The Story : The powerful Shogunate Lord Retsudo has become mad with paranoia. His mania is turned towards his executioner, Ogami Itto- Lord Retsudo sends assassins to eliminate Ogami, however the assassins only succeed in killing Ogami's wife. Ogami escapes with his son, Daigoro, and together they travel the land, Ogami becoming the "Lone Wolf", a rogue ronin for hire, pushing Daigoro around in a baby cart loaded with weapons, while the mad Retsudo's men are on their heels.

Ogami is hired by a town who wants their corrupt local lord assassinated because he demands taxes the poor farmers cannot pay and terrorizes them when they fail to meet his demands. The lord is protected by the 'Masters of Death', three bodyguard brothers who each use a unique weapon, one long steel claws, the other a spiked club, and the third a pair of studded armored gloves. But, before Ogami catches up with the evil lord and his three bodyguards, he must deal with two bands of assassin ninjas that have been hired to kill him, the Kurugawa ninja, and a clan of female ninja who pursue him and his son at every turn.

The Film : I don't know the specifics, but basically it began when a group of Roger Corman's New World distributors looked at the massively popular Lone Wolf and Cub Japanese samurai film series and said, "We want to release a Lone Wolf and Cub film, not all six" (probably couldn't afford to risk buying all six anyway) "We like the action in part two, but the background/establishing story of part one." So, they bought the rights to the first two films (Sword of Vengeance and Baby Cart at the River Styx, 1972) and edited them together into a more American friendly action film. The result is, by my estimation, around 70 mins from the second film, and about 10-15 mins from the first film. Imagine the same scenario but with Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, taking the backstory of Luke Skywalker and everyone from Star Wars but including the action of Empire Strikes Back.

The other grand stroke the American distributors had was to take the nearly decade old films, dub them with an American cast (and give voice over and dialogue to Daigoro that never existed) and completely remove the soundtrack, replacing it with a more modern 80's rockin' synthesizer one... Quite oddly, it works. While not only is Lone Wolf and Cub my favorite film series (and I like what I've read of the comic) but I also always damn the Americanization of Asian/foreign films, Shogun Assassin, however, is a strangely entertaining amalgam and repackaging of the first two films. The dubbing is actually pretty good- the low points being the Mako impersonator who does the mad shoguns voice and a then unknown Sandra Bernhard over-acting as the female ninja clan leader, and the high points being the Daigoro narration which adds a really touching exposition and contrast (amongst the violence) to the film. The producers actually succeed in keeping the tone of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, violent and gory, yet countered by a softer side, the relationship between the deadly executioner and his son, their quite moments together when not confronting their enemies and dishing out tons of bloodshed... Particularly my to favorite moments of these two contrasts- Diagoro trying to get his wounded father some water from a stream, the little guys hands being too small to cup the water and carry it, so he swallows a mouthful and tenderly spits it into his fathers mouth. And, in contrast, the defeat of one villain, his neck spaying blood in the desert wind, and he comments on how impressed he is with Ogami's throat cutting technique, something he always wished to master... So, while I prefer the original films, Shogun still manages to maintain the atmosphere and spirit and is a very odd but vastly entertaining side note to a superior film series.

Shogun Assassin is a good film to use to define the difference between gore and violence. In a film, if a man gets his throat cut, he grabs his neck, and blood begins to run down his neck, soaking his shirt as he gurgles- that is violence. It is not however gore. That is what would realistically happen, therefore in truth it is just violent. Gore would be the same scene, only he doesn't grab his neck, instead it is in full view as the camera looms in on a close up. Likewise, in Shogun, instead of a stream of blood, you get an arterial spray, a four foot arc of blood shooting out of the guys neck. In Shogun it almost surreal, Ogami cuts heads in half, lops off arms, and cuts throats with that arterial spray so there is a grotesque exaggeration. Shogun Assassin/Lone Wolf and Cub is beautifully, brutally, cartoonishly, gory.

The DVD : VIPCO UK DVD. This is a Region 0 DVD but it is also formatted for PAL systems. The film was actually banned in Britain for many years, and this release is thankfully uncut and uncensored in all its gory glory.

Picture - Letterboxed 1.7:1 (which slightly off its correct ratio, but not much). Well, there is the average amount of print damage one would expect, this wasn't a restoration effort after all. Particularly in the final scene suffers from more deterioration than the rest of the film. There are scattered lines and dirt on the print, and the rest of it, color, contrast and sharpness, are pretty average with a scattered scene a bit too soft, a bit too gray, or a bit washed out. Overall it is far superior than the video releases, and should be welcome to fans.

Sound - 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono, as I said, English dub. The track has some distortions and suffers from the usual flaws an older dub track will have, but it is serviceable, and the dialogue, music (by a former member of 'Paul Revere & the Raiders'), and blade swipes come through clear enough. Extras - 15 Chapters--- Photo Gallery, a mediocre assemblage of square stills from the film itself, no posters or promo material--- Shogun Assassin Film Trailer.

Conclusion: So, its not the greatest transfer. But, hey, its a cult film, not a remastered edition of Citizen Kane. It is pretty modestly priced even as an import (as of this writing it went on sale at several UK stores). As of this writng, no other company seems to be interested in releasing it, and the rights are in limbo, so its a good purchase for fans.

In a final b-movie film note- One of the producers, and gets a co-director listing, leading one to assume he was in charge of the editing, is Robert Houston, best known as Bobby Carter in Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes and also apparently the director of 80's porn Pleasure Channel, the Hypersexuals and Brooke Does College starring Brooke Fields (get it?- Oh the wonderful 80's).