
            In this fifth 'Lone Wolf and Cub' movie, continuing his travels on "the Demon Path in Hell," Ogami Itto is confronted by a series of five messengers who represent a clan wanting his services. Each assassin in turn administers a specific test of his abilities, and when bested, gives Ogami partial payment for the job and, as per his usual stipulation, discloses some of the "secrets and reasons" for the killing. By the time Ogami has defeated all the messengers, he has been informed of a conspiracy to disguise a daimyo's illegitimate female offspring as a prince, while the clan leader's official offspring, a son, is kept concealed. A letter uncovering the plot is being delivered by a monk to the shogun, which would mean the dissolution of the clan, leaving retainers, samurai, and vassals without an organization to support them -- a disastrous end. Ogami is to intercept the Buddhist monk carrying the letter; the monk will be traveling under the protection of his arch enemy, Yagy Retsud, further complicating the mission. On a stopover at a town festival, Itto's three year old son, Ogami Daigoro, is separated from his father and gets mixed up with a notorious female pickpocket, known only as 'Quick Chance' due to her ability to change her clothing and appearance to avoid being caught, being chased by constables. She asks him to promise not to divulge her identity, and when he is confronted he keeps his promise. The law officers publicly flog him in front of the townspeople, until the pickpocket surrenders herself and confesses. Still Daigoro keeps his word. Finally the constables release him, impressed by his stoic courage and honor. On route to intercept the monk, Ogami is contracted to kill the senile old lord, his concubine, and the young daughter. After securing the letter, he confronts the daimyo, and kills him, his concubine, and the young girl, fulfilling his contracts and preserving order.
    

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons


            In this fourth 'Lone Wolf and Baby Cart' movie we are introduced to Oyuki, a tattooed female assassin and the renegade member of a daimyo's personal bodyguard detail who is 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 kintar 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 Itto, the disgraced former shogun's executioner, or Kogi Kaishakunin, is 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, Itto'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 Yagyu, are never far away. A procession of them, accompanied by the sound of gongs and loud shrieks, sends Daigoro into hiding. Itto 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. Just then, Itto comes into the picture, and the two recognize each other. The man, it turns out is Gunbei Yagyu, the outcast son of Retsudo Yagyu (from the first 'Lone Wolf' movie). 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 overzealousness, he ends up pointing his sword at the shogun a taboo movement that costs him the job and makes him an outcast.Itto and Gunbei now have a rematch, but Itto is much improved and is ready for Gunbei. With a swift stroke, he chops off Gunbei's right arm. Gunbei then begs Itto to kill him, but Itto 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 Itto.Itto finally locates Oyuki at a hot spring and witnesses her in action against more vassals who have come to try and kill her. Then her arch 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, Itto and Oyuki must duel, and he makes quick work of her. She dies a splendid death, as Itto says, without having to disrobe.Retsudo Yagyu, meanwhile, has been playing politics. He manipulates a local daimyo into bringing in Itto, but Itto is able to use the baby cart and its weapons to escape from the daimyo's palace and take the man hostage. As Itto is leaving the area with the daimyo along for safety, he is attacked by the Yagyu. The daimyo is killed by some musketeers and Itto goes headlong into battle, telling his son Daigoro that he is entering the "crossroads to hell." It is a fierce battle, ending with Itto and Retsudo in combat. They trade blows Retsudo gets a blade in his right eye and Itto a sword in his back. Itto 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, Itto 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 Itto live to fight another day.
    

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril


            In this sixth and final 'Lone Wolf and Cub' film, the local Shogun from the capital city of Edo threatens to disgrace the Yagyu clan because of their continual failure to kill the wandering swordsman Ogami Itto and his young son Daigoro. The one-eyed lord Yagyu Retsudo (wearing a black eye-patch since being wounded by Itto in the fourth film 'Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril') sends his daughter and last remaining child Kaori, an expert with flying daggers, to kill them.Kaori then tries to ambush Itto along a road, but the stone-faced ronin kills her with little difficulty. After she is killed, Retsudo attempts to use the Tsuchigumo, a secretive mountain clan that practices black magic and is commanded by Hyouei, an illegitimate son of Retsudo who is determined to cause the downfall of the Yagyu by killing Itto and Daigoro himself. Hyouei sends his three most fearsome followers, whose abilities include the ability to burrow through the earth and who kill anyone Itto and Daigoro come into contact with.Faced with such supernatural enemies, Itto (for the first time in the film series) is afraid of being finished off at any time. But he quickly decides to beat them at their own strategy by fleeting northward to the snow-covered region of northern Japan during the winter season where the Tsuchigumo will be at a disadvantage since they cannot appear to burrow through ice and snow.After Itto defeats Hyouei and kills the three supernatural Tsuchigumo, the story culminates in a final battle between Itto and the combined clan groups under Retsudo on a snow-capped mountain in northern Japan, in which the baby cart becomes a sled. Retsudo, now leading an army of Shogun warriors, around 1,000 strong, confront Itto on a mountain ridge. Once again, (as in the third film 'Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades') Itto transforms the baby cart to a weapon with his machine gun, spears, daggers and swords. In a final combat, Itto defeats the entire army, shooting, stabbing, slashing, dismembering and beheading the entire army. But the one-eyed Retsudo once again escapes by fleeing from the scene on a sled, vowing to kill Itto some day.
    

Akihiro Tomikawa

Akihiro Tomikawa Movies or Tv Shows (upto Nov 2024) - Watch Online

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