Media Monday.

It’s Media Monday yet again. Which means it’s time for yet another Lone Wolf and Cub movie. This time we are looking at Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons. It is the fifth in the series and see the return of Kenji Misumi who directed the first three entries.  Once again Tomisaburo Wakayama and Akihiro Tomikawa return as Ogami Itto and Ogami Daigoro respectively. Not all of the actors returned however. We have yet a new Retsudo Yagyu, the third so far, this time played by Minoru Ohki.

I am going to have to do something a little different this time. The plot to this movie is a little more complex than the others. As usual it deals with Clan politics. This time Itto is hired by men of the Kuroda clan. They want Itto kill a monk named Jikei. It turns out that the Daimyo of the clan Kuroda Naritaka has become so enamored with his concubine that he has installed their child, a young girl, as the heir to the clan. He did this by disguising the girl as a boy and raising her as such. All the while the true heir, Lord Kuroda’s son, is locked away and hidden. Itto must prevent this information from reaching his enemies, the Yagyu clan. If they were to find out about this they could destroy the Kuroda clan and gain more power. As the movie goes on Itto is tasked with also killing Lord Kuroda, his concubine, and their daughter.

While that is not the most involved plot it is hard to get that all across during my normal running commentary. So I just wanted to put that together in one place so that it would be easier to understand. Now unto my normal meandering and all to in depth synopsis/review.

The movie opens with Itto and Daigoro walking along a road. They come upon a waterfall and a man meditating under it. Itto notices that the man has a veil hanging from his hat. On the veil is a drawing of the “beasts of hell“, this drawing is us used as a sign that you have need of Itto.

The beasts of hell.

Itto approaches the man and asks about the veil. The man, Ayabe Ukon, asks if Itto is the Lone wolf and Cub. Itto tells him that he is and the man attacks him. Itto quickly defeats Ayabe and mortally wounds him. Ayabe, close to death, informs Itto that he has been sent, along with others, to find him. Five of these men, himself being the first, will test Itto. If Itto passes the test they will give him 1/5 of his fee and information on the job they wish him to complete.

As Itto continues on his way he comes upon a beggar wearing the same veil. The beggar releases a messenger pigeon and tells Itto that it will inform the next of the five men that he is on his way.

Mogami Shusuke, the second of the five, appears before Itto and asks Itto to fight him. Itto agrees and  wins the dual easily. As Mogami dies he relates more information about the job to Itto.

From here we transition into a scene of Itto and Daigoro cooking dinner. They have made camp near a small cave and are roasting corn. As Itto sits by the fire an unknown assailant throws two knives at him. Itto uses his hat to block the assault. The man, Mawatara Hachiro who is the third of the five, appears and engages Itto in the quickest fight so far. Itto defeats the man in a matter of seconds. As with the others Mawatara tells Itto more information before he dies. This time however the scene is a bit more interesting. The man, after being stabbed through the gut, falls on the fire. He props himself up and speaks to Itto. All the while the fire below him burns. As we cut from Mawatara speaking, to scenes of the information he is giving, we can see how the fire spreads and consumes him.

As with before it is only a moment or two before Itto finds the next of the five. This one is named Kikuchi Yamon and he fares better than the last but dies none the less. As he dies he sheds more light on the Job Itto is being tested for. The most important information he gives is that this job is linked with the Yagyu and Retsudo Yagyu specifically.

Fooled You!

As the fourth man's body floats away the fifth, Sazare Kanbei, makes himself known. He pretends to be a concerned stranger who offers Itto a cup of tea from a bamboo thermos. Itto appears to drink the tea and falls to the grown. Sazare lowers a hidden veil from his hat and states that they wanted to test him in all ways. He stoops down so as to deliver the killing blow only to find that Itto had been playing possum. Itto stabs the man while he is still on the ground than stands and finishes him. As Sazare dies he gives Itto the final piece of information needed to complete the job.

