Kozure ôkami: Ko wo kashi ude kashi tsukamatsuru (1972)

Director:

Kenji Misumi

Writers:

Kazuo Koike (screenplay)
Kazuo Koike (story)

Release Date:

23 August 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

The story of a Ronin (i.e. a masterless samurai) who wanders the countryside of Japan with his small child, having various adventures.

Plot Keywords:

Manga | Samurai | Executioner | Loss Of Wife | Based On Comic

Cast

Tomisaburo Wakayama	...	Ogami Itto
Fumio Watanabe	...	Sugito
Tomoko Mayama	...	Osen (whore)
Shigeru Tsuyuguchi	...	Matsuki Junai
Tomoo Uchida	...	Goto
Taketoshi Naitô	...	Inspector Yagyu Bizen-no-Kami
Yoshi Kato
Yoshiko Fujita
Reiko Kasahara	...	Azami
Akihiro Tomikawa	...	Daigoro
Kauji Sokiyamo
Teruo Matsuyama
Toshiya Wazaki
Michimaro Otabe
Saburo Date

Also Known As:

Lone Wolf and Cub: Child and Expertise for Rent (literal English title)
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (USA)
Sword of Vengeance I

Runtime:

USA:83 min | Australia:80 min (DVD)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:18 | Australia:MA (cable rating) | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | Australia:R (DVD rating)

Company:

Katsu Production Co. Ltd.

Quotes:

Ogami Itto: You would've been happier if you'd chosen to join your mother in her world.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Kozure Ôkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubaguruma (1972)

Good, decent Samurai film...first of a series.

Sword of Vengeance is the first film in a series about a noble samurai and his son fallen from grace through a conspiracy, and now under a constant fear of death by assassination. This movie by itself is a fine example of how a more modern, 'slasher' style Samurai film and 'old' values like honor and '1-good-Samurai-defeats-army-of-bad-Samurai' can be put together to make a solid, entertaining film. The later films are sometimes better, sometimes worse than this movie, but I found all of them to be very entertaining and worthwhile.

If you like to see some classic Samurai action, check out the whole serie of six films. Years later they took all the juicy bits out of the first four films and stitched them together to form the film 'Shogun Assassin', a film I suspect made for export to western countries: Less story, more blood.