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

Ogami Itto keeps moving; his son Daigoro and the wooden cart are with him. Five warriors attack him in turn. When each dies, a fifth of a fee is found on him: this is a test, and the real work is given afterwards. The assignment concerns the internal affairs of a clan and the man to be killed is not easily reached. At the same time Daigoro is left alone and meets an incident of his own; the boy says nothing and is beaten. Kenji Misumi directs. Tomisaburo Wakayama plays Ogami and Akihiro Tomikawa plays Daigoro. The film is the fifth link in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, adapted from the comic by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, which reached six films. The structure is episodic: the five warriors are taken separately and each comes with his own way of fighting. The violence is exaggerated and stylised; the use of blood is not realistic and that is a deliberate choice. The section given to Daigoro is among the most striking in the series; the child is protected nowhere and the narrative does not soften it. Misumi is among the most prolific directors of sword films in Japanese period cinema and it was he who set the visual manner of the series. The frames are wide and the composition pictorial; the fights are usually shown in single takes. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese sword films and are following the series. Who it is not for: the violence is explicit, the narrative episodic, and the context is missing for anyone who does not know the series.