As those of you who have seen any of the six movies in the series know, Tomisaburô Wakayama is the Lone Wolf, former head-cutter-offer for the Shogunate, done out of the job by Minoru Ôki. one-eyed chief of the evil Yagyu clan. Now he and his son, Akihiro Tomikawa, wander around Japan with the youngster in a baby carriage, assassins for hire. Each movie has four or five attempts by the Yagyu to kill Wakayama and son, and each is usually capped by a big battle at the end, where Wakayama faces hundreds of minions; being minions, they are highly skilled and very deadly, and are easily dispatched by Wakayama, with Ôki escaping at the end, vowing to get Wakayama next time.
Why does he bother? Because Wakayama has killed four of his sons, who were just going along, minding their own business of trying to kill Wakayama. The last three kiddies go down, too, which annoys Ôki no end, and makes the Shogun comment that as an evil mastermind, he's flubbing the job.
Which is pretty much what happens here, with flying fake heads, and dying minions spouting fake blood like a shaken bottle of warm soda. It's violence on a pornographic level. That is not to say there isn't some technical interest in these movies. There's great cinematography modeled on the manga it's based on. Here, there's a lot snow, and plenty of anachronistic details, like Wakayama having a machine gun rigged into the baby carriage, and hundreds of skiing swordsmen trying to kill Wakayama.
The best thing about the movie, though, is it's the last of them. Even if Ôki flees saying he'll get Wakayama next time, I take some comfort in the fact there was none.
Why does he bother? Because Wakayama has killed four of his sons, who were just going along, minding their own business of trying to kill Wakayama. The last three kiddies go down, too, which annoys Ôki no end, and makes the Shogun comment that as an evil mastermind, he's flubbing the job.
Which is pretty much what happens here, with flying fake heads, and dying minions spouting fake blood like a shaken bottle of warm soda. It's violence on a pornographic level. That is not to say there isn't some technical interest in these movies. There's great cinematography modeled on the manga it's based on. Here, there's a lot snow, and plenty of anachronistic details, like Wakayama having a machine gun rigged into the baby carriage, and hundreds of skiing swordsmen trying to kill Wakayama.
The best thing about the movie, though, is it's the last of them. Even if Ôki flees saying he'll get Wakayama next time, I take some comfort in the fact there was none.