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Itto Ookami (Tomisabura Wakayama), the expelled executor of the shogun
condemned to perpetually wandering the countryside with his little son
Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) in his babycart, is hired to kill Oyuki (Michie
Azuma), a master swordswoman whose fighting-technique involves flashing
her tattooed breast to her adversary to startle him with her gruesome
tattoos ... But before Ookami can fight her, his son Daigoro goes
missing, & is almost burnt alive in a rice-field, but calmly buries
himself to avoid death. A samurai watching that is fascinated by the
boy, especially his stoney eyes that suggest he has seen hundreds of
deaths, maybe even caused some - unlikely for a 3-year-old, but in this
case true. Soon the samurai figures that the boy might be the son of
legendary Itto Ookami, who is said to be wandering the countryside with
his little boy ... & of course he is right. The samurai turns out to
be Gunbei (Yoichi Hayashi) of the Yagyu clan, the archenemies of Itto
Ookami, who have killed his wife & caused him to be expelled by the
shogun (see Sword of Vengeance,
the first Babycart film). Gunbei was, years ago, competing
with Ookami for the job of executioner, but was disgraced when he in a
fight pointed his sword - by acident - at the shogun himself, & was
ordered to commit suicide . But Yagyu clanleader Retsudo (Tatsuo Endo)
faked his suicide but sent him away ... & since that day, Gunbei is
wandering the country, his only motivation to once avenge himself on
Ookami - a goal that at long last seems to be within reach ... but he has
underestimated Ookami's fighting skills & is eventually defeated &
humiliated. But Ookami refuses to kill Gunbei, as for him, he is already
dead. So Gunbei goes on living a broken man. Ookami now continues his
quest for Oyuki, & gets the vital clue to her from noone else than her
estranged father Gindayo (Soo Yamamura), head of the Goumine village, who
sees her as an outcast & rather has her killed than his village
attacked. Ookami finds Oyuki at a lonely spa, & finds her not the
wild woman hje has conme to expect her to be but a warrior of honour who
is doing nothing against Oookami unless he attacks her first, even though
she knows he has come to kill her. However, when Ookami sees her atacked
by other fighters, she proves to be a master swordswoman ... It all
dates back to her time with the Owari clan & her master Kazuko Enki
(Shin Kishida), master of the flaming sword, who had during a training
session taken advantage of her & raped her. But as she resisted him,
she had fallen from grace with the Owaris & since then is on the run. Ookami
is gentleman enough to let her exact her revenge against Kazuko Enki, who
incidently comes by for a fight, & while he trusts his flaming sword
& hypnotism to help him win the duel, he just is lost as soon as Oyuki
flashes her breast (aren't we men easy to figure out). It's only when
Enki is dead that Ookami challenges Oyuki, & kills her in a fair
fight. Then he burns her body in a ritual &, always the man of honour,
brings her ashes to her hometown & her dad ... which is when the
Owaris, brought up about Kazuko Enki's death, attack the village, &
even slaughter Gindayo ... It's only then that Ookami challenges Lord
Owari (Tokio Oki) to a one-on-one duel to avoid the whole village to be
destroyed. Of course, Ookami wins, but he has not made himself many
friends among the Owaris. At long last, Ookami finds himself surrounded
by Retsudo Endo's large army, that includes gunmen & archers, & it
takes all of his strength (& Daigoro's babycart that can be converted
into a machine gun) to slaughter his way through all of them & defeat
lord Retsudo. 'At the end, we see Ookami walk on, still pushing
Daigoro's cart through the country, but definitely at the end of his
strength ... With topless female fighters, flaming swords,
gangs of flute playing assassins & the like, the Babycart
series has definitely taken a turn towards the anything-goes-comicbook
style (& of course, the series is actually based on a comicbook ...
oops, I'm supposed to call that a manga, aren't I) ... which is just as
well actually, as the series' formula did show signs of wear from episode
one (Sword of Vengeance)
on, but the movies were invariably saved by original ideas & setpieces
(be it excessive comicbook-style violence or the original use of
babycatrts, ...). Some elements from older films are repeated here,
especially the endfight of Ookami against an army, where the babycart is
converted into a machingun, which did look much better (& fresher) in Babycart
to Hades, but overall this film is still enjoyable swordsplay
cinema, provided you don't take it seriously.
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find Baby Cart in Peril at adultvideouniverse.com