Baby Cart to HadesThe Lone Wolf and Cub saga continues with the third installment – Baby Cart to Hades.

Itto Ogami, played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, is travelling with his son Daigoro. Throughout his travels he is attacked by members of the Yagyu clan – his sword enemies.  Along the way he manages to come across a man named Kanbei, who has a few Ronin alongside him.  After Kanbei’s men attack and die at the sword of Ogami, Kanbei requests a challenge.  Ogami accepts but prematurely walks away, declaring it a draw.  This leaves Kanbei dissatisfied.

Later on, a ‘bought and paid for’ woman is being raped near where Ogami is staying.  During this rape she fights back, killing her ‘customer’. In fear of punishment, she stumbles into Ogami’s room and they hide her from her owners.  But it isn’t long before she is discovered and made to  answer for her crimes – torture, to which Ogami agrees to stand in for.  After his torture he is taken to meet a man whom he has a past with.

During his days as executioner, Ogami was a second (the samurai to deliver the beheading cut) for a Harakiri that was forced upon with great struggle. During Ogami’s strike he accidentally cut off the arm of the man (the man he meets) trying to restrain the shamed Samurai.  Ogami agrees to do a job for this man, and sets off on his mission – to kill a corrupt district deputy.

This mission however leads to many difficulties and of course a large scale final showdown, and afterwards a final challenge between himself and Kanbei, from earlier.

Ogami tears up some ninjas

Going a little deeper.

This Lone Wolf and Cub installment is every bit the classic as the other films, but this one offers a little more insight into Ogami’s character than the others, exchanging some action for it.

Seeing Ogami’s unwavering honor when protecting the woman (who killed the her rapist), we are shown a side of Ogami which sharply demonstrates his high level of morality.  More so, he is tortured afterwards and makes no sound, but endures in silence.  This whole series of events really sells Ogami has and honorable yet incredibly tough man, unlike most around him.

Even Daigoro shows some innocence when the same woman is harrassed on a boat at the beginning of the movie and has he things taken away from her and thrown in the river – to which Daigoro takes hold of and returns to her.  This really develops a trust between all three characters which makes the story telling of their particular situation more than ‘just a series of events’ -it’s works quite well.

Then there’s Kanbei!  Kanbei is a ronin, left wondering when he’ll die honorably, hence his disappointment at the ‘draw’ he has earlier in the film.  Some philosophy is spoken between him and Ogami which was pretty cool, at the very end of the film.  When asked what the way of the warrior is, Ogami replies ‘living to die’.  While not as action packed, these elements made ‘Baby Cart to Hades’ one of the more thoughtful films of the franchise.

more action from Lone wolf and Cub

The Action & Martial Arts

As mentioned above, it’s not as frequent, or even quite as bloody as the others, but it’s still got it’s fair share.

With the initial fight between Ogami and the Ninja’s following him, it gets pretty bloody until the very end.  But the that first fight is a nice little hint of Ogami’s skill, with the finale epic battle being the real gold, or as the tagline for the movie says:

“Then they threw an army at him, and he threw it back… a piece at a time”

This final scene is pretty damn cool.  Ogami aggressively and powerfully slices up his enemies going from weapon to weapon.  He taps into the baby cart and reveals a lot of cool old skool devices to kill and mame with.  It’s definitely one of the better all out sword fight scenes from the Lone Wolf and Cub Series.

The Verdict?

One of the better Lone Wolf & Cub movies – goes without saying, it’s absolute classic!

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