In the next scene we follow Jikei to a temple over looking a fair. Daigoro is attracted to the fair by some children. He wanders through the fair grounds looking at the different booths. One of the booths has fish and turtles. I only mention this because in a prior scene we saw a turtle and some other creatures in the wild. I find it interesting that we go from seeing the creatures free to seeing them being used as prizes in a fair. I think it shows the difference between Daigoro and the other children. It could be said that Daigoro is the free one but it can also be argued that he is the one that is truly trapped. I'm sure I am reading to much into this but I can't help it.

Moving away from "Daigoro's Day at the Fair" we get back to Itto who has found the priest. He edges closer to him, his hand on the hilt of his sword, when the Priest begins to speak. For some reason Itto is unable to unsheathe his sword.

"Quick Change" Oyo.

After that scene the movie changes gears for a few minutes. We are introduced to a brother sister pick pocket team and the officer who is after them. They have arrived at the festival in the hopes of racking up a lot of money in a short time. The woman is known as “Quick Change” Oyo for obvious reasons. Do to her skill no one knows exactly what she looks like. Her and her brother, Tomekichi the Moll, run a very simple con. She bumps into someone steals their wallet and hands it off to her brother who then hides it. All is going well until Tomekichi has to relieve himself. Oyo, unaware of this, continues business as usual, but with no one to hand the goods over to she is caught. The police are called for and she makes a run for it. As she is running she sees Daigoro and hands the wallet over to him. The police are right on her tail but stop when they see Daigoro. The woman get's away but leaves him to be dealt with by the cops.

Inspector Senzo questioning whether or not to mess with Daigoro.

One of the cops, Inspector Senzo who had been chasing Oyo, offers Daigoro candy and toys if he were to tell them what the woman looked like. The cop also shows Daigoro his weapon. Neither of these tactics work. This makes the cops suspicious of him and they decide to hold him. Daigoro tries to run away but is caught. He is tied up with rope and walked through the fair grounds. The police decide that their only option is to flog Daigoro. In the hopes that the thief will present themselves to prevent the act.

Daigoro takes his beating like a boss. He's all "Bitches, it ain't nothing".

As the officers hold Daigoro in front of the crowd Itto watches. As do the thieves. Daigoro. as always, is a badass and shows no fear. Before the first strike can be done the thief presents herself and tries to save Daigoro. When asked to confirm Oyo's identity Daigoro refuses. He is willing to take the beating to keep his promise. The woman is forced to pick the pocket of one of the officials to prove who she is. Daigoro still does not admit to who she is. Inspector Senzo beats him to find the truth. Daigoro takes the beating and does not make a sound. Daigoro is too fucking cool.

Crowds part for Daigoro. The know better than to get in his way.

After the ordeal the thief promises, to Daigoro, that she will not steal from people ever again and thanks him. When all is said and done Daigoro walks away with out a word. Eventually he finds his father and the two of them walk away hand in hand. Itto knows what his son did but does not say.

Unlike the previous movie this one does not have horribly out of place music. The music here is subtle and follows the tone of the movie. In the last movie a choir of children sang a song about Daigoro. In this one Daigoro sings a few lyrics of a song and then is replaced by an orchestral number. It works perfectly.

When the song ends we once again find Itto and Daigoro taking shelter in a temple. As Daigoro sleeps and Itto, I assume, prays a woman appears. She was present in the flogging scene but did not make her presence known. She introduces herself as Shiranui and then attacks Itto. Her weighted chains disable Itto for a moment but he is able to overcome them. Once free Itto asks why she is attacking him.

She asks Itto to deliver the information he is after to Lord Kuroda in person. He refuses. He is an assassin and nothing more. Having had her request rebuked she then asks him to kill Lord Kuroda, his concubine, and their child. He accepts. Itto and Daigoro walk the road of hell there is nothing they won't do.

