1973 chapter of the Lone Wolf and Cub seriesRating: 14/20
Plot: The Kuroda tribe seeks the wandering assassin's services and sends five representatives to challenge Itto to a fight. Defeated one-by-one, they reveal a piece of information required to accomplish the task and 1/5 of his payment. Then, he goes out and chops some heads off.
With a convoluted plot and a weird and strangely detached subplot involving Itto's son, this one appeared early to be the weakest of the series. It's saved by an absolutely brutal display of sword frenzy at the end as well as the earlier typically-great fight scenes. That climax though. Whoa, Nelly! The over-the-top bloodfest brought out both a laugh and a fist-pump, and that's really all a guy can ask for on Samurai Friday. Some funky camera angles are used in a scene that is otherwise a whole lot like that House of Blue Leaves scene in Kill Bill. A gripe: it seems like these films came out pretty rapidly which on the one hand enables the kid playing Daigoro to play him in each installment but on the other hand makes me wonder what this could have been with a little more time put into it. It's great stuff, but at times, there's some sloppiness. One more of these to go, and from the preview on this dvd, it looks like it can be summed up in two words--ninjas skiing. Booyah!
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