Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974) Kozure ôkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigorô (original title)

Director:

Yoshiyuki Kuroda

Writers:

Kazuo Koike (comic)
Goseki Kojima (comic)
(more)

Release Date:

24 April 1974 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | History

Plot:

In the sixth and final film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, the final conflict between Ogami Itto and the Yagyu clan is carried out.

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Samurai Warrior | Baby Cart | Sword Fight | Sequel

Cast

Tomisaburô Wakayama	...	Ogami Itto
Akihiro Tomikawa	...	Ogami Daigoro
Junko Hitomi	...	Yagyu Kaori
Goro Mutsumi	...	Iwane Ozunu
Daigo Kusano	...	Mudo
Jiro Miyaguchi	...	Muga
Renji Ishibashi	...	Mumon
Ritsu Ishiyama	...	Shogun
Chie Kobayashi	...	Azusa
Gakuya Morita	...	Imanishi Uneme
Kyôichi Satô	...	Kiyota Ryunosuke
Kôji Fujiyama	...	Tomita Tatewaki
Yoshiro Takee	...	Horie Taroemon
Ryô Nishida	...	Okada Gonoshin
Riki Harada	...	Hatanaka Tamon
Masataka Wakao
Shoji Mori
Yasuno Sakai
Koji Kanda
Yukio Horikita
Tokio Oki	...	Head Clerk
Matsujiro Konaka	...	Tsuchigumo
Seiichi Yoshida	...	Kurokuwa
Satsuko Yamamura
Yoshihiro Maruo	...	Tachibana Bunzo
Seji Katayama
Minoru Oki	...	Yagyu Retsudo
Isao Kimura	...	Tsuchigumo Hyoei
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masafumi Maeda	...	Kosho
Kenji Ushio	...	Toseinin
Yukari Wakayama	...	Maid
Mayumi Yamabuki	...	Troubadour Woman

Directed by
Yoshiyuki Kuroda

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Kazuo Koike		comic
Goseki Kojima		comic
Tsutomu Nakamura

Produced by
Masanori Sanada	....	producer
Tomisaburô Wakayama	....	producer

Original Music by
Kunihiko Murai

Cinematography by
Chishi Makiura

Film Editing by
Toshio Taniguchi

Production Design by
Akira Naitô

Production Companies

• Katsu Production Co. Ltd.

Distributors

• Alive (1994) (France) (theatrical)
• Madman Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Toho Company

Also Known As:

"Kozure ôkami: Jigoku e ikuzo! Daigorô" - Japan (original title)
"Shogun Assassin 5: Cold Road to Hell" - USA (DVD box title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:Unrated | Australia:MA | Germany:18

Company:

Katsu Production Co. Ltd.

Movie Connections:

Follows Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972)

Luckily the series ends with a blast.

In all honesty and objectivity I need to say that this is probably the least movie out of the entire series. Having said that, it's still a great movie, that is highly entertaining. Which should tell you something about the rest of the series, saying that this one is the worst.

It's the sixth and final movie out of the Kozure Ôkami movie series, that were released between 1972 and 1974. Has much changed within the series over the years? Not really. All of the movies are pretty much the same in terms of its style and approach of the stories and characters. Only "Kozure Ôkami: Oya no kokoro ko no kokoro" is slightly different and more western like because it had a different director at the helm than the other movies. This movie also got director by a different director but yet it pretty much remains in the same style as the Kenji Misumi directed movies.

All you can say that perhaps is different is that this movie tends to be a bit darker in parts than its predecessors. Not necessarily in style in story but purely visually. It's also a bit less smooth and throughout entertaining than the other movies. Luckily the final fight truly compensates a lot.

I can say the end fight in this movie is my favorite one out of the entire series. In that regard this movie really does not disappoint and it's a worthy last outing for Ogami Itto and his infant son Daigoro, that really isn't that much in this movie, probably due to the fact that he was getting a bit too old and big by now for his role.

Ogami Itto shows some new tricks again in this movie and the baby cart is more heavily armed than ever before. I don't think this is the movie out of the series with the highest body counts but it's still really up there though. The action is simply awesome and very creative as well. Of course it's being very over-the-top all and the fountains of blood are all well present again in this movie. You have to like and appreciate this style of Japanese movie-making, that is more manga like than anything else really, in order to fully appreciate this movie series. When you do, this is like one of the most entertaining and also best movie series to watch out there.

8/10

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