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Itto Ogami (Masakazu Tamura) is the chief executioner of the shogun -
something Bizen, head of the Yagyu clan, is mad jealous about, so he
orders Retsudo (Tatsuya Nakadai) to frame Ogami ... and with the help of
his daughter Nanao, Retsudo has soon planted evidence at Ogami's home that
he actually plans a revolt against the shogun. But when the Yagyus come to
arrest him too, they accidently kill his wife, which throws Ogami into a
fighting frenzy, killing most of the Yagyus at hand. Only Nanao, who was
instrumental in framing Ogami in the first place, now splits from the rest
of her family, to see to it that Ogami's son Daigoro (Yushi Shoda) comes
to no harm. With his wife dead and his position gone, Ogami knows only
one goal in life, to have his revenge on the Yagyus, especially their
shadow branch and Retsudo, and in a series of clashes, he eliminates more
and more of the Yagyus. Thing is, the longer this goes on, the more
Retsudo's respect for Ogami as a warrior grows, and he would just like to
have a fair and square duel ... but Bizen Yagyu is just powerhungry, and
since he doesn't see Retsudo as a warrior as such, he would prefer to have
Ogami eliminated. Finally, Retsudo and Ogami clash for the first time,
but Retsudo's daughter Nanao, who just wants peace between the two clans,
interferes and is accidently slaughtered by her own father. Finally,
Ogami and Retsudo meet once again, and this time they fight it to the
death - and Retsudo manages to kill Ogami, if only just. Ogami's son
Daigoro has seen everything, picks up a sword and tries to kill Retsudo,
even though he's still a toddler. Retsudo has no problem disarming the
boy, but he is so overcome by admiration for both Ogami and his son that
he kills himself on the spot. Bizen Yagyu learns about the death of
Ogami, but since Ogami has also wiped out the entire shadow branch of the
Yagyu clan, Bizen now has no one to fall back on anymore and his own
demise is only a matter of time. The entire Lone Wolf and
Cub story told in one film, which needless to say differs quite a
bit from the film- and TV-series from the 1970's, and I'm not just talking
about the ommission of the babycart here. basically, the film is as much
an action spectacle as it is an elegy, that provides well-staged fight
scenes as well as atmospheric shots aplenty, and that repeatedly contrasts
its furious action scenes with slow and sad music, to quite some effect.
But while director Akira Inoue manages to blend the contradictory aspects
of the movie quite nicely, the film as a whole is still far from perfect.
The main problem witht he movie is that it lacks a proper storyline as
such, the whole thing seems to be little more than just a series of
fights, everything that happens inbetween them is interchangeable and
neglectable. And with Ogami being stationary rather than wandering the
countryside like in the earlier films and TV-show, the film also lacks a
certain drive that served the earlier versions of the story well. Plus,
Daigoro, a central character in all earlier versions, is completely
margianalized in this one - a pity inasmuch as he made the whole thing
special. Add to this the fact that lead Masakazu Tamura lacks the
much-needed charisma to fill his role, and you've got ... well, actually
still a decent samurai movie, but one that certainly does not live up to
its possibilities and its expectations.
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