Shogun Assassin

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Shogun Assassin

Cover of the UK DVD.
Directed by Robert Houston
Produced by Shintaro Katsu
Robert Houston
Written by Kazuo Koike
Goseki Kojima
Starring Tomisaburo Wakayama
Music by Hideaki Sakurai
Cinematography Chishi Makiura
Editing by Lee Percy
Toshio Taniguchi
Distributed by Toho
Release date(s) 1980
Running time 86 min.
Country Japan/US
Language English (dubbed)
Followed by Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death
IMDb profile

Shogun Assassin (known in Japan as Kozure Ōkami 子連れ狼) is a very violent jidaigeki film made for the British and American markets and released in 1980. The film is considered a classic by many fans of the samurai-film genre. In 2006 it was restored and re-released on DVD in North America by AnimEigo.

Shogun Assassin was edited and compiled from the first two films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, using 12 minutes of the first film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (Kozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru or Wolf with Child in Tow: Child and Expertise for Rent), and most of Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (Kozure Ōkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma or Wolf with Child in Tow: Perambulator of the River of Sanzu). Both were originally released in 1972. There were six films in all in the series. These in turn were based on the long-running 1970s manga series, Lone Wolf and Cub, created by the writer Kazuo Koike and the artist Goseki Kojima.

The project was directed by Robert Houston and his partner David Weisman, a protégé of Andy Warhol and director of Ciao! Manhattan (1972). A fan of the original Kozure Ōkami films, Weisman had obtained the rights for $50,000 from the American office of Toho Studios. The film was distributed by Roger Corman's New World Pictures to the grindhouse movie circuit in the United States, and then later as a video cassette from MCA/Universal Home Video. When released in the United Kingdom by the Vipco video tape label in 1983, Shogun Assassin's extreme violence caused it to be banned by the Home Office. Vipco played this for publicity in the cover art of their 2001 release on DVD, which was stamped "Banned since 1983!"

The title character, Ogami Ittō, is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, brother of the producer, Shintaro Katsu, who is known for playing Zatoichi in a series of 26 films starting in the 1960s.

Contents

[edit] Editing

Shogun Assassin was dubbed into English whereas the originals are in Japanese. The film, being compiled from separate stories, uses a much-simplified version of the situation. For instance, any mention of clan war is gone and the opponent Retsudo is simply called "The Shogun."

The filmmakers hired deaf lip readers to help compose dialogue to match the lip movements of the original Japanese actors, and filled in the narrative gaps by adding voice-over narration by Daigoro, performed by the 7-year-old son of Shogun Assassin's poster illustrator. American actor Sandra Bernhard and director (and former radio actor) Lamont Johnson provided voices in the dubbed edition.

[edit] Music

Mark Lindsay (former lead singer for Paul Revere and the Raiders) co-wrote a new musical score with producer W. Michael Lewis. The electronic music was performed on a Moog Modular synthesizer system at Wonderland, Lindsay's private recording studio. (The performance is credited to "The Wonderland Philharmonic".) However, certain music portions from the original Kozure Ôkami films are still part of the soundtrack. Several audio clips from Shogun Assassin are used on GZA's Liquid Swords (produced by RZA). In addition, the film is invoked in Kill Bill Vol. 2 (for which RZA provided original music) in the end scenes where the protagonist and her daughter watch it as a bed-time story.

[edit] Sequels

AnimEigo has released three sequels: Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death, actually the third film in the Baby Cart series, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades; Shogun Assassin 3: Slashing Blades of Carnage, which is the fourth film in the Baby Cart series, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril; and Shogun Assassin 4: Five Fistfuls Of Gold, which is the dubbed version of the fifth film, Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons. AnimEigo will release Shogun Assassin 5: Cold Road to Hell, the dubbed version of Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell, the sixth and final film in the series, in July of 2008.

[edit] Quotes

The dubbing of the movie is typified by bad grammar as a result of literal translation and cultural misinterpretation. This has resulted in some quotable catchphrases from the movie:

  • "They shall pay. With rivers of blood!"
  • "Oh mad one! We see your trap!"
  • "I am the Supreme Ninja"
  • "Your technique is magnificent, when cut across the neck a sound like wailing winter winds is heard they say, I'd always hoped to cut someone like that some day, to hear that sound, but to have it happen to my own neck, is ridiculous"
  • "I have decided to escape, to defy the shogun. Today I will begin walking the road to hell. But you will choose your own path. So, soon you may be seeing heaven. Choose the sword, and you will join me. Choose the ball and you join your mother, in death. You don’t understand my words, but you must choose. So… come boy, choose life or death."
  • "We'll show you....Masters of Death."
  • "People said his brain was infected by devils."

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


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