It's been a busy week as I sorted through all the toys in the house and made two piles. One to keep and the other to go. I watched a ton of movies, mostly old dogs from TCM, and sorted toys. I planned to have a garage sale and earlier today I did. It was rainy, not many people came by, and I-94 was closed while they fiddle with the freeway to compensate for the bridge being in the river. So, with all that going on I was real tired when I showed up to watch movies friday night. I was thinking of leaving after the first movie and I didn't care what we watched. We had nothing much new and we wound watching the first Lone Wolf and Cub movie.
I am thinking I have talked about this series before. Kozure Ôkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru is the first of the series. You might know it as Lone Wolf and Cub: Child and Expertise for Rent but mostly likely you'd know it as Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance. In reality most won't know any of the titles, although it gets a neat 8.0 on IMDb. There are six movies staring Tomisaburo Wakayama as the Shogun Executioner. In this opening movie, based on a Japanese comic series, our hero gets framed and gets mad. Three guys, claiming they wanted vengence for the execution of their lord, attack the Itto household and kill everyone there. Itto returns home to find everyone dead but his infant son. The three men ran to the local authorities and confessed while they were committing seppuku. In reality they used the attack to hide a memorial tablet, with the Shogun's name on it, in the Itto Shrine. That means Itto would like the Shogun dead and that's a crime. Punishible by death. He rebells against the frame up and kills a bunch of guys. He goes on the lam with his infant son, vowing vengence against the Yagyu Clan and their dirty tricks. It's two years later and Lone Wolf and Cub are travelling the country side. They are selling their services and he will kill all you want for 500 gold coins. Cool. I know some people need killin' and if it's that easy, let's get at it. And that seems to be the attitude of many people Igami Ito meets in his travels. Fuedal Japan is a place filled with power struggles and battles for the high position in court. Not that it's any different in any other place either. Hey, Europe, stab anyone in the late 1700's. I didn't see the papers that century.
I've seen this movie several times and still enjoy it. On his mission Itto stops in a small town with a hot spring. There are the few people that live there and some stopping criminals. They are part of the mission. They are a surly lot, much in need of killing. It's a violent ol' time. One guy gets his legs chopped off, while he is standing up, in a technique called something to do with a horse. There are lots of blood spurts coming from many wounds. The later films really get crazy mad in their violence. Hey, the road to hell is paved with some sticky stuff, and our boys are on the way. It's a fun series to watch as Igami and Diagoro battle their way to vengence. The comic was abour 8000 pages but the 6 movies don't cover the whole story by a long shot. Animego has a set of all 6 out here in the USA and you can find it on Amazon. Well, worth having. I bought some of the Animego versions, after I had gotten some Asian dvd's that were just copies of the Animego dvds. They are nice looking copies with pretty good sound. The score is a lot of fun too.
Then we watched the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special and the first show of the new season. They were funny. I went home to putter a bit and go to bed. I intend to do the same right now.
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