Bullet Points: Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
What can I say about the Lone Wolf and Cub series that hasn’t been said by dozens of other samurai-loving film nerds over the years? It is equal parts bloodtastic sword-swinging masterpiece while also being a magical story of father/son bonding while killing your way across the feudal Japanese countryside. In short, it’s just the best! I decided to pop in my Criterion Collection bluray of the second installment in the series just to relive some of the majesty that I remember as a young tyke.
Synopsis: Trailed by a clan of female ninja, Ogami is paid to assassinate a clan traitor accompanied by three killers known as the Gods of Death.
- Never Safe: Baby Cart at the River Styx picks up right after the first film in the series with Ogami and his kid just walking around thinking about killing everyone in the Yagyu Clan. They were wronged pretty badly so Itto Ogami are now walking the “Demon Path to Hell” in order to get their revenge. What does that mean for us? It means that Ogami and Son have to look over their shoulder for their entire lives because the Yagyu are constantly hiring people to try and kill them.
- Sword for hire: How do you make money when you’re always on the run? You just kill people! Ogami takes on jobs of killing folks as he wandering around the countryside, but it’s not easy to get in contact with him. There is a whole deal that you have to go through to get Itto to kill your mark.
- BenTenRai: We’re introduced to three killers who look remarkably like the dudes from Big Trouble in Little China. Why? Because John Carpenter has great taste and he took that idea as his own. The three men have very distinct styles of killing. One has iron claws, one maces, and one has iron fists that attach to his hands. It makes for some incredible scenes and it reminds me how much I love Big Trouble in Little China.
- The glory of the Monks of Death: The three men are sent to protect a guy who is snitching on a different Clan. None of it really matters except to set Ogami on the trail of the snitch where we’ll wait for him to run into the three men and have a magnificent battle.
- Ladies everywhere: Of course, nothing is ever safe for Itto Ogami as the lady assassins we met earlier in the film set up an elaborate attempt on his life that includes some street performers, women leaping out of their dresses, and enough woman battering to make Bobby Brown blush. Ogami takes no shit from anyone so don’t expect a handful of sword mistresses to kill him. His own son gets involved as his baby cart shows us that it’s full of surprises….and weapons. Lots of weapons.
- Showdown in the dunes: After a trip on a boat that leaves it sinking while on fire, Ogami finally meets up with the Monks of Death in the sand dunes of some place. Before he gets there, though, a bunch of helpless dudes hiding under the sand in the desert show exactly how hard it is to kill the three men. They get killed in exceptional ways. Giving us several chances to see their unique weapons in action.
- My own neck wails: Leave it to Ogami to finally get the drop on the men. You have to know that he’s going to succeed because this is his movie but it doesn’t make it any less cool when he does. Wakayama is a force of nature with a sword. He slices and dices the men to the point where they’re equally surprised and super dead. I love it when he finally gets the last of the three in the neck and he is almost speechless at the feeling.
The Verdict: It’s hard to pick just one film in a series as good as the Lone Wolf and Cub series but if you put a gun to my head (don’t you dare!) I would pick Baby Cart at the River Styx as that very one. It really has everything. Wakayama is pure badass and absolutely relentless, as usual, when he’s killing folks, but he also gets a tremendous amount of help in this one as the lady assassins and the Monks of Death are just too damned cool. This is one of those series where you probably need to know a little bit about why Ogami is cruising around Japan with his young child in a cart but other than that….just enjoy the killing! If you love samurai action then get your ass in!
