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Speaker 1: Hey, you welcome to Weird House Cinema rewind. This is

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Speaker 1: Rob Lamb, and today we have an episode that originally

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Speaker 1: published twelve six, twenty twenty four. It is our discussion

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Speaker 1: of the nineteen eighty Grindhouse mainstay Shogun Assassin. This, of course,

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Speaker 1: is a Western release compiled from the first two Lone

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Speaker 1: Wolf and Cub films. It's so much fun, so just

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Speaker 1: sizzling action and hasn't really captivating electronics score, So let's

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Speaker 1: jump right into this episode.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and I am Joe McCormick, and

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Speaker 3: today we're going to be talking about a film from

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Speaker 3: the your nineteen eighty the blood drenched samurai film, Shogun Assassin. Rob,

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Speaker 3: this was your pick. How did you get to Showgun Assassin?

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Speaker 4: Oh?

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Speaker 1: Wow? Mainly because I had subscribed to Criterion Channel in

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Speaker 1: order to watch Face behind the Mask for a previous episode,

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Speaker 1: and they have all these little collections in their little

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Speaker 1: playlists of movies to check out, and they had one

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Speaker 1: that was just called synth Scores, So of course I

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Speaker 1: had to dive in and see what kind of movies

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Speaker 1: they had included there, and they included one film that

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Speaker 1: I had heard of but I'd never seen, and that's

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Speaker 1: Showgun Assassin. And so I started playing it like I

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Speaker 1: think I was eating lunch by myself at the time,

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Speaker 1: and it was one of those films where before I

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Speaker 1: knew what had happened, I'd watched most of the film,

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Speaker 1: you know, like I had other things I really needed

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Speaker 1: to do that day, but I was already like sucked

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Speaker 1: into it. It's just if you've never seen it, I

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Speaker 1: highly recommend diving in as well, because I think it

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Speaker 1: will captivate most people who watch it.

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Speaker 3: It is incredible in many ways, and I can see

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Speaker 3: why it would be classified primarily in terms of its soundtrack,

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Speaker 3: because the music in this movie just it washes over

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Speaker 3: you like a like a dark rainbow. It's just unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm really excited to talk about it here today.

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Speaker 1: I made sure to open up a can of my

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Speaker 1: Sun Tory Boss coffee here. I'll show it to you. Hear,

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Speaker 1: Joe did not buy it from a convenience machine on

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Speaker 1: the streets of Japan. This one is just from Super

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Speaker 1: h Mark. But they're not sponsoring this episode, by the way,

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Speaker 1: but I will be drinking my sun Tory Boss coffee.

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Speaker 3: Wait, what is that just coffee or is it some

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Speaker 3: kind of coffee?

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Speaker 1: Plus, it's just a coffee, it's inexpensive, like col Brew

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Speaker 1: black coffee in a can, nice with a fun lytle

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Speaker 1: logo on it.

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Speaker 3: I'll have to try that one sometime. But oh so,

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Speaker 3: Chokin Assassin is a movie that I think we've done

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Speaker 3: films of this kind before, though I can't think at

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Speaker 3: the moment what they were. But this is a movie

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Speaker 3: that is not an original artistic product, but rather is

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Speaker 3: made out of other products that already existed.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we've talked about pictures on the show before that

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Speaker 1: exist in different, sometimes drastically different cuts. We recently did

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Speaker 1: that with Reptilicus. But yet today's episode is an extreme

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Speaker 1: case of something like this. Nineteen eighties Shogun Assassin is

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Speaker 1: a Western film release edited together from the first two

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Speaker 1: films in the famous Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub series,

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Speaker 1: those two films being both nineteen seventy two releases Lone

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Speaker 1: Wolf and Cubs sort of Vengeance the first of six films,

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Speaker 1: and Lone Wolf and Cub Baby cart at the River Styx,

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Speaker 1: the second of six films. Warning that you know a

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Speaker 1: lot of these film titles. The translation is maybe a

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Speaker 1: little rough, but that's part.

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Speaker 3: Of its chime.

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Speaker 1: So essentially, the American filmmakers involved here set out to

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Speaker 1: take the best parts from these two films and stitch

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Speaker 1: them together into a single coherent narrative featuring the best action,

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Speaker 1: the coolest visuals, and all of this built around a

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Speaker 1: rather simplified plot. I'll describe the ways that they simplified

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Speaker 1: the plots a little bit as we proceed, but in essence,

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Speaker 1: they're just repackaging these two films for the grindhouse market.

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Speaker 3: I would say this movie is very loosely plotted. You

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Speaker 3: barely need to follow what's going on with the plot

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Speaker 3: or the machinations. It is more like a demo reel

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Speaker 3: of sights and sounds, and those sites are samurai action

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Speaker 3: with blood jets squirting, and the sounds are the dark

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Speaker 3: synth stylings of our composers who will get to later.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the plot is greatly reduced here, but in a

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Speaker 1: way it also makes it super fun to then dive

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Speaker 1: into the full cuts of those first two Lone Wolf

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Speaker 1: and Cub films, which is exactly what I did after

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Speaker 1: watching Shogun Assassin. All of the Lone Wolf and Cub

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Speaker 1: films are available on a Criterion channel as well as

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Speaker 1: a this recording.

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Speaker 3: But I'm curious how significantly different is the mood.

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Speaker 1: I think the mood is pretty much the same. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's the really glorious thing about Showgun Assassin

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Speaker 1: is that it's easy to imagine all the ways that

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Speaker 1: a project like this could go spectacularly wrong, the way

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Speaker 1: that it could be disrespectful to the original pictures. But

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Speaker 1: I do think that the essential vibe is there. So

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Speaker 1: if you go from Showgun Assassin and you're like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would like more of this, well, the Lone Wolf

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Speaker 1: and Cub series is more of this, you know, because

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Speaker 1: it is, you know, the full plot, the full character

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Speaker 1: development of everything that is in Showgun Assassin that you love,

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Speaker 1: except for the score, a different score, but still effective

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Speaker 1: scores in the original pictures.

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Speaker 3: So regarding not the original films, but Showgun Assassin specifically,

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Speaker 3: I've read this movie is esthetic described in terms like

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Speaker 3: poetic exploitation violence, and I think that's a good way

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Speaker 3: to put it, because this movie feels like it has

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Speaker 3: two souls at once. It is at once a work

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Speaker 3: of art and a piece of trashy grindhouse gore. So

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Speaker 3: on one hand, there really is a kind of poignant,

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Speaker 3: almost literary quality to the way details are observed in

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Speaker 3: a lot of scenes. Just one scene of many that

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Speaker 3: comes to mind is when the young boy is trying

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Speaker 3: to bring water from the river to his badly wounded father,

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Speaker 3: and he's trying to carry it in his hands and

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Speaker 3: it keeps leaking out between his fingers, so he eventually

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Speaker 3: carries the water in his mouth to his father. I mean,

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Speaker 3: it's like an almost kind of beautiful novelistic detail. And

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Speaker 3: also in terms of style, there is a quite exquisite

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Speaker 3: vision at play with the composition of the shots and

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Speaker 3: very again memorable details strong misancen But at the same

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Speaker 3: time there is a campy Tom Savini Friday the Thirteenth

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Speaker 3: sensibility operating in quite high gear in most of the

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Speaker 3: action scenes, with like a real desire to just see

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Speaker 3: blood squirting and to get the camera all up in

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Speaker 3: the ridiculous wounds, the cloven heads and all that. So

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Speaker 3: it's an interesting combination. It's like some gore geek exploitation

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Speaker 3: trash and a thoughtful, meditative, historical art film about a

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Speaker 3: samurai father and son were merged into one entity.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like the arterial sprays and there are quite a

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Speaker 1: few of them, will make your jaw drop and exclaim aloud.

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Speaker 1: But at the same time, yeah, there are such beautifully

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Speaker 1: poetic scenes in this picture. Like I cried. I teared

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Speaker 1: up at times, you know, I shed tears just to

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Speaker 1: Showgun Assassin. So it is both things at once. I

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Speaker 1: think it's a great.

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Speaker 3: Point, especially with the music. The music is a Digors theme,

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Speaker 3: especially that one was it was making me a little misty.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is a strong track. We'll come back to

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Speaker 1: that one for sure.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 1: One thing thing I promise not to do in this

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Speaker 1: episode is to painstakingly talk about all the differences between

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Speaker 1: Shogun Assassin and the first two Lone Wolf and Cub movies.

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Speaker 1: We'll come back to some of these details in a bit,

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Speaker 1: but just in broad strokes, I do want to mention

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Speaker 1: that clips from the first film, sort of Vengeance, apparently

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Speaker 1: amount to only like twelve minutes of Shogun Assassin, mostly

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Speaker 1: dealing with the backstory of Lone Wolf and Cup of

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Speaker 1: our ronan character and the child.

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Speaker 3: Oh well, but that's a lot of what the movie is.

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Speaker 3: I would bet that when people watch this movie and

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Speaker 3: then think back on it and reminisce about it, the

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Speaker 3: primary thing they probably remember is the feeling created by

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Speaker 3: the opening five minutes or so. Not that the rest

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Speaker 3: of the movie isn't good, but that is the feeling

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Speaker 3: of this movie is really established strongly at the beginning,

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Speaker 3: again powerfully moody, with this strong synth based melody that

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Speaker 3: plays under Diegoro's the child. The child's narration as he

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Speaker 3: describes the backstory, and we see these scenes very rapidly

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Speaker 3: cut together. They condense a lot of story into not

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Speaker 3: much space, but it's quite effective in my opinion.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that narration by the child is quite excellent, and

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Speaker 1: that is something that is original to Shogun Assassin. There

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Speaker 1: is not something like that in the Lone Wolf and

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Speaker 1: Cub movies. We don't really have his insight or reflection

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Speaker 1: on what happens.

