Shogun Assassin

Shogun Assassin, the bloody, over the top romp through feudal Japan satisfies audiences with over the top maiming, bloodletting, and adventure. Shogun Assassin is a mash up compilation of "The Lone Wolf and Cub" series from Japan, only to be brought over to America and be cut and dubbed for western audiences. It was released in 1980 when the Samurai craze was just starting off in America, and it became a hit in major city grindhouses and drive ins.

  The story surrounds a lone samurai, a ronin, who travels around with his son in a cradle, only to be constantly attacked by warriors enlisted by a shogun who wishes him to be dead. This lone samurai is known as Lone Wolf and is one of the most skilled samurai who has ever lived of course. His demon blade easily kills almost any one he crosses, and the cradle his son travels in also functions as a weapons storage. Over his travels for revenge he meets many people (whom he soon kills) and most famous, the 3 masters of death. Which set the movie up for a great ending fight scene.

  The violence is over the top but highly stylized, with swords entering at interesting angles, and blood spurting out of bodies like garden hoses. The body count is impossible. But throughout the whole movie you do not get the campy b movie that you expected, what you do get it a serious meticulously re-edited, re-scored, re-dubbed version of a manga story in feudal Japan. The energy never dies down and The Shogun Assassin (Tomisaburo Wakayama) plays his role beautifully.

  The electronic music score is done by Mark Lindsay (a member of the 60s rock band Paul Revere and The Raiders) since the original films had little music, it gives the film the extra boost it needed to satisfy Western audiences; and gives fight scenes much more meaning. 

   Overall, this film is highly entertaining and a good reconstruction of feudal Japan. While the English    dubbing is always annoying in any movie, it manages to fit well here without taking away from the  original films. The highly stylized shots of Robert Houston combined with the editing of Lee Percy and Toshio Taniguchi and the cinematography of Chishi Makiura all come together to make a truly beautiful picture of blood and revenge that differ from your average hack and slash samurai movie. Since its release, Shogun Assassin has become a cult classic; and further more it helped confirm the Asian influence in Western society by setting the way for many other samurai, kung fu, and chopsocky films to come. If you are in for a good time and want to see over the top samurai action presented intensely and beautifully, then Shogun Assassin is the film for you.