Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1974)

Waste of time

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The third entry in the Lone Wolf and Baby Cart series moves at a more deliberate pace and has less action and graphic bloodshed than the two previous films, but still stands out as an important movie thanks to the fascinating insights it provides concerning the strongly held and unwavering samurai code of fearsome samurai warrior protagonist Ogami Itto (a typically fine and towering performance by Tomisaburo Wakayama). Ogami's discussions with fellow erstwhile samurai turned mercenary Magomura Kanbei (ably played with quiet strength and dignity by Go Kato) about their deeply felt samurai code of ethics and willingness to be subjected to extreme torture in order to save the life of lowly dejected prostitute Omatso (a touching turn by Sayoko Kato) reveal that Ogami is substantially more than just a formidable killing machine: He's also a man of great honor and humanity. Moreover, this film still delivers an exciting action set piece at the end with Ogami taking on and taking out a slew of men. In addition, the final confrontation between Ogami and Magomura packs a potent emotional (and visceral) punch. A very solid and satisfying film.

It float, it provide you with fresh blades, it shot like a machine gun, the list goes on and on (or does it?).This is not a story about a formidable warrior and a master of the suiō-ryū swordsmanship but rather a brilliant marketing campaign for a Japanese baby cart full of dangerous features!

It seems that with this movie, the third out of the Kozure Ôkami-series, they picked a sort of different approach. This time the movie gets a bit more personal and dramatic, which goes at the expense of the movie its action. However once you get over this and get more into the movie itself, you'll still be grabbed and entertained by it as well.It's not even fair to say really that this movie does not have enough action in it. The movie still features quite a lot of fights and at the end Ogami Itto even takes on a whole army by himself. Still by comparison it's all a bit toned down and there is also less blood. The entire series is basically known for its fountains of blood but this movie does not provide the best example of this.It's less entertaining but its a more solidly written story than its predecessors, as it seems. The first two movies were mostly adventurous ones in which lone wolf and cub wandered the country, meeting all kinds of people and getting into all kinds of problems. This movie does more clearly follow one story-line, that from beginning to end is basically all connected, without ever wandering off with its story and follow some side plots with it. Not everybody will like this and I must admit that I wasn't too fond about the approach the movie was taking at first but as the movie progresses it becomes more solid and you can also tell what the movie was heading towards to during its first half.It seems like a weaker movie out of the series at first but once things start to take off you should be able to appreciate it different approach and see this movie as simply yet another great once within its great series.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

These movies were infamous for their incredibly brutal and bloody swordplay sequences, but equally impressive IMHO was the leading actor- Tomisaburo Wakayama a.k.a. "Lone Wolf" was surely the greatest martial arts star ever. The command and authority with which he wielded a sword (and other weapons) was just phenomenal. The blade truly was an extension of himself, and his use of it was the definition of lethal, with none of the unnecessary/show-off flourishes so desperately thrown about by today's wannabes. He had incredible presence and charisma- easily on a par with the likes of say Eastwood or Bronson- with eyes that reflected pure death, and the desolation in his soul. There were moments in the "Babycart" series where you'd swear he was the personification of his namesake, the Wolf. You never doubted for one second that he WAS shogun executioner, masterless samurai, assassin for hire. One look at him in action, and you could readily understand why his enemies trembled at the mention of his name, and ran from him in sheer terror. Alas, Lone Wolf is one with void now, but his legend will live on forever in these films. Forget Toshiro Mifune. Forget Takakura Ken. Forget Sonny Chiba. Forget Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and any of those wire-reliant ballet dancers from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And CERTAINLY forget any American martial artists that you could care to name. Tomisaburo Wakayama was, is, and forever shall be, THE MAN!