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Speaker 3: Here, though his narration continues throughout this movie. I mean

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Speaker 3: like he gets to tell us how, you know, we

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Speaker 3: see them pushing the cart through the jungle and they

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Speaker 3: look around and see monkeys screaming at them, and the

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Speaker 3: kid says, this is how I get my education.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'll come back to some of the details

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Speaker 1: about the differences and at least the ones that are

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Speaker 1: really key to understanding what's happening in the picture or

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Speaker 1: why things are, you know, proceding the way they are.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, basically, though, more time is spent with the characters,

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Speaker 1: of course, more time is spent with the politics and

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Speaker 1: the background. More time is spent laying out the duties

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Speaker 1: that ogami Eto has. That's our main character, the Showgun's executioner.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the first ten minutes or so the first Lone,

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Speaker 1: Wolve and Cup movie is just ogami Eto about to

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Speaker 1: execute a young lord, like a child that is the

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Speaker 1: same age as his own son, on the orders of

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Speaker 1: the Shogun. This is of course the sort of thing

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Speaker 1: that if you are a recent viewer of the excellent

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Speaker 1: Hulu FX miniseries Showgun, which is of course more historically

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Speaker 1: based perhaps in some ways than Shogun Assessin, you'll be

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Speaker 1: familiar with this sort of thing. But it does just

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Speaker 1: a great job in the original picture just laying out

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Speaker 1: like this is the kind of work he has to do,

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Speaker 1: you know, he has to do bloody deets for the Showgun.

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Speaker 1: Out of a sense of honor and duty, and at

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Speaker 1: and at night he prays for this of those that

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Speaker 1: he has killed. And then finally, I should also mention

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Speaker 1: that both of these films had also already been released

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Speaker 1: in the US by Toho with subtitles, so it's interesting

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Speaker 1: to think about that as well. This is not it's

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Speaker 1: not like Shogun Assassin was the absolute first time US

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Speaker 1: audience has had a chance to see these films. You know,

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Speaker 1: at least some moviegoers out there already were familiar with them.

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Speaker 1: But this was kind of like a you know, a

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Speaker 1: redistribution or repackaging of these films for a new audience,

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Speaker 1: and it certainly seemed to have found its audience.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, that makes me think, what is your understanding

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Speaker 3: of the original reception history of this movie. Was it

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Speaker 3: literally like a you know, a midnight movie grindhouse kind

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Speaker 3: of kind of thing.

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Speaker 1: That's my understanding. This was like a grindhouse sensation, you know,

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Speaker 1: in which the expectations for cinema were you know, at

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Speaker 1: the extreme. People were tuning in to see those brilliant

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Speaker 1: arterial sprays, the violence and some of the psychedelic sequences,

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Speaker 1: you know. And and it's through this that Shogun Assassin

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Speaker 1: ended up really resonating with various various folks, everyone from

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Speaker 1: like you know, Quentin Tarantino, members of a Wu Tang clan,

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Speaker 1: and so forth. There's a lot here that's been sampled

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Speaker 1: elsewhere and so forth. So I think it it also

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Speaker 1: does a great job of just you know, introducing the

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Speaker 1: world of Lone Wolf and Cub to a different audience,

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Speaker 1: a wider audience, if you will.

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Speaker 3: You can think of it kind of like one of

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Speaker 3: those sitcom episodes where they do a clip show from

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Speaker 3: the other episodes, but here it's it's a clip show

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Speaker 3: of Lone Wolf and Cub, so you get you get

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Speaker 3: a flavor of the different adventures.

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Speaker 1: It's hard to imagine another project doing something like this though,

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Speaker 1: Like can you imagine taking say Predator one and Predator

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Speaker 1: two and then editing them together into one film.

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Speaker 3: It would be easier if they had the same main character,

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Speaker 3: but yeah.

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Speaker 1: I guess. Or how about Godfather one and to edited

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Speaker 1: into a single ninety minute film call it Mafia sa brilliant.

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Speaker 3: I love it.

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Speaker 1: That's maybe more apt because in an effort like you

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Speaker 1: would have to like boil out, you know, reduce it

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Speaker 1: and remove all of most of the politics and get

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Speaker 1: down to just like an ultra simplified, like you know, plot,

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Speaker 1: which is what we have in Shogun Assassin. M Well,

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Speaker 1: on that note, why don't we go ahead and listen

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Speaker 1: to a little trailer audio. This is from the This

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Speaker 1: is the trailer to be clear, to Shogun Assassin, not

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Speaker 1: the original Lone Wolf and Cub films. We're not going

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Speaker 1: to listen to all of it because it is it's

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Speaker 1: kind of long, but I want to make sure we

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Speaker 1: get a little bit of that music, and of course

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Speaker 1: the narrator saying the title of.

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Speaker 4: The picture, return to the vanished kingdoms of ancient times,

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Speaker 4: the journey to a lust empire.

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Speaker 5: Of mad wizards and bombaric passions. Behold the saga of

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Speaker 5: a legendary warrior, a loving father who has the power

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Speaker 5: of a dozen armies in one.

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Speaker 4: Sweep of his mystic blade.

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Speaker 6: This is a story of honor, disgrace, vengeance, massacre, and

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Speaker 6: the man who became a demon Shogun Assassin.

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Speaker 1: All right, So, if you would like to watch Shogun

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Speaker 1: Assassin and perhaps all six Lone Wolf and Cub films,

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Speaker 1: it's all currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. I've been

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Speaker 1: really digging this resource. Recently, there's also a great looking

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Speaker 1: Criterion collection box set of the six films. Showgun Assassin

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Speaker 1: itself has been released on Blu ray and DVD, but

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Speaker 1: I think that one might be harder to grab right now.

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Speaker 1: But of course, if you have some sort of rental

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Speaker 1: service at your disposal, be it videodrome here in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: whatever your local video rental option is, or even maybe

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Speaker 1: the public library, as a listener brought up in the

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Speaker 1: recent Listener Mail episode, Yeah, don't discount your public library.

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Speaker 1: They might have some Showgun Assassin waiting for you. All right, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about some of the people involved here before

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Speaker 1: we get into the plot and so forth. So again,

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Speaker 1: this is a nineteen eighty film release composed edited together

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Speaker 1: from two nineteen seventy two films. We can't do justice

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Speaker 1: to all the folks involved in these different projects, so

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Speaker 1: I want to most single out some of the key

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Speaker 1: folks from the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films,

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Speaker 1: as well as key people responsible for the Showgun Assassin cut. Okay,

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Speaker 1: all right, so starting I think at the top where

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Speaker 1: credit is deserved. The director of both Lone Wolf and

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Speaker 1: Cub films one and two. This is Kenji Masumi, who

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Speaker 1: lived nineteen twenty one through nineteen seventy five. Very well

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Speaker 1: regarded Japanese film director, best known certainly internationally for his

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Speaker 1: work on four of the six Lone Wolf and Cub

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Speaker 1: films that's one, two, three, and five, as well as

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Speaker 1: his Zatoichi films. His other movies also include nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: two's Hanzo the Razors Sword of Justice and nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: six's Return of Damijin. This is a Tokusatsu film about

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Speaker 1: a giant demon god. I haven't seen these films, but

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Speaker 1: this was the second in a series that had started

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Speaker 1: earlier that same year. Like a big statue type.

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Speaker 3: Dude, Well, like a giant statue of a samurai warrior.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, with a scowl on his face and so forth.

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Speaker 3: See screenshots of one scene where he appears to be

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Speaker 3: walking through a parted See ooh, I don't know. I'll

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Speaker 3: have to flag this one. Come back to it, all right.

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Speaker 1: We also have to credit the creators of Lone Wolf

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Speaker 1: and Cub. Two individuals worth singling out here. The first

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Speaker 1: as Kazuo Kooki, who lived nineteen thirty six through twenty

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Speaker 1: nineteen writer, creator of the He's the legendary Japanese manga writer, novelist, screenwriter, lyricist,

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Speaker 1: and entrepreneur, apparently best known for co creating the Lone

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Speaker 1: Wolf and Cub series, not only writing it but also

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Speaker 1: adapting it for the screen. In both of these the

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Speaker 1: pictures that are used to create Shogun Assassin. He'd continued

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Speaker 1: to do this with numerous other works of his that

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Speaker 1: were adapted to the screen, including nineteen seventy two's Hanzo

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Speaker 1: the Razor. He also wrote a Wolverine story for Marvel

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Speaker 1: I think I think it's from two thousand and three

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Speaker 1: X Men Unlimited Volume one, issue fifty, and he is

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Speaker 1: a member of the Eisner Hall of Fame. And then

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Speaker 1: the artists that were the manga artists that worked with

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Speaker 1: him on this was Goseki Kojima, who lived nineteen twenty

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Speaker 1: eight through two thousand. Yeah, he worked with him on

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Speaker 1: the Lone Wolf and Cub film, so very much a

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Speaker 1: part of the original alchemy of bringing this idea of

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Speaker 1: life on the page. All right, now turning to the

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Speaker 1: folks heading up Shogun Assassin, we have a Showgun Assassin

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Speaker 1: director and writer Robert Houston born nineteen fifty five. So

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Speaker 1: this individual is an Academy Award winning director for a

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four short form documentary titled Mighty Times

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Speaker 1: The Children's March. This was produced by HBO and the

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Speaker 1: Southern Poverty Loss Or dealing with the Birmingham, Alabama civil

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Speaker 1: rights Marches of the nineteen sixties. Long before this, though,

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Speaker 1: he played Bobby in Wes Craven's nineteen seventy seven Mutant

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Speaker 1: Mayhem movie The Hills Have Eyes. What I included a

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Speaker 1: still for you here, Joe. If anyone remembers, he's the

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Speaker 1: blonde kid in the T shirt. Okay, yeah, that's him.

