainer’s clan. Pushing Daigoro in his cart, Ogami makes his way to the spa, and discovers that the place under the ruffians’ control is now a den or lawlessness. The visitors to the spa – including an ailing samurai – are too cowed to resist, and the only one voicing any objection is Osen, a sassy prostitute. Ogami pretends to simply be visiting to relax in the hot springs – after all, what assassin in his right mind would bring a child along? – and even surrenders his sword.

Although the bandit leader is vaguely uneasy about the new arrival – he thinks he’s seen the guy before – he lets Ogami stay. Ogami bides his time, even enduring the abuse and wisecracks of the strutting bandits, until the time comes to introduce them to the Grim Reaper. It’s then the bandits learn why Ogami surrendered his sword so easily – the baby cart is chock full of hidden weapons, including a two-section, spring-loaded spear that’s all Ogami needs to carve this rabble into kibble.

Of course, since this film is only the first in the series, this violent climax doesn’t let Ogami achieve the vengeance he seeks, but merely fulfills his contract. He then sets off with his son once again on the Assassin’s Road, literally without a backward glance. However, the explosive confrontation of the film is as intense as if Ogami had been facing down Yagyu Retsudo himself, instead of a rather scruffy band of samurai ruffians, and once again reveals the depth of Ogami’s commitment to bushido.

The Lone Wolf and Cub films are justifiably famous for their bloody swordplay action. Bright red fake blood geysers from severed limbs and slashed torsos in an unrealistic but impressively steady and powerful spray. This savagery reflects the film’s violent source material, but the film also conveys the quiet moments and emotion of the manga as well.

The action choreography is impressive, and enhances the impression of Ogami as a master of his art. Whether facing off against a single opponent or a crew, his motions are neat and graceful, wasting no motion in a display of deadly efficiency. Yet the action never appears over-choreographed. The film laudably displays the hesitation of some of his attackers in the moment between Ogami dispatching one group of enemies and the frenzied moment when they themselves rush in to be turned into sushi by his flashing sword.

He was Ogami Itto, a man who held himself to the harsh code of the Bushido, entrusted by the Shogun with the gravest of responsibilities, that of official executioner. His flashing blade brought swift release to those ordered to commit Seppuku - ritual suicide - be they man, woman, or even child.

He was Ogami Itto, falsely accused of treason by the evil Yagyu Clan, stripped of his position; his wife murdered by Yagyu assassins.

He was Ogami Itto, a father who gave his infant son a terrible choice between a beautiful red ball and a sword. To choose the ball meant to join his mother in the Void, to choose the sword meant to join his father, now a Ronin, a samurai without a master, in a blood-soaked journey that must end in revenge and death.

Ogami and his son are no more. Now, through the country side of Japan stalks...Lone Wolf and Cub.