• 子連れ狼 (Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance)

6/5/25 (Thurs)

Misumi Kenji’s 1972 cult flick, the first in what proved a six-film series, is exploitation chambara in the worst way. It goes through the motions of a story but only to set up the action scenes, which are uniformly ridiculous. An executioner for the shogun discovers that his wife and household have been murdered by rivals, who, aiming for his post, also frame him for treason against the daimyo. After taking his bloody revenge on some of the killers, he becomes an assassin for hire. He walk with a banner advertising his services while pushing his surviving child in a baby cart. He gets a job aimed at men in a hot springs town. The story from there is too dumb to go into, with way too many long narrative passages explaining uninteresting details to tie the loose ends together. In the end, the assassin naturally emerges triumphant and walks off alone to points unknown as a woman watches him forlornly, as is common for these films.

Lots of blood and boobs (I thought one woman was a drag queen, but she proved me wrong). The copious blood was laughingly fake, gushing out with impressive force from various spots. I lost count of the many body parts flying around in the numerous fight scenes, including heads, hands, legs and more. Heads and bodies were split open, and at one point, the hero cuts a guy at the ankles so that his body flies off, leaving only his feet. The chambara was generally inept, content to put the focus on the gore rather than the technique. Especially dumb was when the hero turns the baby cart over and starts pulling out impossible weapons, reminding me of the lows of the James Bond series (didn’t work there either). Misumi shows no imagination, and while the insipid script doesn’t help, surely he could have at least come up with more realistic or inventive swordfights that offset that.

Wakayama Tomisaburo was emotionless, almost sleepy-looking, even in the fight scenes. I saw a resemblance with Katsu Shintaro (who produced this film), and it turns out that they’re brothers. Too bad Katsu was so busy with the Zatoichi series at the time; he might have made something of this role. I won’t embarrass the others by mentioning their names, but no one came out looking good.

I don’t understand the cult following that this film has won. The only version known outside of Japan was a mishmash of the first and second films, and it was only recently with the Criterion release that all six were made available in the West. The second film on its own is generally considered the best, but this one was enough for me.