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Speaker 1: That's our director.

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Speaker 3: Wow, paths Crossing. I had no idea.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. He appeared in a handful of late seventies and

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Speaker 1: early eighties pictures before heading up the Showgun Assassin project

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Speaker 1: for producer David Weissman, which would ultimately be released by

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Speaker 1: Roger Corman's New World Pictures. His subsequent directorial and writing

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Speaker 1: credits include an array of thrillers, erotica, an episode of

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Speaker 1: Doogie Howser MD, and of course, Academy Award winning documentary.

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Speaker 3: Shorts How Strange?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, All right now? David Weisman, who has mentioned He

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Speaker 1: is credit ded with as a writer and a producer

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Speaker 1: on this He lived nineteen forty two through twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: He was apparently part of a splinter group from Andy

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Speaker 1: Warhol's factory back in the sixties, and he went on

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Speaker 1: to produce such films as nineteen eighty five's Kiss of

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Speaker 1: the Spider Woman. All right, now, getting back into the

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Speaker 1: original Japanese cast, the actors who bring this picture to life,

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Speaker 1: it's Lone Wolf and Cub. So let's start with Lone Wolf.

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Speaker 1: The character of ogami Eto, the Shogun's executioner turned ronan.

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Speaker 1: He's played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, and he lived nineteen twenty

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Speaker 1: nine through nineteen ninety two.

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Speaker 3: He brings a lot to this movie in that he

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Speaker 3: is an absolutely lethal action hero, but he does not,

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Speaker 3: I don't know, he doesn't have a very active aura.

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Speaker 3: He brings a lot of stillness and patience. Do you

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Speaker 3: know what I'm getting at here?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, And I think it's it's something that's easy

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Speaker 1: to sort of not really process all the way, especially

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Speaker 1: if you're just watching Shogun Assassin, and maybe if you

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Speaker 1: just sort of have it on in the background or something.

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Speaker 1: But it begins to make more and more sense once

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Speaker 1: you really absorb the character, because you know, he doesn't

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Speaker 1: talk much, but it is a full body performance of

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Speaker 1: kind of this mix of silent honor and determination, but

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Speaker 1: all of it burning within this scowling husk of shame

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Speaker 1: and sorrow. Like he is a man who's been brought low,

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Speaker 1: who's been betrayed, who is marked for death, you know,

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Speaker 1: and all of these circumstances are out of his control,

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Speaker 1: but inwardly he's remaining true to his principles while the

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Speaker 1: whole world either turns their backs on him or turns

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Speaker 1: their blades on him. And then when he does unleash

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Speaker 1: his fury, oh man, it's just this fluid artery severing machinery.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 1: It's the and right down to when he's finished, like

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Speaker 1: the fluid sheathing of his sword.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 1: It's like a final signature on a regal contract of death.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 3: His presence in the action scenes is very much like

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Speaker 3: a he is a machine where the valve is closed

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Speaker 3: and then suddenly it explodes open and there is a

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Speaker 3: release of activity and then it closes again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's such a great performance. And when you

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Speaker 1: when you learn a little bit more about Wakayama. Uh,

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Speaker 1: Like his background makes sense when you see this, because

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Speaker 1: he was an accomplished kabooki actor uh and a judo

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Speaker 1: practitioner that you know that ended up then getting into

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Speaker 1: film acting. You know, so I can you can, I

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Speaker 1: can see that, like that control of the body, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, fluid movements, and and then like his his

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Speaker 1: ability to use these often like just smoldering facial expressions

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Speaker 1: you know, uh, like where he's not just scowling, He's

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Speaker 1: not just like, well, I'm gonna look like a like

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Speaker 1: like a bad ass for this scene. Like, no, there's

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Speaker 1: there there, there's stuff going on behind the eyes and

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Speaker 1: you can sense it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's something more uh sad and also in a

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Speaker 3: way threatening about the kind of the blankness that he

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Speaker 3: often brings.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, just just a wonderful performance, you know. He

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Speaker 1: he's mostly known for, you know, for these films, the

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Speaker 1: Lone Wolf and Cub films. He's in all of these

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Speaker 1: original six pictures. He also had some starring roles and

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Speaker 1: some other Toho Martial Arts films, but outside of Japan,

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Speaker 1: he only ever appeared in two Western films. He pops

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Speaker 1: up as a coach in nineteen seventy eight's The Bad

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Speaker 1: News Bears Go to Japan.

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Speaker 4: What.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't seen that one. But then he also

404
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:42,680
Speaker 1: has has a turn as a as a key yakuza

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Speaker 1: boss in Ridley Scott's Black Rain from nineteen eighty nine. Now,

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen that one either. It's, you know, one

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Speaker 1: of Ridley's like non sci fi fantasy films, so I've

408
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Speaker 1: never gotten around to it, but I've seen some stills.

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Speaker 1: He looks like he has a really smoldering presence, and

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Speaker 1: I think he gets to deliver a monologue that features

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Speaker 1: the title of the picture.

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Speaker 3: Oh Wow, nineteen eighty nine, Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Kate Capshaw. Yeah, oh,

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Speaker 3: this looks worth seeing.

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Speaker 1: I remember seeing trailers for it as a kid and

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Speaker 1: thinking like, oh, it's more Blade Runner, and then I realized,

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Speaker 1: oh wait, it's not Blade Runner. This takes place in

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Speaker 1: the real world, and then I don't watch it.

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Speaker 3: But hey, the poster is hilarious. I see Michael Douglas

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Speaker 3: there with his arms folded, like, yeah, what do you want.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like something like an American cop must go

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Speaker 1: to Japan to track a yukuza killer or something. I

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Speaker 1: don't know, but it may be great if you love

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Speaker 1: it right in and let us know. All right, So

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Speaker 1: that's our Lone Wolf, our Cub.

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Speaker 3: Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm imagining Michael Douglas doing like Fish

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Speaker 3: out of Water scenes where he like tries sushi for

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Speaker 3: the first time. He's like, oh, what is this?

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Speaker 1: I mean it was the nineteen eighties, but I hope

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Speaker 1: that's not what Black Rain is, but I know maybe,

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Speaker 1: so all right. Digoro is played by Akihiro Tamakawa born

431
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:08,760
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight.

432
00:25:09,280 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 3: Child actor.

433
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:12,920
Speaker 1: Cute kid, but like these are pretty much his only credits.

434
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,919
Speaker 1: But still I cannot stress enough how cute this kid is.

435
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:21,080
Speaker 1: Just such a cute kid. Show any clip that features

436
00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:25,480
Speaker 1: Lone Wolf and Cub to anyone in your vicinity, and

437
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,480
Speaker 1: that will at least be their one of their comments.

438
00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 3: Cute kid.

439
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,240
Speaker 1: A lot of spraying blood and so forth.

440
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,880
Speaker 3: He's even cute when he's operating like the switchblade knives

441
00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:37,159
Speaker 3: in his baby carriage.

442
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:39,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, he gets to kill too. Just one of the

443
00:25:39,920 --> 00:25:47,400
Speaker 1: interesting details, all right. The chief antagonist of this picture

444
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:50,440
Speaker 1: is this is kind of confusing.

445
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was mighty confused by.

446
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: This because when you watch Shogun Assassin, they talk a

447
00:25:57,840 --> 00:26:00,440
Speaker 1: lot about the Shogun, and they present the show is

448
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:06,959
Speaker 1: kind of like this evil, paranoid, corrupted ruler who is

449
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 1: just exacting his vengeance in paranoia on the entire nation.

450
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:14,439
Speaker 1: Like that's very much three and that's you know, ed

451
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:19,280
Speaker 1: works within the context of Shogun Assassin. But the character

452
00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: who they identify as the Showgun is absolutely not the

453
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: Shogun in the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

454
00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 3: I was so confused because the movie, the way it's edited,

455
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 3: makes it clear that he's supposed to be the Shogun,

456
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,720
Speaker 3: because like when the narration mentions the Shogun, they always

457
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 3: showed this guy's face. And then I was reading summaries

458
00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 3: of the plot that like, say, no, this guy isn't

459
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 3: the Shogun. He's like the head of the Ninja assassins,

460
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:47,800
Speaker 3: And I was like, well, that kind of makes sense

461
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 3: because he doesn't really look like he doesn't have shogun regalia, no,

462
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 3: not at all, And so yeah, it was I had

463
00:26:56,040 --> 00:26:57,880
Speaker 3: no idea what was going on here, but I did

464
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,760
Speaker 3: call him the Shogun in my plot summaries. Yeah, that's

465
00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 3: what we're gonna go with.

466
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:04,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's totally fair to call him the showgun within

467
00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:07,440
Speaker 1: the confines of shogun assassin, but within the confines of

468
00:27:07,480 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: the larger Lone Wolf and Cub series and the other

469
00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 1: six movies, this character is Yagyu Rotsuto, and he is. Yes,

470
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 1: he's the head of this group of ninja assassins. He is.

471
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: He's not the Showgun, he's one of them Showgun's many vassals,

472
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:30,440
Speaker 1: but he is working his own political agenda within the system.

473
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:35,080
Speaker 3: He really just doesn't have shogun energy either. He does

474
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 3: have big bad energy, but for a Western equivalent, he

475
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,800
Speaker 3: feels more like a like a resputant type character, like

476
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,919
Speaker 3: he's supposed to be a wicked mad monk or something.

