CheerupSilver
Very Cool!!!
PodBill
Just what I expected
Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Boba_Fett1138
This is not an actual movie but a re-edited version of the first couple of Japanese 'Kozure Ôkami' movies, with English voices added to it. Nevertheless this doesn't prevent Robert Houston from giving himself full credit for directing and writing this.It's not like I hated watching this but it all also seemed pretty pointless to me at the same time. This version got obviously made to aim more toward the American market but that of course just doesn't give you the right to just take a bunch of movies and edit them into one and cash in on it.This re-editing of course also takes away a lot out of the movie. The storytelling isn't always anything too great now and scenes often too rapidly follow each other, without making much sense. It's like a re-edited version of only the action sequences. Guess it's good for the pace of the movie but there is a reason why Japanese movies are often such slow moving ones. It takes its time to build up the story and put down its characters. This of course just isn't very much the case with this movie.But even so, this still remains a good watch, due to it's great source material. It's action sequences especially stand out and it's one of those movies with exaggerated fight sequences and squirting blood. The fans of the genre will still get a kick out of it, though they would of course most likely prefer the original movies. This movie really made me want to watch the originals as well, so I guess this movie is still good for something.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
lastliberal
I generally hate dubbed movies, and I make no exception for this one. It would have been rated higher had it been subtitled. I hate losing the beauty of the language while watching a film.For those who want to see a Samurai film that shows the craft as well as the beauty, you could hardly go wrong with this film. Actually two different films joined together to make one, it gives a taste of the Lone Wolf and Cub series.Tomisaburo Wakayama was magnificent as the Samurai that traveled the roads with his son hiring himself out. You could bring anything to bear and he would dispatch them with ease. No matter how many came to kill him, he always walked away with his son. The Masters of Death were no match.There is blood, lots of blood. Limbs falling to the ground and blood spurting like from a lawn sprinkler. Death in a Samurai film is not pretty.
Scars_Remain
I'm making it a new goal to see all of the films on the DPP's video nasty list and this one is on it. Granted, most of the films on the list are trashy exploitation films that are probably fairly painful to sit through but this one is amazing. This is probably the greatest exploit I've seen so far and it's much more than just an exploitation film.The film is dubbed so in that case it's sometimes hard to tell if the acting is good or not but it seems great otherwise. The story is well thought out and moves almost perfectly. The gore and effects are absolutely stunning. This movie seriously took me by surprise and amazed me completely.Anyone who likes classic exploitation needs to see this film. It truly is the best one I've seen so far and I hope you find it as good as I did. See it today!
MisterWhiplash
Shogun Assassin isn't technically any great genre picture, but I remember enjoying it with friends one night when there was nothing else to watch. It's one of those movies for the casual fan of the samurai sect of Asian action pictures (if there can be such thing as 'casual'), but maybe it might have more appeal to the real cult-followers of the ultra-violent films of old-school samurai mania. I actually got it almost on a fluke; it was featured in what now seems like a very clever goof by Tarantino from Kill Bill 2 (the little girl asks if she can stay up to watch this movie with her mother, hardy-har). I won't describe the plot as it would be the ultimate moot point- just know that a samurai is betrayed by his former master when the Shogun kills the samurai's wife, leaving him widowed with an only child, then he goes around the rest of the movie slaying anyone in his path while the child narrates with a dead-pan mix of sorrow and naive pride (albeit with that 'touching' opening speech by the kid). Basically, if you're ever looking for a good excuse to watch senseless blood-shed (and likely on a crappy DVD if you didn't look well enough and got it on said whim, all in line to get an "unrated" version) it's here, as the story wasn't even worked on to that much effect anyway.One could look at this like one of those monster movies from the 60s that got chucked together to make something remotely marketable (Godzilla's Revenge comes to mind); a little label should come on the DVD that says 'common sense need not apply here'. But it is a lot of fun on a senseless level nonetheless, as the "lone wolf" goes about chopping off heads, disemboweling by the dozens, always with the major spray effect and shot like it all needs to get shown in the most bing-bang-zoom quality possible. Unfortunately, unlike for example Riki-Oh, there aren't as many high-quality gags and just overall zaniness to go along with the verve of the ultra-violent B movie, it actually does in its own disturbing way take itself seriously. And it goes without saying that it's almost pornographic in its stylized blood-shed. Yet, against what should be my better judgment, that's what I did end up liking about it, how it went for broke all the way till the final showdown with the shogun. I wouldn't ever rank it with the great B-movies, and it sure will never have the substance of the more classy Samurai films of the 50s and 60s at Toho, but if I ever went on a dare with friends to watch it (or just too drunk to care), it'd be this one I'd pop on.
