Lone Wolf and Cub White Heaven in Hel

Rating:
Summary: The sixth and final film in the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series
Review: "Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell" ("Kozure Ôkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigoro") is the sixth and final film adapted from the "Lone Wolf and Cub" manga written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Goseki Kojima. Koike wrote the screenplays for the first four films, but Tstuomu Nakamura did the script for the last two, which might explain why the climax of the finale seems to be more appropriate for a James Bond film rather than a samurai assassin film. There were several interesting issues of "Lone Wolf and Cub" that dealt with winter settings, but Nakamura does not really avail himself of them for this script. As always, it is interesting to see how familiar stories are brought together in the film, which was directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda.

This time there are four distinct acts to the action. First, Retsudo Yagyu (Minoru Ohki) is sending his daughter and last child, Lady Kaori (Junko Hitomi), who has perfected the falling dagger technique, after Lone Wolf and Cub (#79 "Sayaka"). Meanwhile, Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) has brought Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) for a final visit to the grave of his mother (#58 "A Poem for the Grave") before they make their way for Edo. On the road they will encounter Lady Kaori. Second, assassins who have buried alive are reborn as divine spirits (#77 "Incense for the Living") and sent after Lone Wolf and Cub. Their strategy is to kill everybody whom father and son have contact with on the road to Meifumado (#76 "Five Wheels of the Yagyu"), which means a lot of innocents are getting killed until Ogami Itto goes off into the wildnerness to force the Yagyu's hand. Third, Retsudo attempts to persuade his illegitimate son, Hyoei (Isao Kimura) to kill Ogami Itto. When he refuses, Retsudo tries to get Hyoei's sister, Lady Azusa (Mayumi Yamaguchi) to persuade him to act. Hyoei agrees, seeing it as an opportunity to take over the Yagyu clan. However, Ogami Itto must first deal with the cancellation of an assassination because of the threat of the Yagyu (#80 "Clouds of Silk"). Then he faces Hyoei and forces him to issue a challenge for a duel (#67 "The Hojiro Yaguy") and Retsudo is forced to deal with Hoyei's final effort to usurp his position.

The final act is where this film goes off the rails. Although the setting is similar to when father and son first made their way through the snow covered mountains (#64, "The Moon in the East, the Sun in the West") the story gets well beyond watch the baby cart being used as a sled. We are talking samurai on skis, ninjas on skis, and samurai on sleds. At least Ogami Itto does not get on skis, but he does some serious sledding. It is just that all of the shots of samurai swinging swords while jumping over the camera on skies get to be a bit much, and when a horde of them (including Retsudo), ski (or sled) right by their prey we were definitely into shark jumping territory. The bad news is that this is not a fitting end to the cinematic saga of Lone Wolf and Cub, but the good news is that are a dozen more volumes of the original manga as published by Dark Horse Comics that will get you to the true end of the story (although clearly they did not know this sixth film would be the final one in the series).

I know all of these movies were edited and dubbed into "Shogun Assassin" in 1980, but I must insist that you take the high road and avoid that butchery in favor of the original sextet of films. In order these are: (1) "Kozure Ôkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance," 1972); (2) "Kozure Ôkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx," 1972); (3) "Kozure Ôkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubaguruma" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades," 1972); (4) "Kozure Ôkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: In Peril," 1972); (5) "Kozure Ôkami: Meifumando" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Land of Demons," 1973); and (6) "Kozure Ôkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigoro" ("Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell," 1974). The above list does not include literal translations of each Japanese title but rather the name given their most recent U.S. releases (I believe the original U.S. releases in the 1970s just numbered these as "Swords of Vengeance" I-VI). The literal translation of this sixth film in the series would be "Lone Wolf and Cub: Go to Hell, Daigoro," so you can see why that leaves a bit to be desired.

Rating:
Summary: Works for me...
Review: Great stuff. I have been looking for these films for years, now I can get them easily. Lucky for you too.

There is nothing like Lone Wolf and Cub, it has all the elements that I like in a martial srts flick. This is a no-holds-barred type of film, full of bloody slashing and hacking but always done with a sense of style.

Get the entire series.