477
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's the look he has, like this like

478
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: demon white hair and scowl like he out scowls are

479
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,159
Speaker 1: our Ronan here, you know, like he's just it's a

480
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: scowl off between these two. But yeah, Ratsuto is such

481
00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:04,200
Speaker 1: a great villain in this picture. Even even though he's

482
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: largely an orchestrator, we don't see him directly do anything.

483
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: And that's ultimately kind of the tragedy here. Because this

484
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 1: character is the long term antagonist of the series. There's

485
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 1: not going to be any payoff with him. This guy

486
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 1: is not getting assassinated, No, matter. Despite the title Showgun Assassin,

487
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 1: the Showgun's not getting it in this picture.

488
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, the target of our protagonist in the last scene

489
00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,160
Speaker 3: in the movie is some guy. It's like, who is this?

490
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: I think in Shogun Assassin they present him as the

491
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: Shogun's brother. Yes, but in the actual movie, the second

492
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 1: len Wolf and Cub film, it's like a guy who

493
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: is betraying an Indigo company in order to give trade

494
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: secrets to the Showgun. So it's like an entire subplot

495
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: that doesn't really directly. I mean, it does impact the Showgun,

496
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: but it's not the Shogun's brother.

497
00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 5: No.

498
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 3: The in Shogun Assassin they describe him as this evil

499
00:28:56,880 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 3: lord who's the brother of the Showgun and is oppressing

500
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 3: the people who hire the Lone Wolf.

501
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 1: But now he's like a corporate defector.

502
00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 3: But like, I don't recall if we ever meet him

503
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 3: much in the movie before this, I mean maybe a little,

504
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 3: but yeah.

505
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, so at any rate, you can call him Shogun,

506
00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:18,960
Speaker 1: you can call him Ratsudo. But this character is played

507
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:23,120
Speaker 1: by Yunosuki Ito, who lived nineteen nineteen through nineteen eighty,

508
00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 1: a well regarded Japanese character actor who appeared in more

509
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: than two hundred films from between nineteen thirty two and

510
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:34,520
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, with parts ranging from hammi performances, which

511
00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: I'm to understand are referred to as radish performances in

512
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: Japanese culture because yeah, apparently he wrote a memoir and

513
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, like a memoir of a

514
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,600
Speaker 1: radish performer or something, you know. But he played everything

515
00:29:49,600 --> 00:29:54,120
Speaker 1: from like comedic characters to memorable villains. His credits include

516
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:59,160
Speaker 1: Kurosawa's films Ikiu and fifty two Sandjuro and sixty two

517
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 1: High and Low, sixty three He Is. He's also known

518
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:06,520
Speaker 1: for a dual role in the classic ninja film Shinobi Nomono,

519
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 1: which I think this is one that we mentioned in

520
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 1: passing in our episodes on the Ninjas. This is a

521
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: picture from nineteen sixty two, and it was an award

522
00:30:13,840 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 1: winning performance. There's also a picture called Obamb exclamation Point

523
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,480
Speaker 1: from nineteen sixty four that said to be a great

524
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:25,280
Speaker 1: example of his comedic work. I included a still from

525
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 1: Obamb where you can see him like plugging his ears

526
00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: with his fingers and you know, clear comedic performance here he's.

527
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 3: Doing kind of a Don Knat's face.

528
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's that style of comedy. So yeah, I

529
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: love Eto so much in this as the villain Ritsudo,

530
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 1: but sadly he did not return to play the part

531
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 1: in subsequent films. But here we have just this brooding,

532
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:53,640
Speaker 1: demonic visage of a man just grading with hatred. And

533
00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 1: I have to say the English dub in Shogun Assassin,

534
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 1: I feel it does very accurately capture the essence of

535
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: his original Japanese language dialogue as well. Just that just

536
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 1: that grating, like teeth grinding level of a venom in

537
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 1: his voice. Yeah, just like you want this guy or

538
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: you maybe you don't want this guy to show up

539
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:16,360
Speaker 1: outside your door everything every time you do something wrong,

540
00:31:16,560 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: like thee in your place.

541
00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 3: Yeah.

542
00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:19,120
Speaker 1: Uh.

543
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 3: They they fit him in well as the Shogun with

544
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 3: the narration, at least because, as Daigoro explains that the

545
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 3: Shogun was paranoid and saw enemies everywhere, and this guy

546
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 3: looks like that. He's his eyes are always shifting back

547
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 3: and forth real quick to you know, see enemies coming

548
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:40,680
Speaker 3: from any corner. He's he looks suspicious and frightened and angry,

549
00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 3: and also has that that general look of someone who's

550
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 3: like the not wellness of their mind has affected their body,

551
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 3: like he looks kind of decrepit in some way.

552
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 1: Absolutely so again, Showgun Assassin does not have time for

553
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,840
Speaker 1: all the politics. They simplify everything. But it's it's a

554
00:31:56,840 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: good at it in terms of just presenting a picture

555
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,880
Speaker 1: that the grindhouse audience can enjoy in a villain they

556
00:32:02,920 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 1: can who anah at.

557
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,320
Speaker 3: This movie has so many villains.

558
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because we also have we have numerous heads

559
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,720
Speaker 1: of different Ninja assassin clans and I'm not even we

560
00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: can't even get into all of those, but one of

561
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:18,040
Speaker 1: the key one, but I would say the key one

562
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:22,080
Speaker 1: that also ends up becoming an ally of sorts is

563
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,800
Speaker 1: the Supreme Ninja. This is Yagyu Sayaka played by Keo

564
00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: Matsuo born nineteen forty three, our female ninja master of

565
00:32:31,360 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: Exceptional Skill. She's perhaps best known for this role, but

566
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:38,440
Speaker 1: she was also in nineteen sixty nine's Outlaw Gangster VIP

567
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,960
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four's gat of Flesh. In nineteen seventy is

568
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: the Vampire Doll.

569
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 3: So she plays the head of a clan of ninja

570
00:32:46,040 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 3: who are all women who sort of they do the

571
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 3: operate in disguise and sneak attack stuff and her ninja

572
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 3: are said to be the best, and she is. I

573
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 3: would say, of all the enemies that Lone Wolf faces

574
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:01,400
Speaker 3: in the movie, she is the one who gets closest

575
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 3: to getting the better of him.

576
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right. But also I think she gets

577
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:06,920
Speaker 1: a little too close to his heart.

578
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,200
Speaker 3: She gets in with a net. It's hard to beat

579
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:11,880
Speaker 3: a net, you know.

580
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 4: Yeah.

581
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's effective in combat against and they have a

582
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: great fight scene. I mean, all the fight scenes are great.

583
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,800
Speaker 1: But other thing worth mentioning is that in Shogun Assassin,

584
00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: she is I believe, dubbed by comedian and actress Sandra

585
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:28,880
Speaker 1: Bernhardt in nineteen fifty five. I'm not saying it's a

586
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 1: great dub, but apparently this is Sandra Bernhard.

587
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 3: All right.

588
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:39,719
Speaker 1: There are some other heads of different ninja groups that

589
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: we could mention if we have more time. But I

590
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 1: do want to mention that we have not one, not two,

591
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: but three masters of death in this picture that show

592
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:54,520
Speaker 1: up late in the movie as essentially like the main bosses.

593
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,760
Speaker 3: Their outfits, in particular their hats might be quite familiar

594
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 3: to fans of Big Trouble and Little China.

595
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Three Storms and Big Trouble Little China are

596
00:34:03,720 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 1: clearly based in part in large part on the look

597
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:09,840
Speaker 1: of the Masters of Death aka the Monks of Death

598
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: aka the Hidari Brothers. They're not sorcerers like the Three Storms.

599
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:19,920
Speaker 1: They are just masters of martial arts and they depend on

600
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: particular weapons. Let's see, what is it, the like the

601
00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:27,840
Speaker 1: flying maces, the like the spike gloves.

602
00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:31,879
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's like a like a Gardening Claus kind of thing. Yeah,

603
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 3: there's a there's like a glove with spikes on the fist,

604
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 3: and there's a club with nails in it.

605
00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:37,280
Speaker 4: Yeah.

606
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,720
Speaker 1: So yeah, these are the Masters of Death. The lead

607
00:34:41,120 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: Master of Death is Binma Hidari played by Minoru Oki,

608
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:48,480
Speaker 1: who lived nineteen twenty three through two thousand and nine,

609
00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,160
Speaker 1: Japanese actor best known for his work in the Lone

610
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: Wolf and Cub films. Because not only does he play

611
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,080
Speaker 1: the lead Master or Monk of Death here, but he

612
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: returned to the Lone Wolf and Cub series in films

613
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 1: five six to play his own version of the chief villain,

614
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 1: Yagyu Ritsudo.

615
00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,400
Speaker 3: Oh. Okay, so he replaces the actor who in this

616
00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 3: movie is is twisted into being the Shogun.

617
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: Right yeah, so yeah. The character shows up much later

618
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:17,880
Speaker 1: and so I believe he is the actor playing the

619
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:22,440
Speaker 1: character when vengeance and or assassination finally does occur.

620
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 3: Okay.

621
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 1: He was also in nineteen sixty nine Horrors of Malformed Men,

622
00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:29,879
Speaker 1: which we've mentioned on the show before. And I'll also

623
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: mention that one of the other Masters of Death, this

624
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: is the Karuma Hidari I forget which weapon he uses,

625
00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 1: is played by Shin Kashida, who lived nineteen thirty nine

626
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:42,560
Speaker 1: through nineteen eighty two, a supporting actor best known for

627
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,400
Speaker 1: this film, as well as Godzilla Versus Mecha Godzilla from

628
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 1: seventy four, Lady Snowblood two, and then two different Dracula films,

629
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:53,839
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one's Lake of Dracula in nineteen seventy four

630
00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:56,120
Speaker 1: is Evil of Dracula, which I think you could also

631
00:35:56,280 --> 00:36:00,879
Speaker 1: maybe referred to as Principle of Dracula. That's one. It's

632
00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:03,200
Speaker 1: on my list now. I really want to see Evil

633
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: of Dracula.

