Totally Awesome!!!
For pure, unadulterated, visceral entertainment, the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series can't be beat. The acting, directing, the screenplays, and the cinematography are all top notch. The action sequences have to be seen to be believed. Each and every film feature loads of "money shots". Fans of Tarantino will immediately see where he drew much of his inspiration for the "Kill Bill" series. I suspect that these movies were an influence on "Mighty Python and the Holy Grail" as well. Another little known fact is that the manga that this is based upon was also the inspiration for "Road to Perdition".
People with no experience with Japanese cinema will probably find these movies to be very bizarre the first time they see them. They depict a culture whose morals and values are quite different from Western standards. Its not uncommon in these movies for someone to kill, or commit suicide, for reasons not easily comprehended. Examples: in Volume 2, a cult of female ninjas...
Great films, marred a little by DNR
Lone Wolf and Cub is a series of films from 1970s Japan.
The story goes that Ogami Itto is Second to the Shogunate. He falls from grace due to some backstabbing and plotting. As his wife has been killed, he offers his son the option of joining his mother, or joining him in his path to Hell. His son, a toddler, takes the latter. Ogami becomes an assassin for hire, and as he has his son with him, they are the Lone Wolf and Cub.
You can read more about the movies themselves on the Internet. All you need to know for this review is that there are 6 films in total and you get all six in this set on 2 Blu Ray discs.
Video-
This is... a bit of a mixed bag. The transfer, overall, is very crisp and clean from what I can tell. The issue comes in with what is known as DNR (Digital Noise Reduction). Animeigo has made the decision to tweak the quality levels using DNR and as a result, some of the finer details are lost. Over all it doesn't seem TOO over...
"500 gold pieces can buy his sword, but nothing can buy his honor."
"Lone Wolf and Cub" is the pinnacle of Asian grindhouse cinema and the most action-packed and downright cool series of samurai films ever made. The violence is brutal, the sex (both forced and consensual) is plentiful, the characters are memorable, and there is a lot of subtle humor and beautiful Japanese culture to be enjoyed as well. I cannot recommend these six films enough.
Beginning as the Shogun's personal executioner, our anti-hero Ogami Itto is framed by the jealous and ambitious Yagyu clan's shadow ops; his wife murdered in the process. In his rage, Itto takes his young son, Daigoro, and declares them to be demons, apart from the world of men to live as assassins for hire. His primary target: the head of the Shadow Yagyus, a decrepit old warrior known as Retsudo. Along the way he encounters hidden ninja and other Yagyu warriors, deadly kunoichi, clan heads in need of his services, friendly villagers, prostitutes, yakuza, Retsudo's skilled offspring, and many...
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