Itto still has his first job to finish. He catches up with the priest as he and his convoy are crossing a river to meet up with Retsudo Yagyu. Itto decides on a aquatic attack. As we know from the previous movies the baby cart is an amphibious vehicle. Itto sets it loose in the water and, using a hollow read as a breathing device, swims under Jikie’s boat. He uses a cutting tool to cut a circular hole into the boat directly under where the priest is sitting. Once the hole is done the priest falls thought the bottom of the boat and into the water. From there it is a simple matter of killing him and retrieving the document. Of course cutting a hole into the boat allows it to take on water and there by informing the crew of the Jikie’s absence. Since the priest was going to meet with Retsudo and the Shadow Yagyu that means that there are warriors and even ninjas present. Having seen this they make their way into the water and engage Itto in combat. I can't tell you exactly what happens since it is not shown but I can guess that Itto kills them quickly and brutally.

I am going to guess that they are dead.

When Itto emerges from the water he is set upon by even more Yagyu men. Itto, dressed only in his loin cloth, fights them off using one of the weapons from the baby cart. One of them foolishly attempts to kill Daigoro. Daigoro kills him first. You do not fuck with Daigoro. Anyway the battle is interrupted by the arrival of Kuroda men who come to Itto's aid and fight the Yagyu men.

Itto, having got away and found time to get dressed, is attacked once again. Only this time the man uses a bow and arrow to retrieve the document. Itto slashes the man and wounds him. He is about to chase after him when Shiranui arrives. She swears to Itto that she will retrieve the document and get it back to him.

This Retsudo when he is Super Serious.

What she does not know is that Itto switched the document and had it all along. She follows the man until he reaches his destination and hands the fake document over to Retsudo Yagyu. Retsudo opens it and finds out that it is a fake. The woman who had been watching, waiting for a chance to retrieve it finds out as well. Retsudo swears that he and his men will chase Itto down to the ends of earth for revenge. I thought they were already doing that but I guess now they are super serious.

Shiranui tracks Itto down to another temple and makes a final request. She asks for him to show her the document. Itto does as she asks. Shiranui uses the opportunity to erase the message on it. With that done she once again asks Itto to deliver it directly to Lord Kuroda. This time Itto agrees. As soon as he does, a group of Kuroda spear men arrive. They request that Itto hand the document over. Itto refuses. He tells them that he intends to give it directly to Lord Kuroda. They are hesitant to allow this but Itto convinces them. His sword is sharp but his tongue is sharper.

Itto arrives at Lord Kuroda’s home. He is given an audience and is asked to hand over the document. Itto says that he will only hand it over to the true heir. It is at this point that we see Itto still has his sword. He was allowed to keep it by “sealing” it. This means that he tied the sword and sheath together. Lord Kuroda takes this as a sign of surrender. He is wrong.

She gives the cutest execution orders.

Itto finally hands over the document to Lord Kuroda, but only after telling him that he knows about his true heir. Lord Kuroda is shocked to see that the document is blank. His daughter, who is still pretending to be the true heir, orders for the men to kill Itto and Daigoro.

From here on the movie is mostly one long fight scene. It is very well implemented but there isn’t much I can say about it.  What I will say is that, unlike the past few movies, Itto comes out of this ending unharmed. Once the fight scene is over Itto makes his way to Lord Kuroda and his family.

He finds a servant trying to compel Lord Kuroda to commit seppuku so as to reserve the honor of the clan.  He refuses. Itto kills him and his family by beheading them. Once they are dead the servant sees to their remains. He also tells Itto that Lord Kuroda committed seppuku and died an honorable death. It is a lie but it will allow the clan to continue on. That is the most important thing.

In this movie more than any of the others we see just how important a clan is to it’s people. Many members of the Kuroda clan died in the hopes of saving it from the senile Lord Kuroda. Honor and respect are more important than their own lives.  All of the death in this movie occurred just so that the Kuroda clan could retain it’s honor and prestige.

I really enjoyed this entry in the series. After the last movie, which wasn’t really all that good, this one went back to basics but added new flavors when needed. The plot was more in depth than ever before but all of the classic elements were there. I would recommend this one to anyone. Even if they hadn’t seen the other films in the series. It is a must watch. Especially because there was no rape, which had been highly featured in most of the other entries.