634
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:07,320
Speaker 3: Okay, all right.

635
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,520
Speaker 1: But let's get back to the music here again. This

636
00:36:10,600 --> 00:36:14,799
Speaker 1: is what drew me into watching Shogun Assassin in the

637
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,400
Speaker 1: first place. And we've already talked a little about just

638
00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,520
Speaker 1: how about how effective the synth score is. Now the

639
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:26,279
Speaker 1: original films were scored by Iikens Sakura and Hideika Sakurai,

640
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,799
Speaker 1: and I think some of their original music remains in

641
00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,719
Speaker 1: Showgun Assassin. I could be wrong on that. But more

642
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:36,040
Speaker 1: to the point, we have this just deliriously great synth

643
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:38,320
Speaker 1: score added to the picture. And this is the work

644
00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:42,360
Speaker 1: of Mark Lindsay born nineteen forty two and W Michael Lewis.

645
00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:43,080
Speaker 4: So.

646
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've ever used this term applied

647
00:36:46,239 --> 00:36:49,640
Speaker 3: to music before, but sometimes we say of an actor

648
00:36:50,719 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 3: that we admire that they're really committed to the role,

649
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 3: meaning that they're they're not holding back anything for fear

650
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 3: of embarrassment. They're not trying to be more subtle than

651
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:05,400
Speaker 3: is required. They just go headfirst all the way in.

652
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 3: This is the first movie I've ever seen where I

653
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,400
Speaker 3: would say that about the music. The music is just

654
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 3: committed to the feeling. They are not holding back anything.

655
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:19,800
Speaker 3: This just unabashed, pure feeling made into vibrations.

656
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, it's just a terrific score and it's interesting

657
00:37:26,239 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 1: looking at these two individuals. So. Mark Lindsay was the

658
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,320
Speaker 1: vocalist and sax player for the American rock band Paul

659
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,240
Speaker 1: Revere and the Raiders from nineteen fifty eight through nineteen

660
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: seventy five. Joe, are you familiar at all with Paul

661
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:39,800
Speaker 1: Revere and the Raiders.

662
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:42,640
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, I mean this was some of my parents' music.

663
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 3: I remember when I was younger, Like, I remember kicks,

664
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 3: you know, kicks just keep getting harder to find.

665
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I this was also some of my parents' music.

666
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 1: I specifically remember going through the records at my grandmother's house.

667
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: It would have been like the records of my mom's

668
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:01,040
Speaker 1: and also her sisters, and find a Paul Revere and

669
00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:04,600
Speaker 1: the Raiders album in there, And I remember just thinking, man,

670
00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:07,680
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties just looks so lame, Like this is

671
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:10,560
Speaker 1: the lamest thing I've ever seen, because if you're not familiar,

672
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:16,960
Speaker 1: their whole shtick visually was dressing up as Revolutionary War soldiers.

673
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: You know, they had these Revolutionary War costumes, which I mean,

674
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,319
Speaker 1: I guess maybe I've ever heard like was it cool

675
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: at the time. I guess it was people dug it.

676
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,520
Speaker 1: But I remember just thinking this just looks super lame.

677
00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:34,560
Speaker 3: Is there supposed to be? Like, so if it's Paul Revere,

678
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,920
Speaker 3: is it like the British are coming? Like British invasion music?

679
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 3: Is that all thing.

680
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:41,040
Speaker 1: I guess it's like, yeah, it's like a counter to

681
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,799
Speaker 1: the British invasion, and that would that would have been

682
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 1: lost on me as a as a child looking at this,

683
00:38:46,080 --> 00:38:48,799
Speaker 1: all I knew at the time was that what's the

684
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:53,799
Speaker 1: most boring thing in school? It's it's American history. At

685
00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 1: the time. I'm not saying that as an adult, American

686
00:38:56,200 --> 00:38:59,560
Speaker 1: history is fascinating, but at the time, the idea of

687
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,359
Speaker 1: Revolutionary War themed music was not like a great cell

688
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: But to be clear, Paul Revere and the Raiders not

689
00:39:07,760 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: super lame. They had some real gems, some real jams,

690
00:39:10,200 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: if you will.

691
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:14,200
Speaker 3: I understand it from the school perspective. Yeah, it's like

692
00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:17,680
Speaker 3: the band is where their theme is. They're all math textbooks.

693
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was like they were textbook themed.

694
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: So anyway, Yeah, they have some, they have some. They

695
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 1: have some great music. I went, I'd never really gotten

696
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: into their stuff, but I did make sure that I

697
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:29,839
Speaker 1: listened to some of their tracks. They have a great

698
00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:34,239
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one cover of Indian Reservation So solid group.

699
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,560
Speaker 1: Mark turned to film scoring in the nineteen seventies for

700
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 1: a bet w Michael Lewis, for his part, was a

701
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:44,239
Speaker 1: music producer who got into scoring with nineteen seventy eight

702
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:47,279
Speaker 1: Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, and he'd go on to

703
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:51,080
Speaker 1: score nineteen eighties New Year's Evil, nineteen eighty one's Enter

704
00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,960
Speaker 1: the Ninja, and also the TV series In Search of

705
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: starring Letter Tame like Oh.

706
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 3: I saw that when I looked him up.

707
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: A couple of nineteen eighty seven releases Maximum Potential and

708
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:03,960
Speaker 1: Hot Child in the City.

709
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:06,399
Speaker 3: Sorry, I had to stop and remember what the name

710
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,000
Speaker 3: of this other Bermuda Triangle movie I was thinking of was.

711
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 1: No.

712
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:11,319
Speaker 3: The one I was thinking of is a made for

713
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:15,479
Speaker 3: TV movie from nineteen also from nineteen seventy eight called

714
00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 3: The Bermuda Depths, which starred Carl Weathers in the shortest

715
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 3: shorts ever made and also had burl ives as I

716
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:28,400
Speaker 3: think a marine biologist or something. But it's ultimately it's

717
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,600
Speaker 3: about a giant turtle that attacks a boat.

718
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: I think you made me watch the climax from this picture.

719
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:37,040
Speaker 3: And it looked not the best.

720
00:40:37,640 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: It looked incredible. Maybe we'll come back to it, maybe

721
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:47,200
Speaker 1: so anyway, Yeah, the music for Shogun Assassin, I think

722
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,640
Speaker 1: it's just tremendous. Again, de Goro's theme is not only

723
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:53,960
Speaker 1: I think the best track on the score, but it's

724
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: just an amazing and emotional number in its own right.

725
00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:58,680
Speaker 1: Like it's one of these where I was listening to

726
00:40:58,719 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: it earlier and it was like, is this one of

727
00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: my favorite songs? Now I think this is currently one

728
00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 1: of the greatest musical compositions of all time. My opinions

729
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: will change, obviously, but right now it's really doing it

730
00:41:10,520 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: for me.

731
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:13,799
Speaker 3: It's so good, Like I said, not holding anything back.

732
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 3: You can imagine somebody being like, oh, is this music.

733
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:19,799
Speaker 3: I don't know, should we make it a little more

734
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:23,759
Speaker 3: subtle little but no, it's just it's just the raw

735
00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:29,719
Speaker 3: power of feeling unleashed. Something feels absolutely unabashed about it,

736
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:30,640
Speaker 3: and I love.

737
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:33,040
Speaker 1: It, And it's perfect for a film that again is

738
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 1: a Samurai reduction. You know, it had two films reduced

739
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: into one. You know, just the most dizzying moments of

740
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 1: psychedelia or bloody violence condensed into a single picture that

741
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really Again, it's a testament that they

742
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: were to the film, that the American filmmakers here, that

743
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:55,680
Speaker 1: they were able to take part one and Part two

744
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:58,560
Speaker 1: in this series and make a single picture out of

745
00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:01,920
Speaker 1: it that works this well. Yeah, the score here by

746
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 1: the way to Shogun Assassin is available wherever you stream

747
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:07,760
Speaker 1: your music, and there are CD and vinyl versions as well.

748
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:09,960
Speaker 1: I do not know if there is like a blood

749
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,600
Speaker 1: red vinyl edition of this soundtrack, but there needs to be.

750
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,960
Speaker 3: If you listen to it, at least the version that

751
00:42:17,040 --> 00:42:19,760
Speaker 3: I heard on Spotify. It includes some of the narration

752
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 3: from the movie as well.

753
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:24,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so good. That also made me tear up,

754
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,960
Speaker 1: like on an airplane listening to this. You know, people

755
00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:29,680
Speaker 1: are like, are you okay, And I'm like, I'm just

756
00:42:29,680 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 1: listening to the Shogun Assassin soundtrack, man, that's all. That's

757
00:42:32,640 --> 00:42:33,879
Speaker 1: all that's going on here. I'm good.

758
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,480
Speaker 3: This is funny. How similar are our experiences were? I

759
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:41,680
Speaker 3: also had embarrassing emotional episodes Digoros theme specifically.

760
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, let's get into that plot of Shogun Assassin.

