The other day I was watching the movie “Shogun Assassin” which is based on the manga by Kazuo Koike Kozure Okami (Lone Wolf and Cub). The movie was released in 1980 and the truth is that, having read the manga, I wasn’t expecting too much of it, however I have to say that I loved it. Pure adrenaline!
The plot is based around a samurai (ronin) father and son who are looking for revenge. The father, “Lone Wolf”, is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, one of the best martial arts actors at the time. His performance in battles is brilliant and gives the movie a lot realism in some parts.
Don’t miss it if you enjoy samurais and revenge stories, like for example The Vengeance Trilogy or Kill Bill. In fact, Quentin Tarantino admits loving Shogun Assassin and that he watched it several times before and during the production of Kill Bill.
3 replies on “Shogun Assassin”
I’ll put this one on my list.
Shogun Assassin is actually a movie compiled by combining the first two movies of a six part series. I highly recommend you hunt down the original six and watch them, because they’re all very good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_wolf_and_cub#Films
There movies are excellent, we had the chance to get remastered DVD editions in France, and it was a real pelasure to watch the 6 movies ^^