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Ogami
Itto is dead - Lone Wolf lives on, continuing his blood spattered
journey through the land he calls Hell. As he remorselessly seeks
the secretive shadow Yagyu clan, they continue in their efforts
to destroy him, first sending their female warriors, the vicious
Akashi ninja. Beyond them, barring his way, the self proclaimed
Gods of Death, sadistic warriors with a lust for blood. Lone Wolf
must defeat them to justify the 500 pieces of gold that have brought
his sword once more.
Ogami
Itto has returned in the second instalment in the Lone Wolf and
Cub series and it's deliciously bloodthirsty. It was this second
episode and the previous one, Sword of Vengeance,
that were edited and spliced together to create the movie 'Shogun
Assassin'.
Before
I start raving about this, and I am going to rave about it, there's
one little problem that's stopped it getting full marks. The problem
is the brightness level and it really is too dark. This wasn't
a problem with Shogun Assassin so I assumed there was a problem
somewhere that caused things to go a bit skew-whiff. And it's
a bloody shame because one scene's completely ruined by the dark
screen while a couple of others are only just visible.
The
brightness gripe aside, this is still a fantastic, blood drenched
romp. Ogami Itto is hired by a clan who earn their money through
making a dye that only they can make. One of their number has
defected to another clan and is going to be taken to the Shogun
to reveal the secret of the dye, thus ruining the clan's monopoly
on the dye and destroying their income. Befor Ogami gets to his
target though he has to fight through the all-female Akashi ninja
and the 'The Gods of Death', three brothers that'll literally
turn anyone who gets in their way to a bloody mess. When I said
the film was deliciously bloodthirsty, I meant it. Normally I
don't rave about blood and you're more likely to hear me complain
about it than say I love it; yet for some reason I like it in
this film. It's probably because I've got a real hard on for the
'Gods of Death' and I suspect that love comes from the similarity
between The Three Storms in Big Trouble In Little China. On a
nerdy note, I suspect that Shogun Assassin influenced Big Trouble
In Little China. Shogun Assassin has the Gods of Death but in
that they were called the Lords of Death. In Big Trouble In Little
China we have the similar looking Three Storms and the
Lords of Death, a street gang, punks from Chinatown. I could be
wrong about that and it wouldn't be the first time. But still,
I love the Gods of Death, they are some badass mofos. I can't
forget the Akashi ninja though, they are not to be sniffed. One
unlucky guy learns that lesson the hard way when he's challenged
to see if he can get out a door blocked by a group of the lovely
assassins. He's subsequently ripped apart by their knives and
left as a bloody, limbless torso. Basically I'm saying it's packed
with fights and I like 'em all.
Even
though I have a problem with the whole darkness thing I still
love this film. But despite how much I like it I'm gonna have
to knock a point off for the fact there are certain points in
the film where you just can't see a bloody thing..
-
Charles T. Awesome
DVD
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