761
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 3: All right, Well, we have already mentioned how strong the

762
00:42:56,640 --> 00:43:01,360
Speaker 3: movie kicks off. So the introductory segment has a child's

763
00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 3: voice narrating as we see a montage of scenes play out,

764
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 3: and this is the voice of Digoro, the Cub of

765
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,719
Speaker 3: Lone Wolf and Cub. So the introductory narration plays over

766
00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:17,800
Speaker 3: this dark melody on synthesizer bas the sound of absolute doom,

767
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,640
Speaker 3: and we hear the child's voice say, when I was little,

768
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:25,320
Speaker 3: my father was famous. He was the greatest samurai in

769
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:29,839
Speaker 3: the empire, and he was the Shogun's decapitator. He cut

770
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:32,440
Speaker 3: off the heads of one hundred and thirty one lords

771
00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:36,840
Speaker 3: for the shogun. And as this narration is going on,

772
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:41,240
Speaker 3: we see our protagonist walk into the frame the silent

773
00:43:41,280 --> 00:43:45,600
Speaker 3: ogami Eto. His eyes are downcast, he moves slowly. He

774
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:50,400
Speaker 3: has a blank, lugubrious expression. And then we see Ito's

775
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,800
Speaker 3: blade twisting and gleaming in the light. And then suddenly

776
00:43:54,800 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 3: there's like a shadow playlet entirely in red and just

777
00:43:59,040 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 3: the silhouettes of the human figures in the foreground, and

778
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 3: we see a man kneeling to receive a death sentence

779
00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:08,560
Speaker 3: and another man, presumably our protagonist here, bringing a sword

780
00:44:08,680 --> 00:44:09,560
Speaker 3: down on his neck.

781
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: And to be clear, if you have to have your

782
00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:15,160
Speaker 1: head cut off, this is the guy you want to

783
00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 1: do it. This guy is the ultimate pro.

784
00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:20,759
Speaker 3: It reminds me of our series on the Invention of

785
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:24,279
Speaker 3: the guillotine, where we were talking about how bad a

786
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 3: lot of professional executioners were and like they just couldn't

787
00:44:27,840 --> 00:44:30,000
Speaker 3: like it took them way too many tries to get

788
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 3: it done.

789
00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, a gami eto one one swipe every time, guaranteed.

790
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,719
Speaker 3: If you want some real oof historical reading, look up

791
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:38,760
Speaker 3: Jack Ketch.

792
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:43,799
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember some of these details. And it

793
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 1: was also I recently visited the revisited the Tower of London,

794
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: so I got I got to read more about some

795
00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:52,719
Speaker 1: of these these execution facts. Yeah, but they did not

796
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,359
Speaker 1: have the shoguns mastered decapitator on hand.

797
00:44:57,280 --> 00:45:00,640
Speaker 3: So Diegoro's narration goes on. He says it was a

798
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 3: bad time for the empire. The shogun just stayed inside

799
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:07,200
Speaker 3: his castle and he never came out. People said his

800
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:10,360
Speaker 3: brain was infected by devils and that he was rotting

801
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 3: with evil. The shogun said the people were not loyal.

802
00:45:14,320 --> 00:45:16,359
Speaker 3: He said he had a lot of enemies, but he

803
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,720
Speaker 3: killed more people than that. Then we see a castle.

804
00:45:20,200 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 3: The gate swing open, revealing sort of a court to

805
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:26,239
Speaker 3: a bunch of entourage of people and a ruler. And

806
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:28,800
Speaker 3: here's where I was originally going to break and discuss.

807
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,360
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, is the guy we're seeing here the shogun?

808
00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 3: But we already had that conversation, not originally, but in

809
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,600
Speaker 3: Shogun Assassin, that is what is implied. He is the Shogun.

810
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:41,800
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, so we're just going to continue referring to

811
00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 1: him as the Shogun just for the simplicity's sake here.

812
00:45:45,040 --> 00:45:49,280
Speaker 1: And you know, oh, I do love this narration because

813
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:52,239
Speaker 1: there is a simplicity to it that also works not

814
00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,440
Speaker 1: only for the project that is Shogun Assassin, but also

815
00:45:56,120 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: the idea that this is a child's recollection and the

816
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:03,080
Speaker 1: child is working for from a much simpler view of

817
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:07,920
Speaker 1: right and wrong and good and evil in his known universe.

818
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,919
Speaker 3: Interesting. Yeah, and I guess implied by that, you're saying

819
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 3: this might be sort of a child's memory of the

820
00:46:14,080 --> 00:46:16,320
Speaker 3: Shogun in which he looks almost like a monster.

821
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think you could lean into that kind

822
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:19,719
Speaker 1: of interpretation.

823
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:23,799
Speaker 3: So he's got wild, uncombed white hair and beard that's

824
00:46:24,040 --> 00:46:27,440
Speaker 3: blowing around in the wind like a mass of cobwebs. Also,

825
00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:31,160
Speaker 3: he has flaring white eyebrows, his teeth are clenched, he's

826
00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:34,279
Speaker 3: got dark eyes, and his eyes just keep jerking back

827
00:46:34,280 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 3: and forth, suspicions suspiciously the Shogun is not well. And

828
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 3: then we see the shogun soldiers leading bound men up

829
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,360
Speaker 3: a mountain side with their hands tied behind their back

830
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:49,200
Speaker 3: to a chaotic mass execution in the gravel beside a

831
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:53,760
Speaker 3: small tarn. The narration goes on. It was a bad time,

832
00:46:54,320 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 3: everybody living in fear, but still we were happy. My

833
00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:01,040
Speaker 3: father would come home to mother, and when he had

834
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:04,240
Speaker 3: seen her, he would forget about the killings. He wasn't

835
00:47:04,280 --> 00:47:07,399
Speaker 3: scared of the shogun, but the shogun was scared of him.

836
00:47:08,080 --> 00:47:11,279
Speaker 3: Maybe that was the problem. And so here we see

837
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:13,799
Speaker 3: a brief glimpse of the family's life at home, the

838
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:17,280
Speaker 3: mother nursing the baby's son at their house, rain pouring

839
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:20,279
Speaker 3: into the small bamboo forest outside, and I think the

840
00:47:20,440 --> 00:47:22,880
Speaker 3: sort of weather is a metaphor. Here there's love and

841
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:26,400
Speaker 3: comfort inside, but not outside where the weather is bad.

842
00:47:27,239 --> 00:47:29,799
Speaker 3: And the father comes home and undresses. He takes his

843
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:32,400
Speaker 3: baby in his arms, and the mother says that she

844
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 3: had a bad dream, but the father calms her and

845
00:47:35,080 --> 00:47:37,680
Speaker 3: says to the baby, what a time you chose to

846
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:42,839
Speaker 3: be born? Igoro. The narration goes on. At night, mother

847
00:47:42,880 --> 00:47:45,239
Speaker 3: would sing for us, while father would go into his

848
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 3: temple and pray for peace. He'd pray for things to

849
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,120
Speaker 3: get better. Then one night the shogun sent his ninja

850
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 3: spies to our house. They were supposed to kill my father,

851
00:47:56,080 --> 00:48:00,080
Speaker 3: but they didn't. Here we see ninja scaling the wall

852
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:03,239
Speaker 3: and sneaking into their home. And there, if you go

853
00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 3: back to our Ninja episodes from a while back, we

854
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:08,440
Speaker 3: see some stuff we talked about there, some equipment, like

855
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:12,719
Speaker 3: the ninja are carrying swords between their teeth out and

856
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:16,000
Speaker 3: they climb up on ropes on grappling hooks. And so

857
00:48:16,080 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 3: the father is praying in his temple while with the

858
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,800
Speaker 3: baby in his arms, and then he hears his wife's

859
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:24,160
Speaker 3: scream from the other end of the house. By the

860
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 3: time he gets there, she's mortally wounded and the ninja

861
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:29,799
Speaker 3: are gone, and the dying mother tells the father that

862
00:48:29,880 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 3: he must protect their son. The narration tells us that

863
00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:37,480
Speaker 3: was the night everything changed forever. That was when my

864
00:48:37,560 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 3: father left his samurai life and became a demon. He

865
00:48:41,600 --> 00:48:45,000
Speaker 3: became an assassin who walks the road of vengeance, and

866
00:48:45,040 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 3: he took me with him. And then at this moment

867
00:48:48,120 --> 00:48:52,120
Speaker 3: we see a scene of the dynamic that will be

868
00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:54,439
Speaker 3: treated as sort of the ground reality for the rest

869
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 3: of the movie. The father trudging along lonely, desolate roads,

870
00:48:58,760 --> 00:49:01,759
Speaker 3: pushing a wooden cart and the baby son riding in

871
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 3: the cart. Daigo says, I don't remember most of this myself.

872
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:10,080
Speaker 3: I only remember the Shogun's ninja hunting us wherever we go,

873
00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:13,000
Speaker 3: and the body's falling and the blood.

874
00:49:14,440 --> 00:49:17,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is the like, this is the key

875
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:21,879
Speaker 1: component of Lone Wolf and Cub that has been highly influential.