Rating:
Summary: Worthy installment, but not finale
Review: I love the LW&C film series, so my review of WHIH is certainly not that of an unbiased critic but of a fan of the series. At this point in the series, if you're not a LW&C fan, why would you be looking at this film? That said, I believe WHIH is a worthy installment. It has everything that makes the other films in the series great and then some. It has the lightning swordplay, one-man-killing-machine-vs-samurai-army battles, samurai duels at sunset, buckets of blood, a little t&a, and Shakespearean drama that we've come to expect. It also has the added goodies of a spooky, nightmare, horror film feeling, samurai zombies, and over-the-top snowy mountainscape slaughter on skis. It even adds more depth to the main characters and story by examining the effect that this private war is having on the larger society, especially the innocent bystanders caught in the middle, and focuses pretty much exclusively on the Ito/Yagyu conflict.

So with all that going for it, why not five stars? Because this is the final installment of the series, and the one area where this film is weak is the one area where a final installment should, above all, excell: resolution. Maybe the film makers didn't know that this would be the final installment. Maybe its inconclusiveness is a source of hope that, in the wake of the popular KILL BILL and the slasher-samurai film revival, some new film maker will take up the sword and give us one, truly final installment in the LW&C series, maybe even bringing back some of the original actors, much older of course. In any event, WHIH does not resolve the major conflict of the LW&C story, and so ultimately, in spite of all its successes, falls short. That should in no way deter any fan of the series from buying it (the samurai zombies alone are worth the price), but do be prepared to be at least partially let down.

NB - The music does get a little lame at times, but is also downright cool at times. Also, exactly how many children does Retsudo have?! It seems every ten minutes he bemoans that fact that all his children are dead, but then suddenly recalls that he has just one more living in the mountains or wandering the wilds or that he has disowned, and then we learn that that one more just happens to have a hot sister somewhere, and let's not forget Gunbei, the coolest Yagyu in the series and only person to ever beat the wolf in a duel. Yeah he only has one arm, but he's still alive and fitted to kill. Where's Gunbei?!

Rating:
Summary: Worst in the Series
Review: If you loved the first five movies of this series, you'll be disappointed with this one. It is awful. The action sequences are nothing like, or comparable with those in the other movies. If Itto Ogami used his sword a bit more rather than the guns in the baby cart, with unlimited ammunition no less, this would be a better film. Also, the story is very disjointed and extremely hard to follow, unlike the previous Lone Wolf and Cub movies. Very disappointed with this.

Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm.
Review: This installment of the Lone Wolf and Cub series isn't as deeply moving and thought provoking as the previous films. But it does feature some of the best swordplay in the series. I actually like this one more than 'Baby Cart In The Land of Demons', which I've found over-rated (at least by Ric Meyers). Maybe the sword wielding undead is too much; or the ski/swordplay finale is too over the top and corny - but hey, this is the Lone Wolf And Cub! The ending is somewhat touching, even though little Daigoro falls on his face trying to walk in the snow.

Overall, a satisfying conclusion to the film series.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the others
Review: This is a great series but this one is my least favorite of them all. Its not that bad but it doesn't stand up to the first 2 in the series or the others. But hey this is Itto Ogami and even on a bad day he's good.

Rating:
Summary: Wind it Up with a Bang!
Review: This is the 6th and last entry in the series Lone Wolf & Cub. This one not only has a different director than Kenji, who directed 4 of the others, this is the entry most like a comic-book (the series is based on a famous comic book series).
Not that that is bad.

The whole series fluctuated between great period detail, serious themes, and not taking itself too seriously. It was at once graphic and fantastic, realistic and wildly improbable, factual and imaginary. serious & silly. That's what made it so damn interesting.

Throughout the series the action has taken place in different locales and landscapes of Japan. Tracing actual historical roads and cities. Now we end the series in the mountains and the snow, the White Heaven in Hell of the title.

This entry has a lot of stuff going on: Lord Retsudo of the hated Yagyu Clan, Ogami's arch enemy, sends his last child, a daughter to do in Ogami with her "Falling Dagger" technique. When, predictably, she fails, he goes to an illegitimate son that was abandoned and raised by a mountain tribe. ...

The downhill ski battle may not be... intense and exciting but ...it ain't bad. That Ogami's Baby Cart guns never seem to need reloading etc. are minor quibbles. If Ogami doesn't shoot em he always seems able to bifurcate them, behead them, or run em through. Red sprays all over the white snow.

Anyway, they wind the series up with a bang. One of the strangest, most unique, and unusual series ever produced anywhere. Worth it if you don't mind the violence.