Road House (1989) Shout Select Review

Link to my review

http://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2016/09/Road-House-Review.html

Shogun Assassin (1980)

“He whips out his sword and relieves his victims of their heads!” [1]. This declaration may actually piss some people off, but this is a totally must see bad ass blood splattering samurai action masterpiece. So for the uninformed viewers, why would this statement piss people off? Well this movie is actually the first two films of the Lone Wolf and Cub film series; it was condensed, re-edited, dubbed into English, and re-scored for American release. So there are some purists that really dislike this version and feel that it bastardizes the series. The fact remains that this version was most Americans first introduction into this series and the world of crazy samurai spraying blood movies.

The rights to the original Lone Wolf movies were purchased by David Weisman from Toho Studios for $50,000 and then it was released in America by Roger Corman’s studio New World Pictures.  The pictures were based on a comic book called Lone Wolf and Cub written by Kazuo Koike, who also created Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, and one based on Hanzo the Razor. This movie is about a rouge samurai that wanders around Japan with his son in a baby cart, looking for work and defending himself from his many enemies. The main character is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, a veteran actor to the samurai film genre and brother to producer Shintaro Katsu. Katsu is best known for playing Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, in 26 movies and a television series.

This is simply a totally bad ass movie. The American edit is super fast paced and filled with a ton of bloody action, featuring eleven fight scenes, tons of spraying blood, and splitting heads. All of the fight scenes are memorable and Lone Wolf always has some type of tricks available on his baby cart. The narration by the child and the new score are perfect for a dubbed film and are a good fit for the time period in which it was released, the synthesized score is very reminiscent of the sound from John Carpenter films and the Phantasm horror series.

The movie was highly influential on many filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter. Tarantino has incorporated the super violent spraying blood into the Kill Bill films and many of his other ones. This motion picture is the one that the bride’s daughter watches when she goes to bed in the second Kill Bill film. Carpenter used some similar imagery from this film in Big Trouble in Little China, mainly the three guys wearing the straw hats. If you like action and violence, then this is essential viewing. There are also six films from the original Lone Wolf and Cub series, along with a television series and the comic that they were based upon. All of them are worth checking out.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 17 3 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081506/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 17 3 2016].

 

 

 

Kogarashi Monjiro: The Withered Tree (1972) Review

Kogarashi Monjiro: The Withered Tree (1972) Review

It is rather surprising that the 1972 Toei produced jidaigeki Kogarashi Monjiro: The Withered Tree has never received a proper Western release, especially with its similar style to the spaghetti westerns and Clint Eastwood’s “man with no name.” With an interesting story, lead character, and violent sword fights, this is one forgotten gem that deserves some attention. Kogarashi Monjiro is a lone samurai who agrees to take responsibility for a murder that his friend committed so that he can stay with his dying mother, with the expectation that his friend will confess and get him pardoned once she dies. Monjiro is sentenced to an island for prisoners. When he discovers that his friend’s mother has died over a year ago, Monjiro seeks to escape with a group of prisoners in order to get his revenge.

The similarity to Eastwood’s character and the film being influenced by the Italian westerns is obvious with the style in which it is presented. Monjiro’s signature look is the Japanese version of Eastwood. He wears a straw hat, sports a cloak that covers his entire body, and always has a long wooden toothpick in his mouth. His eyes are somewhat squinted like Eastwood’s are in the Italian westerns and his character is rather stoic, usually not speaking very much in order to absorb his surroundings. The music even feels like a hybrid of a more modernized Japanese style infused with the sounds that are familiar in Italian westerns.

The cast and crew contain a core group of Toei veterans. It was directed by Sadao Nakajima, who has 64 film and television credits to his name and has never worked outside of Toei. Lead actor Bunta Sugawara has 171 film and television credits in his long career. During his time at Toei, he appeared in Gendai Yakuza and the popular Kinji Fukasaku yakuza series Battles Without Honor and Humanity. He would appear in one more picture as Monjiro that was also released in 1972. The camera work by Nakajima is done well, with a noticeable preference to using more lengthy sequences as opposed to heavy editing. There are also several scenes in which they incorporate handheld cameras, mostly for certain fight sequences involving people running around in different areas.

The fight sequences are good and match other similar jidaigeki of the time, with loads of blood and extremely violent battles. The overall tone is also bleak, especially for any character other than Monjiro. Besides the sequel, the character was popular enough to produce a television series about him starring Atsuo Nakamura. It began in 1972, but I was unable to obtain any information regarding if it ran longer than that year.

While not the greatest jidaigeki ever produced, it is worthy of taking a look at because of the fascinating lead character and bloody action.

Score 7/10