876
00:49:22,160 --> 00:49:24,600
Speaker 1: So if you out there are a fan of the

877
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:29,239
Speaker 1: Mandalorian series, like the Mandalorian is quite clearly and you know,

878
00:49:29,320 --> 00:49:32,520
Speaker 1: the creators are very upfront about this, very much inspired

879
00:49:32,560 --> 00:49:36,080
Speaker 1: by Lone Wolf and Cub. You know, a warrior protecting

880
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 1: a child, you know, hunted by enemies, but you know,

881
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 1: standing by the child to protect them, and especially with

882
00:49:46,680 --> 00:49:49,800
Speaker 1: Lone Wolf and Cub, I couldn't help. But also compare

883
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,920
Speaker 1: it to the two thousand and six novel by Cormick McCarthy,

884
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:55,960
Speaker 1: The Road, in which a father and his son traverse

885
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:59,600
Speaker 1: a doomed landscape where there's ever present danger and the

886
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,720
Speaker 1: father's entire existence is to still down to the protection

887
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,040
Speaker 1: of his son. Quote. He knew only that his child

888
00:50:06,160 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: was his warrant. He said, if he is not the

889
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 1: word of God, God never spoke. You know that that

890
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 1: kind of vibe. So, I mean, I don't know the

891
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:18,600
Speaker 1: Court McCarthy ever watched Shogun Assassin, but you know, I

892
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:21,839
Speaker 1: think they're scratching the same itch here. But I think

893
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,160
Speaker 1: it's something that you know, a lot of us can

894
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 1: relate to. You know, certainly if if there is a

895
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,720
Speaker 1: child in your life where there has been a child

896
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:32,640
Speaker 1: in your life, where you have this role as a

897
00:50:33,200 --> 00:50:35,560
Speaker 1: as a protector, like, it's easy to sort of lean

898
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:39,200
Speaker 1: into this. I think ultimately, you know, very distilled idea

899
00:50:39,360 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 1: of what your responsibility is. You know, in the same

900
00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:46,560
Speaker 1: way that zombie films are enthralling because it simplifies good

901
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:48,960
Speaker 1: and evil into like you know, and in us versus them.

902
00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:51,719
Speaker 1: It's like this kind of the lone wolf and cub

903
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 1: model reduces everything down to I must protect my child

904
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:58,960
Speaker 1: from ninjas, you know. And you know, we get to

905
00:50:59,040 --> 00:50:59,799
Speaker 1: some degree that is.

906
00:50:59,800 --> 00:51:03,879
Speaker 3: Act yeah, and so, and we get that demonstrated here

907
00:51:03,880 --> 00:51:06,320
Speaker 3: because here we go to the very first action scene

908
00:51:06,320 --> 00:51:10,160
Speaker 3: in the film, the attack by ninja wearing baskets over

909
00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:14,200
Speaker 3: their heads, which is amazingly creepy and memorable. So it

910
00:51:14,600 --> 00:51:18,080
Speaker 3: begins with one man running toward the father and son

911
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 3: from a distance. They're on the road. He's pushing the

912
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:23,439
Speaker 3: cart there just in the middle of nowhere, and there's

913
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 3: someone running toward them, sword in hand, his head completely

914
00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 3: covered in a basket like a helmet with a mask

915
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,280
Speaker 3: in the front. There's kind of a grating in the basket,

916
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 3: but you can't see his face. And there's a long

917
00:51:34,920 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 3: build up as the ninja draws closer, and then finally,

918
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:41,480
Speaker 3: when he's in within striking distance, the father just suddenly

919
00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:45,400
Speaker 3: flicks his sword and cleaves the ninja's head through the basket,

920
00:51:45,719 --> 00:51:48,960
Speaker 3: with the ninja catching the blade between his hands as

921
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:53,880
Speaker 3: he dies. And then a second ninja leaps out from

922
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 3: behind the first, springs from his dying partner's shoulders and

923
00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:01,480
Speaker 3: tries to land a killing stroke while his while the

924
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:05,000
Speaker 3: father's sword is stuck. But the father is too crafty.

925
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,560
Speaker 3: He pulls a hidden second weapon from the cart, which

926
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,399
Speaker 3: is a bamboo pole with a retractable blade in it,

927
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,440
Speaker 3: and he skewers the attacker in mid air. And so

928
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:17,400
Speaker 3: then as the first ninja collapses with his dying breath,

929
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:20,800
Speaker 3: he tells the father, you are marked for death. Wherever

930
00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,520
Speaker 3: you go, you cannot escape the showgun.

931
00:52:24,360 --> 00:52:29,040
Speaker 1: Oh, it's such a strong start this scene is not

932
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:31,840
Speaker 1: only is it from the second film Lone Wolf and

933
00:52:31,880 --> 00:52:34,719
Speaker 1: Cub Baby cart at the River Sticks. It is the

934
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:37,920
Speaker 1: cold open to that picture, like he just goes straight

935
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:42,160
Speaker 1: to this encounter, and it's a little longer in the

936
00:52:42,200 --> 00:52:44,320
Speaker 1: original cut obviously.

937
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:44,799
Speaker 4: But.

938
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:48,879
Speaker 1: I have several thoughts of this same. First of all,

939
00:52:48,880 --> 00:52:51,439
Speaker 1: in the Showgun Assassin cut, I believe the second area

940
00:52:51,520 --> 00:52:54,440
Speaker 1: assassin that leaps over the shoulders of the first, I

941
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:59,799
Speaker 1: believe he says ninja is he? Which is great with

942
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:04,360
Speaker 1: an the context of Showgun Assassin, But of course in reality,

943
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:06,399
Speaker 1: I don't know that as a ninja you would say

944
00:53:06,520 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 1: ninja as you attack somebody, But still I love it. Secondly, yeah, okay,

945
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:17,320
Speaker 1: back to the first assassin though. Yeah, he apparently tries

946
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:21,440
Speaker 1: to pull off this maneuver that is known in Japanese manga, anime,

947
00:53:21,520 --> 00:53:26,719
Speaker 1: and cinema as a shinkin shiradori. This is where you

948
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:29,920
Speaker 1: catch the blade with between your palms before it can

949
00:53:29,920 --> 00:53:32,640
Speaker 1: cut into you, and then if you're really sadly maybe

950
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:34,840
Speaker 1: you do a special twist to sort of like throw

951
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:39,239
Speaker 1: the attacker to the side. This has become like a standard,

952
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:43,520
Speaker 1: not only in manga, in Japanese cinema but throughout like

953
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:46,880
Speaker 1: action picture the action picture world. Like for instance, in

954
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:49,880
Speaker 1: Blade two, the day Walker pulls this move off kind

955
00:53:49,920 --> 00:53:53,600
Speaker 1: of lad in the picture to great effect, but in reality,

956
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:57,040
Speaker 1: I'm to understand this is impossible for a human swordsman

957
00:53:57,080 --> 00:53:59,239
Speaker 1: to pull off. I think there's a MythBusters episode where

958
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,800
Speaker 1: they look into it, and I think the word the

959
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: term shinkin shihradori. I think it originally referred to some

960
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:10,440
Speaker 1: sort of maneuver that keeps your opponent from even drawing

961
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:13,359
Speaker 1: their sword. So like, that's the time to stop it

962
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:17,960
Speaker 1: not coming through the air at your head. Yeah, but

963
00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 1: what makes this sequence so amazing is that you know

964
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 1: you're going up against the greatest swordsman that's ever lived.

965
00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:28,000
Speaker 1: You're trying to counter his deathly sword strike, and he

966
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: does not get all of that counter move. Yeah, it's

967
00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:33,120
Speaker 1: like maybe he stops it from cleaving his head all

968
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,560
Speaker 1: the way through, but it has already entered the brain

969
00:54:35,640 --> 00:54:36,200
Speaker 1: at this point.

970
00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:39,359
Speaker 3: But it almost seems like this was the plan, Like

971
00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:42,120
Speaker 3: the plan is that the father will get his sword

972
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:45,359
Speaker 3: stuck in the first ninja and the second one will

973
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:47,799
Speaker 3: use that moment to strike. Did you get it the

974
00:54:47,840 --> 00:54:48,360
Speaker 3: same way?

975
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:51,080
Speaker 1: Absolutely? And that's a little more clear in the original

976
00:54:51,080 --> 00:54:53,600
Speaker 1: cut of this action sequence, but I think it still

977
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:55,959
Speaker 1: comes through in Shogun Assassin as well. But yeah, it's

978
00:54:56,280 --> 00:54:58,840
Speaker 1: a great start to the combat because this is going

979
00:54:58,920 --> 00:55:00,080
Speaker 1: to set the tone.

980
00:55:00,200 --> 00:55:02,720
Speaker 3: So after the intro, we see the father and sons

981
00:55:02,760 --> 00:55:05,279
Speaker 3: sitting together at a campfire in the middle of a

982
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:08,719
Speaker 3: thick forest. They're eating something white. I think it's rice

983
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:11,760
Speaker 3: balls or maybe buns or something, and they're just sitting

984
00:55:11,840 --> 00:55:15,439
Speaker 3: there staring blankly into the fire, and the child's voice

985
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:19,560
Speaker 3: over continues. He says, my father hardly ever talks anymore.

986
00:55:19,920 --> 00:55:22,759
Speaker 3: We just go a little farther every day at night,

987
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:25,400
Speaker 3: we make a fire and have our tea, and we

988
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,279
Speaker 3: listen for the ninja who never make a sound. I

989
00:55:29,400 --> 00:55:33,440
Speaker 3: like that part. Same Diego says, sometimes he tells me

990
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:36,319
Speaker 3: about the past and about mother. I try not to

991
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:39,520
Speaker 3: think about it, but my father can't help it. Sometimes

992
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:43,120
Speaker 3: he gets lost in the past. And here we're about

993
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:46,280
Speaker 3: to see a couple of flashback scenes from before Lone

994
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,319
Speaker 3: Wolf and cub Win on the Run. The first is

995
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 3: after the death of Azami Diego's mother. This is the

996
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:58,399
Speaker 3: sword and ball scene where the father he's grieving. He's

997
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:01,920
Speaker 3: not in his right mind, and Asdigo with him in

998
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:05,200
Speaker 3: his temple. They're both dressed in white, and the father says,

999
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,480
Speaker 3: today I begin walking the road to hell, but you

1000
00:56:08,560 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 3: will choose your own path. And he offers a sword

1001
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:15,279
Speaker 3: and a toy ball. And so the idea is, he says,

1002
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:18,120
Speaker 3: choose the sword and the child will join his father

1003
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:21,000
Speaker 3: on the road to hell. Choose the toy and the

1004
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:24,560
Speaker 3: child will join his mother in heaven. And there's some suspense,

1005
00:56:24,680 --> 00:56:27,480
Speaker 3: but the cub he crawls and he reaches for the sword,

1006
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:30,319
Speaker 3: and the father is both troubled and relieved, and he

1007
00:56:30,400 --> 00:56:33,080
Speaker 3: hugs his son and says that his mother would be proud,

1008
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 3: and they will defy the shogun together. Assassin with son.

