Memorergi good film but with many flaws

Executscan Expected more

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

blackmamba99971 Personally I disliked the music. The added keyboard sounds offset the pace at certain times, which made it sound and look cheesy. Yet the fighting sequences were superb as far as sword play went. For a lot of fans around the world this is the one which displays the grotesque blood spatters in every scene rendering this film one of the more violent action adventures to be shown. Basically the story is an old one. A rogue samurai wandering the country side assassinating those who stands in his way of revenge against a shogun who had lost his mind during his rise to power. He was once a general of the senile old coot until during the shogunate's paranoia deemed all in his kingdom a certain threat, which needed to be killed.Upon sending out a group of ninjas to kill the lone warrior they inadvertently assassinated his wife. So to put his revenge into action set out with his own son to learn life the hard way or die trying in the process. Many battles were fought with just the right amount of blood to quench the thirst of any madman. His son voiced narrated by Akihiro Tomikawa tells the tale of his father through out the film. It was fresh, different and original in every way. I found it to be a wonderful addition of how the samurai had lived in such tumultuous times during the warring period.Many lost their lives to the hierarchy day in and day out with constant wars to extend land titles, gain riches through misery, destitution, and debt to the shoguns' powerful regime. For a period of a thousand years the common folk were often prey to the rich and power hungry but more often than not it was the samurai who settled scores between rival houses with the use of their soul, or rather their Katana with a precise killing blow. All in all I thought it was a great story yet the camera shots were somewhat shoddy in some areas as well as cutting to and from scenes with Chinese flair as all martial arts from the seventies, and eighties displayed at the height of its popularity.Deeming this movie a must see for its nostalgia, and martial skill it has stood the test of time through out these last thirty years, and will appeal to more audiences once it has been refurbished with the original soundtrack. Using synthesizers was indeed a marring notch that will not sit well with those who like myself enjoy old world style Japanese music to go along with its rustic sense. Keyboards only destroyed part of the tale but it more than made up for its content. Not for the squeamish since it is a bloody fight from beginning to finish.

BA_Harrison I imagine that many Japanese cinema purists look down on Shogun Assassin, viewing it as bastardised art, the film consisting of the juiciest bits from the first two classic Lone Wolf and Cub films edited together and re-dubbed for the US market. I, however, see the film as a fond reminder of the video nasty era when, against the wishes of the BBFC, I proudly owned an ex-rental, big box VIPCO VHS copy of the movie; it was one of the highlights of my collection, a gloriously violent saga that introduced me to the world of unflappable samurais and arterial spray, for which I will be ever grateful.Of course these days the censors have seen sense and all of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies are available in their entirety on DVD (pristine prints in their original language with English subtitles, no less); but while it's great to see the movies as the filmmakers intended, I still get a kick out of Shogun Assassin's incongruous American voice-over, grimy 80s synth score and erratic editing, elements that take me back to a time when collecting banned movies was a challenge and the viewing seemed more rewarding as a result. As soon as Daigoro's narration kicks in, I'm back in the darkened bedroom of my youth, revelling in all the stylish blood and violence wreaked by super cool rōnin for hire Ogami Itto (Tomisaburô Wakayama), enjoying the fact that I'm sampling forbidden fruit, and it tastes good.

Enchorde Recap: Lone Wolf is a samurai bound by honor to his master. But when said master, the shogun begins to fear him and tries to have him assassinated, those bonds are broken. What is worse, the assassins only manage to kill his wife, leaving Lone Wolf and his young son on a mission for vengeance.Comments: This has a very different style. It is very exaggerated in every way, and I would almost describe it as cartoonish (not surprising considering its source). Everything is either ascetically minimal or over the top exaggerated. Lone Wolf on one hand says almost nothing, but his swordplay is all over the top. Bodies, blood and gore literally flies in every direction. Effects and sound are equally exaggerated to emphasize the action. So it is clearly different from many other movies. If this is in part because its Japan, whose movies often exaggerate to emphasize, dialog for instance, I can't say.If you can accept the style, it is a entertaining action movie. And mark my word, it is pure action. There is very little dialog, and what is said is almost all a narration by Lone Wolf's son. This makes the movie rather one dimensional, but it is not a big problem as it don't seem to aspire to be more. It will never be confused with a masterpiece, but still a entertaining movie that has had a rather big impact.6/10

drgonzo212 This movie is crap. Basically a mesh of 6 really cool samurai movies mixed into one film that is utter trash and totally lacks the feel of the originals. Ignore the rave reviews of the people who just don't know any better. Robert Houston, "The director" is actually a washed up actor from the 70's. Ugh! Another example of Hollywood taking something great and regurgitating onto movie screens for retarded mass audiences to lap up. I noticed most people who remember watching this movie in the 80's are over rating this movie big time! I think perhaps they are not putting aside childhood nostalgia and voting based on that. I watched this in the 80's and I wasn't really impressed. However, when I saw the originals from the 1970's -I was blown away! That's also when I noticed that the English dubbed voices are horrid! Itto Ogami's voice/dialog in Shogun assassin is simply ridiculous. Look at the voice over cast -Sandra Bernhard??????? Jeez! What nonsense! The real voice of Tomisaburo Wakayama is powerful and his laugh is haunting and scary at the same time. I also love how the super hacks David Weisman and Robert Houston credit themselves as "writers". That makes me sick. Skip right over this mess and watch the Kozure Ôkami series instead!