Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart and the River Styx

Director: Kenji Misumi, Kenji Misumi, Kenji Misumi

1972 / 81min / DCP

Released in Japan only three months after Sword of Vengeance, the second Lone Wolf and Cub film finds Tomisaburo Wakayama’s stone-faced Ogami Itto continuing his grudgeful campaign against his foes in the Shadow Yagyū clan, with ninja spies, fierce female assassins, and a fraternal trio specializing in far-fetched weaponry now joining the fray. Throwing in gorgeous geysers of hissing arterial blood, white-knuckle scenes of shameless child endangerment, jaw-dropping flying claw action, and action choreography beautifully composed for Tohoscope widescreen, Misumi follows up his relatively restrained first Lone Wolf film in go-for-broke mode, and the results have been delighting chambara connoisseurs ever since.