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Shogun Assassin 4--Five Fistfuls of Gold 
Reviews DVD Reviews
Written by William Crawford   
Thursday, 03 April 2008


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Shogun Assassin 4--Five Fistfuls of Gold

Grade

Content Grade: A
Sound Grade: B-
Extras Grade: C+
Picture Grade: B

Specs

Studio/Label: AnimEigo
Studio/Label Website: http://www.animeigo.com
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Disc Length: 89 Mins. + Extras

Review

As usual, the reputation of Ogami Itto, the Lone Wolf, and his Cub, Diagoro precede them. So much so that loyal swordsmen of the Kuroda clan fan out across the land to find the deadly pair and offer them a proposal: kill their master for 500 ryu. Testing his strength and patience, the swordsmen fight to the death giving Ogami only one-fifth of the details and one-fifth of the loot before expiring. It’s rough being a ronin… The twists and turns of this samurai epic flash with the clanging of katanas as our hero and his young son go about setting things right as bloodily as possible.

Originally this fourth installment appeared as the fifth film in the Shogun Assassin series as Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons in 1973. While the DVD version survives a title change, the original voice-talent suffers an awkward overdubbing with no option for subtitling. However, along with some furious sword fighting, the story, acting and beautiful cinematography make this entertaining samurai film worthy of multiple repeat viewings. Plus, the kid’s baby carriage floats, skis and shoots out knives and swords! I’ll remember that the next time I take my niece out for a stroll.

Following closely the original Manga by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, the story unravels like a twisted version of The Man in the Iron Mask. It so happens that the master, whose loyal swordsmen beseech the jowly Ogami to whack, is raising his daughter by his conniving concubine as a boy in place of his rightful heir, locked up in prison. However, Ogami must set things right (with his sword, of course) while simultaneously upholding the clan’s honor by preventing this dark secret from reaching the clan’s enemies. Go figure. Along the way he tangles with a “Living Buddha” and his son takes a public beating to protect a petty thief. If you ever doubted before, the Lone Wolf and Cub are made about as sturdy as they come.

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Picture and Sound

While definitely not the film’s strong suit, the images mostly look clean and crisp. The sound, however suffered from more than just awkward overdubbing. At times the audio came across muffled and coarse.

Extras

Along with an image gallery and some trailers, the disc included some program notes explaining some of the terms involved with the scenes depicting Zen philosophy. While this was helpful, it was far from enlightening. I wanted to know more about production, dubbing and the actors themselves.

Summary

I would recommend this film and the series as a whole, especially to anyone with even a modicum of interest in Japanese cinema. Naturally, action-fans will feel at home as well. As the back cover declares, “The road to hell is paved with dismembered corpses!” The body count is high. While I wasn’t enamored of the dubbing, it must be said the ashtray in Ogami’s English substitute worked perfectly. It’s the voice of a killer. The ronin father and his foil of a son make for interesting matches of vulnerability and iron-willed revenge. I’ve only read a few of the mangas, but my local library is well stocked. Time to head back to feudal Japan…
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