Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx

Disgraced former executioner Ogami Ittō continues his brooding storm through the Japanese countryside, his three-year-old son Daigoro along for the ride in a booby-trapped carriage. Now some distance into their march to vengeance, the pair have drawn so much notoriety that they risk ambush and assassination at every turn. It's not paranoia, either: Ogami dispenses with blade-wielding enemies at nearly every chapter break, downing at least two-dozen men and women before the film is through. The opportunity isn't abused. In true poppy '70s samurai fashion, each challenger (or cluster of challengers) wears a distinct identity and a unique fighting style, like a colorful garden of deadly blossoms. They all bleed day-glo red, though, often in a towering arc of spray that paints landscape and fallen comrade alike. In Baby Cart at the River Styx, for the first time, we see vulnerability from the master swordsman and a little headstrong personality from his young child. We also see uncertainty from a prominent rival, another first, and restraint in the midst of a bloodlust. Some of the fighting is a little awkward, and the formula is threatening to wear thin, but overall this represents a wonderfully stylish, entertaining continuation of the journey that was so well-established in the first film. An excellent genre-definer.

I thought the first movie was extremely grim. This one had a more thoughtful approach. I like that Lone Wolf confronted the sword woman five times. It was interesting that each confrontation was different, and that he spared her life. She was sworn to kill him but respected him, and had compassion for his son, when she could have tried to kill the boy. There were nuances as to their code of honor, their obligations, and their personal morality.

There were a couple of funny moments relating to the little boy and his participation in the various battles. The use of the boy for some humor was a plus.

The fighting scenes were mostly good, but not as good as the Zatoichi movies which I love and have seen them all. The bloody effects were pretty bad in some scenes, as the injured (killed) samurai sometimes started bleeding many seconds after they were stabbed or sliced. In one scene, Lone Wolf impales two guys at the same time. One of them immediately starts spraying lots of blood from his wound. The other guy gets a trickle of blood dripping out. It would have been more impressive if the double-impalement lead to double sprays of blood.

Several heads were sliced open, and the last one looked like a venus flytrap popping open, and there were no brains, eyes, or other material visible, it looked totally silly. Then a single spray of blood shot straight up into the air from the middle of the head. Laughable and really bad special effects.

Otherwise, the film was pretty good. It had a lot of action, some good story lines, and some humor.

I found Babycart in a sale and it had two other movies with it. The reason I bought it was because it had a special cover that indicating it had something to do with Kill Bill and it did. They were three films that had the biggest influence on Kill Bill so I thought it must be good but I didn't expect it to better. When viewing it I was watching how real films about samurai films were made and what they were like and they were more than I could have ever expected. The use of silence in some of the fight scenes were great but at first I thought it was really strange and didn't have a clue what was going on and I was saying every swear word in the dictionary of swearing then my Fiancée brought me back down to earth and said that she once read that samurai attacks in completely silence so it's enemy isn't aware of his moves which was the reason the film was like this and my thought straight away was `Clever Buggers'. It's because if you haven't grown up watching films like this and you are quite oblivious to what samurai films like this and Shogun Assassin are about you see them as a ray of sun shine into you're life because you are being introduced into this new genre which you never ever knew anything about which is always nice.

I was taken into this film from the start and was just amazed by how influential these kind of films have been for so many years and when you watch them you will see why.

The first Lone Wolf film was enjoyable and innovative, but this first sequel unsuccessfully straddled the line between comically violent and serious in a way that the film couldn't maintain.

In this film, Itto continues his journey of vengeance with his young child along for the ride, rolling along in a cleverly weaponized wooden stroller. (Never before has a toddler been complicit in so many killings!) It's a fun movie for the mindless action, but it never really goes beyond that. At times the movie seems like it wants to be a more serious film, but then it veers back to a perpetually nonchalant Itto effortlessly slaying would-be killers along the road.

Overall, it felt like a movie attempting to bridge genres without ever cleanly landing in the one that fit.

Another winner in the BABY CART series (but honestly, I can't find too much fault in any of the films in this set of "classic" films...) and personally my favorite single entry...

This one has the Lone Wolf and his Cub still enjoying the "misadventures" of samurai-for-hire, and of course their quest for vengeance against the Yagyu clan that initially betrayed them. Some intriguing enemies in this one includes a band of female ninjas and the "Gods Of Death". There is also the requisite side story of Itto's "hit of the day"...

This one has some pretty fast-and-furious fight scenes and is probably the most action packed of the series. Again, like the other entries, good acting, great sets and costumes, beautiful camera-work, and the almost magical but extremely unorthodox "chemistry" between father and son are not to be missed. Highly Recommended 9/10