lone wolf and cub
Friends and I began watching the 6 part series Lone Wolf and Cub,* a Japanese Samurai film series from the early 70s that was based on a manga comic. It's interesting that I at one time marveled at modern film adaptations of comic books like Sin City for adopting cinematic features that emphasized it's comic roots. E.g.: the stylization of violence and action that uses the same framing as a comic. Little did I know it had all been done before in Lone Wolf and Cub.
I watched two of the films this evening. The first entitled Sword of Vengence and the second being Baby Cart at the River Styx. Both tell a tale of a disgraced expert Samurai traveling with his young son. He is hired for various tasks in each film, while the series has an overall story arc of the man trying to reclaim his honor, as well as his sons.
The fight scenes are generally interesting. A diversity of situations and attention to detail make every battle exciting. A favorite of mine was in the second film. Three expert Samurai our escorting a man through a desert. He realizes a trap lays in front of him and so he runs up and stabs into the sand. The camera stays on the blade, and you see blood slowly soak up through the sand and create a pool around the knife. After this, other men jump out of holes that they were hiding in and a battle ensues.
It's well worth a rent, especially if you like the comical gore and style of the Kill Bill films.
An odd English trailer for the film. In the films the child never does any narration.