Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
The ’80s All Over podcast got me interested in the “Lone Wolf and Cub” series after they discussed the 1980 cut up of the first two films, “Shogun Assassin,” but it was Disney+’s “The Mandalorian” series that finally pushed me to do so during its first season, which plays like a riff on the manga, and samurai series. I’m grateful that Criterion has them all in an easy-to-digest box set. It’s time to dig in.
Outside of Akira Kurosawa, I have not really gotten into samurai films, so at the very least, “Lone Wolf and Cub” is a solid introduction to different flavors outside of the master filmmaker’s classics in the genre. The series revolves around a shogun’s executioner, whom has been framed for treason against the lords he served, who wanders through the country as an assassin for hire, with his young son in tow. The opening scenes of this first film in the series, “Sword of Vengeance,” set the stage beautifully, while also offering a surprisingly broken narrative. We first see Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and his son, Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa), walking with an “assassin for hire” banner on Daigoro’s cart. Wait, though, we saw Itto’s lord and Itto look to carry out an execution in the opening scene, setting the stage for who Itto is before we see ninjas attack his home, and kill his wife, and frame him for having loyalties to another lord. After that, he and Daigoro are on their own, and their travels find them going to a bathing spa occupied by criminals, but not until he’s taken on a job that will pay him good money.
“Sword of Vengeance” is the introduction to the series, and it sets up the mindset of Itto as he and his son go forward in a scene where Itto presents a choice to Daigoro- does he want to follow his father in his path, or be with his mother in the afterlife? We wonder, in watching the scene unfold, if Daigoro understands his father, but, as the series goes on, we figure out this is a whip-smart little kid. The series is based on a manga, and indeed, these movies do have a comic book reality to them, which is part of why it feels so out of step with the samurai films of Kurosawa I was familiar with before. The father-son bond is the initial hook of these characters, but it’s in how they work together in battle scenes where the films get ridiculously fun to watch. “Sword of Vengeance” begins the franchise on a high note with how well executed and shot the action is, even if it gets goofy and goes over-the-top; these films are about pulp adventures, even if they occasionally dip into philosophical ideas of honor. Director Kenji Misumi finds the right tone for these stories, setting it in this film, and I love the little creative ways he uses shot composition, music, and even a lack of sound effects to tell this story. “Seven Samurai” it is not, but “Sword of Vengeance” is from a filmmaker equally adept with action, narrative and building characters, even if the film feels more like empty thrills than high art.
