This, the second of the 'Lone Wolf and Cub' series of films, sees protagonist Ogami Itto, an assassin who travels with his young son Daigoro, being hunted by a group of female ninjas who are working for the Yagyu clan. This clan wants revenge for events that took place in the previous film. As well as dealing with these assailants Ogami has been hired by another clan who want him to kill a traitor who intends to give the secret of their lucrative indigo dying process to the shogunate. This man is being escorted by the three Hidari brothers
a trio of killers who is each a master of a lethal weapon; one has a spiked club, another has spiked gauntlets and the most deadly has a claw-like weapon.
I came to this without seeing the first film in the series but that didn't really matter as it was easy to figure out what was going on. The action starts almost immediately and gives the viewer a fair warning of what is to come Ogami is attacked and one assailant ends up with a sword buried in his head and a second sprays vividly coloured blood after he is speared. There is plenty of similar violent action throughout the film with just enough quieter moments to lets us know what is going on. Ogami is an interesting protagonist as he isn't really a good person; he kills for money and without remorse it just seems to be the case that most of the people he kills are worse people who are trying to kill him and are endangering his son. It is the relationship between Ogami and Daigoro that makes the film so memorable the idea of an assassin who pushes his son around in an armed cart is original to say the least. The foes are interesting; the Hidari brothers are formidable and the female ninjas, known as the Gods of Death are as deadly as any of their male counterparts as we see when they hack one apart to prove what they can do. As said before there are lots of fight scenes but they are varied so never feel repetitive. Overall this was a solid samurai action film; it is pretty violent but fans of the genre should enjoy it.
These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.
I came to this without seeing the first film in the series but that didn't really matter as it was easy to figure out what was going on. The action starts almost immediately and gives the viewer a fair warning of what is to come Ogami is attacked and one assailant ends up with a sword buried in his head and a second sprays vividly coloured blood after he is speared. There is plenty of similar violent action throughout the film with just enough quieter moments to lets us know what is going on. Ogami is an interesting protagonist as he isn't really a good person; he kills for money and without remorse it just seems to be the case that most of the people he kills are worse people who are trying to kill him and are endangering his son. It is the relationship between Ogami and Daigoro that makes the film so memorable the idea of an assassin who pushes his son around in an armed cart is original to say the least. The foes are interesting; the Hidari brothers are formidable and the female ninjas, known as the Gods of Death are as deadly as any of their male counterparts as we see when they hack one apart to prove what they can do. As said before there are lots of fight scenes but they are varied so never feel repetitive. Overall this was a solid samurai action film; it is pretty violent but fans of the genre should enjoy it.
These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.