justin_jjs

Shogun Assassin is kind of an oddity as a film product. It is a English dubbed film edit made especially for the British and American market and consist of parts from two of the Lone wolf and Cub films from the early 70s. Around 12 minutes of the film footage are from Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)and Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972). There were 6 movies in the original Japanese film series, and they were based on the manga written by Kazuo Koike, but most of the material is ignored in this edit.

Tomisaburo Wakayama plays Ogami Itto, the former decapitator of the shogun, whose wife was murdered by ninjas. He refuses to commit seppuku and flees with his infant son. After this he swears revenge and travels Japan with his son looking for those who did him wrong, fighting all sorts of assassins. The story itself isn't as interesting or compelling as the different fighting scenes, which make up a large part of the film.

The film is aesthetically pleasing. There is a lot blood and dismembering to be seen, accompanied by some funky Synth music from the 70s. The film doesn't aspire to be realistic in anyway, which is reflected by the red paint used as blood as well as some over the top grotesque execution scenes. The costumes and fights are stylized very clean. This helps the film and is closer to the manga source material. The camerawork is also very interesting at some points and there is use of a lot of close ups like in Westerns.

The dubbing of the film is what drew me to this version after I already saw the 6 original films as it is undoubtedly more famous than the movie itself. GZA from the Wu Tang Clan uses a large portion of samples from this dubbing on his critically acclaimed album Liquid Swords, which is arguably more famous nowadays, then this movie. I would recommend this movie to fans of Kungfu and Western films as well as fans of the Wu Tang Clan.

Overall, I liked this version for the connection to GZA Liquid Swords and as a good introduction, but I would still recommend the to watch the 6 movies from early 70s too.

The kid who would be king is fine feelgood movie for families and children to enjoy. The story is by no means super original, but it does a fine job in portraying the King Arthur story, which has been done time and time again in various Versions. The movie follows a pretty standard dramatic structure with a pretty slow build up and first peak a little bit over halfway through the film. After this the Children gear up for the final adventure. There is a good amount of comedy and action in this film and its good that the film doesn't take itself too serious at some points. It also tackles some real problems that children face in their everyday life, but only very slightly. The special effects are nothing to write home about, but they are still enjoyable and don't feel cheap. Another nice point is Patrick Stewart in the role of the "old Merlin". He doesn't appear very often but still enriches the film in my opinion and gives it more legitimacy. Overall the movie makes for an entertaining two hours and doesn't let you leave disappointed.