She-Wolves of the Wasteland (aka Phoenix the Warrior) begins in the future, where a biological war breaks out that somehow kills every man on earth, and only a handful of women survive. It’s the old post apocalyptic tale with a twist. This time an evil woman known as the Reverend Mother (Sheila Howard) decides to repopulate the earth in a sick and corrupt way. In what corrupt way, I’m not sure, I just know that this Rev. Mom has a big deformed head with surgical tubing coming out of it. Anyhow, A woman escapes Rev. Mom and runs off into the desert, and has a gaggle of bounty hunters after her. One lone warrior steps out of the wasteland to protect her, and that woman is PHOENIX!
The Devil’s Sword follows a quest to find an ancient sword that was forged from a mysterious metallic substance that fell to earth in the form of a meteorite. An old man who finds the meteorite creates the Devil’s Sword, and he hides it after it burns down his hut. Whoever wields the sword holds the greatest power imaginable in his hands. Banujaga is sent by the Alligator Queen to steal the fiance of a local village’s princess to keep as her own subject. During the raid on the village Mandala - a one time colleague of Banujaga - sees the scuffle and helps defend the village, and ends up helping the princess recover her husband to be. Mandala recovers the Devil’s Sword, but will it ultimately be enough to defeat the Alligator Queen and Banujaga?
The tale of Shogun Assassin is a confusing one. While Robert Houston is the credited director, this is actually the first two movies of the Lone Wolf and Cub aka “babycart” (Kozure Ôkami: Sanzu no kawa no ubagurumaaka “Babycart at the River Styx, and Kozure Ôkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru aka “Sword of Vengeance”) series of films from Japan. Because this is basically two movies recut into one, the story can be somewhat consusing at times, but what results is an all out actionmartial arts movie with blood spraying like geysers from every enemy slain by the main character Ogami Itto (played by Tomisaburo Wakayama).
Itto was shogun’s executioner after his many years serving as his master samurai. As the shogun becomes older and more senile, he becomes increasingly intimidated by Itto. He decides to assassinate Itto, but instead, kills his wife. Itto then escapes with his son Diagoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) and is chased to the ends of Japan by a slew of would be killers. It is believed that when the Lone Wolf loses his son, he loses his power as well, and he is tested multiple times, up until his confrontation with the masters of death and the shogun himself. With his son and his cart armed with blades, and other assorted tricks up their sleeves, Itto seeks out justice, but will he find it?
The story is told through the eyes of Diagoro, Lone Wolf’s young son. He relates the story to the viewer, and Houston uses his voiceovers to explain the early flashbacks in the film, and also other points where the story’s cohesion breaks down. Considering that 3 hours of original material is being condensed into 86 minutes, they do a surprisingly good job convincing you that this material can stand on it’s own.
Shogun Assassin is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. For me, it has everything that a good martial arts movie should have; action, blood, ninjas, samurai, swordplay - the works. The Lone Wolf meets multiple enemies, including sons of the shogun, a squad of female ninjas, and the masters of death and makes short work of them all in a bloodbath. What more could you ask for?
The music in this film is great. It’s mostly early electronic fare, with lots of awesome analog synth sounds that fit perfectly and sets the mood. While this film is obviously dubbed, the dubbing is done really well, and most of the dialog fits the characters mouths without distracting you from the action on screen. The Wu-Tang clan made a lot of the dialog pretty famous, by sampling it both on their debut release “Enter the Wu-Tang” and especially the GZA’s solo effort “Liquid Swords”, which featured the opening narration of the film by Diagoro on the first track.
This film and the series it originated from has obviously influenced a lot of samurai movies that came after it. Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 1 and 2 being the major example, but to a lesser extent the recent Zatôichi film as well. It also has ties to Road to Perdition as the story was influenced by Shogun Assassin and the Lone Wolf and Cub series. These movies have left a definite mark on film, and for that reason alone, Shogun Assassin is one you should see.
Keep an eye out for future reviews on this site of the original material of which this film was made…
Check out the trailer and a couple clips from the film below:
I first heard about Xian si jue (aka Duel to the Death) when I was watching a video montage of martial arts battles. Seeing the over the top supernatural battles on that video - I knew I had to find this movie and watch the whole thing. The story is quite simple. You have two warriors - one from China, Ching Wan a master of some Shaolin martial arts style, and Kada Hashimot a master swordsman from Japan. For centuries China and Japan would have their best warriors fight in a “Duel to the Death” every ten years. Ching Wan begins to have second thoughts about the duel. While he’s contemplating going through with the battle, Japan sends in a ninja regiment to steal Chinese secrets and to throw the battle. In the end Ching and Kada duel in a literarly earth shattering battle.
In the beginning you start off with a ninja assault on a Chinese temple. Ching Wan anxious to test his skill literarly flies out to fend of the ninjas. The battles get crazier after this initial battle, only to climax with the duel of the decade. All of the battles in this movie are fairly over the top, but the story gets slow and a little confusing as the movie progresses. Ching and Kada meet in preparation for the duel and then they part ways for a bit. Why? I’m not sure because I didn’t pay attention. The only times I actually paid attention to was when steel was clashing with steel. This movie is worth watching for the intense battles, but the story behind it… yeah, not so much. I’ve watched this movie a few times and every time I tell myself that I’m going to pay attention to this whole movie, but the story loses me every time.
This movie gets fairly cheesy and boring at points, but you can’t beat giant stripper ninjas, graphic dismemberments, and people exploding. I would recommend this movie for the fights, but if the story starts to slow down, you should just fast forward to the next fight scene.
For a clip of a battle with a giant stripper ninja, check below the break…
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Internal Bleeding - We specialize in and review B-movies, Horror, Exploitation, Grindhouse, Bizarre, Zombie and 80's teen schlock. Individual and Dueling reviews, every week.
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