1009
00:56:37,360 --> 00:56:40,120
Speaker 3: It's a great sequence. He says that, like it's like

1010
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:41,520
Speaker 3: the name of their business.

1011
00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:44,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it is. It does pretty bod. I forget

1012
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:47,320
Speaker 1: exactly what the wording is. But they have that banner

1013
00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:49,879
Speaker 1: on their cart. That's like sword for hire, son for hire.

1014
00:56:51,440 --> 00:56:54,200
Speaker 1: You need a hold of toddler, got you covered? You

1015
00:56:54,239 --> 00:56:58,120
Speaker 1: need a local enemy cut in half. We can talk.

1016
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:03,320
Speaker 3: So the other flashback is what followed immediately followed that immediately,

1017
00:57:03,360 --> 00:57:06,360
Speaker 3: which is the moment of defiance. So the shogun's emissary

1018
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:10,160
Speaker 3: comes to the father and reads a decree that he

1019
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:13,840
Speaker 3: must either swear eternal loyalty to the shogun or commit

1020
00:57:13,920 --> 00:57:18,120
Speaker 3: harakiri with his son, and obviously he's gonna do neither one.

1021
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:20,760
Speaker 3: He's got his head down and he starts to laugh

1022
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:24,600
Speaker 3: and then slowly raises his face up, looking very stern

1023
00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:27,800
Speaker 3: and almost evil, and he says, you are wrong. I

1024
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:30,880
Speaker 3: have a third choice. And then the other guys they

1025
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:34,360
Speaker 3: immediately get like freaked out. Uh oh. And in one

1026
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:36,600
Speaker 3: arm he picks up his infant son, and in the

1027
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:39,560
Speaker 3: other arm he draws his sword. And the officials who

1028
00:57:39,640 --> 00:57:41,960
Speaker 3: read the decree they call for guards. They're like, ah,

1029
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:44,520
Speaker 3: stop him, can't you see he's a devil. I'm not

1030
00:57:44,520 --> 00:57:47,400
Speaker 3: sure quite what was meant by that, but it's yeah,

1031
00:57:47,760 --> 00:57:50,400
Speaker 3: they're seeing him as some kind of demon. And this

1032
00:57:50,560 --> 00:57:53,640
Speaker 3: leads to a brutal sword fight, one against many to

1033
00:57:53,840 --> 00:57:56,800
Speaker 3: escape the building, and the father has his son in

1034
00:57:56,840 --> 00:58:00,000
Speaker 3: the crook of one arm the whole time. It's very

1035
00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:04,000
Speaker 3: stylized violence. We see a sword blade break off inside

1036
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:07,040
Speaker 3: a guard's neck. There are jets of bright red blood

1037
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:10,640
Speaker 3: that erupt like geysers from the adversary's wounds. You can

1038
00:58:10,680 --> 00:58:13,400
Speaker 3: see why this was effective on the midnight movie circuit.

1039
00:58:14,080 --> 00:58:16,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know if arterial sprays like this are

1040
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 1: realistic or hyperrealistic. I thankfully do not know, but it

1041
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:23,800
Speaker 1: certainly sizzles on the screen and you get this idea

1042
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:26,840
Speaker 1: that a human's life blood is just this high pressure substance,

1043
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 1: absolutely straining for release by a skilled swordsman like ogami Eto.

1044
00:58:32,600 --> 00:58:35,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of blood jets in this movie. However,

1045
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,000
Speaker 3: as the father cuts his way out of the compound,

1046
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:42,080
Speaker 3: he is suddenly faced with the Shogun and his entourage.

1047
00:58:42,720 --> 00:58:45,320
Speaker 3: The Shogun so he like cuts through the gate and

1048
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:47,280
Speaker 3: the gate opens and the Shogun is there with all

1049
00:58:47,320 --> 00:58:50,320
Speaker 3: of his men. The Shogun calls him mad one and

1050
00:58:50,400 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 3: says he can never escape his fate, but he offers

1051
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:56,919
Speaker 3: him a deal. He says, you agree to a one

1052
00:58:56,960 --> 00:59:00,160
Speaker 3: on one duel with my son with the Shogun's son,

1053
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:02,600
Speaker 3: and if Lone Wolf can win this duel, he will

1054
00:59:02,640 --> 00:59:05,520
Speaker 3: be awarded his freedom, and Lone Wolf accepts.

1055
00:59:06,440 --> 00:59:08,640
Speaker 1: Now, again, I'm not going to go into a lot

1056
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:11,480
Speaker 1: of detail about the differences between the original pictures and

1057
00:59:11,520 --> 00:59:13,280
Speaker 1: Chokun Assassin, but I do feel like I need to

1058
00:59:13,320 --> 00:59:16,000
Speaker 1: jump in on this one say and point out that

1059
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:19,440
Speaker 1: in the original again, Ogami is cornered not by the

1060
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:23,880
Speaker 1: shogun but by Ratsuto and his men, and he's given

1061
00:59:23,880 --> 00:59:26,560
Speaker 1: a choice here. He's like, Okay, this is the way

1062
00:59:26,560 --> 00:59:29,960
Speaker 1: it can go down for you, Ogami. Either you go

1063
00:59:30,000 --> 00:59:33,640
Speaker 1: ahead and commit your honorable suicide right now, or my

1064
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:35,720
Speaker 1: soldiers are going to cut you down with their quote

1065
00:59:35,760 --> 00:59:40,720
Speaker 1: wall of swords. And Ogami says, no, neither of those

1066
00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 1: is going to happen, and he tears off these outer

1067
00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:46,320
Speaker 1: white robes and reveals that he wears black robes with

1068
00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:51,160
Speaker 1: the hollyhock crest of the Tokugawa Shogunate. So he's like, look,

1069
00:59:51,200 --> 00:59:54,320
Speaker 1: I'm wearing the colors in the crest of the shogun

1070
00:59:54,840 --> 00:59:57,720
Speaker 1: You can't kill me. You can't even point your swords

1071
00:59:57,720 --> 01:00:02,360
Speaker 1: at me without dishonoring yourself. And so they're at a standstill,

1072
01:00:02,440 --> 01:00:05,040
Speaker 1: and so a compromise is made. Okay, you remove those

1073
01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:10,120
Speaker 1: robes and we will settle this via a formal duel. Yeah,

1074
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:12,080
Speaker 1: because otherwise you might say, well, why didn't they just

1075
01:00:12,120 --> 01:00:14,400
Speaker 1: cut him down? Well, in the original picture it made

1076
01:00:14,400 --> 01:00:14,800
Speaker 1: more sense.

1077
01:00:15,240 --> 01:00:18,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we go to the duel. From here, the

1078
01:00:18,680 --> 01:00:21,800
Speaker 3: duel takes place in the afternoon in a meadow of

1079
01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:24,200
Speaker 3: tall grass blowing in the wind, and we see the

1080
01:00:24,440 --> 01:00:27,560
Speaker 3: two samurai square off at a distance. The shogun's sun

1081
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:32,680
Speaker 3: is scowling, hateful, determined. The Lone Wolf wears the cub

1082
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:36,680
Speaker 3: on a basket on his back, and they draw their

1083
01:00:36,680 --> 01:00:39,280
Speaker 3: swords and charge at one another. But Lone Wolf has

1084
01:00:39,360 --> 01:00:41,880
Speaker 3: a trick up his sleeve here. Right when they are

1085
01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:44,720
Speaker 3: about to meet on the field, Lone Wolf bows his

1086
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:49,919
Speaker 3: head and reveals a mirror mounted on Diigero's head, which

1087
01:00:50,040 --> 01:00:53,680
Speaker 3: reflects the low sun and blinds their enemy. And then

1088
01:00:53,760 --> 01:00:58,120
Speaker 3: Lone Wolf chops off the lord's son's head and his

1089
01:00:58,200 --> 01:01:01,040
Speaker 3: body is just standing there, headlows with jets of blood

1090
01:01:01,080 --> 01:01:03,640
Speaker 3: blasting out of the next stump in slow motion in

1091
01:01:03,720 --> 01:01:04,760
Speaker 3: the golden sunset.

1092
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:08,440
Speaker 1: Oh it's beautiful, I mean in a grizzly way. It

1093
01:01:08,520 --> 01:01:11,360
Speaker 1: is so beautiful. And one thing that's pointed out in

1094
01:01:11,400 --> 01:01:13,600
Speaker 1: the sor I'm going to do one more of these. Well,

1095
01:01:13,800 --> 01:01:17,200
Speaker 1: something that's pointed out in the original picture is that

1096
01:01:17,800 --> 01:01:21,040
Speaker 1: this is like a swordsman that is of comparable ability

1097
01:01:22,040 --> 01:01:25,640
Speaker 1: to a gami, but he has the sun to his back,

1098
01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:30,560
Speaker 1: and therefore he has an advantage and will probably prevail.

1099
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:36,440
Speaker 1: But Ogami, via the cub and his mirror, turns his

1100
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:40,080
Speaker 1: advantage into a disadvantage by reflecting the sunlight back into

1101
01:01:40,160 --> 01:01:40,680
Speaker 1: his eyes.

1102
01:01:41,200 --> 01:01:43,400
Speaker 3: That does make more sense of it, because this part

1103
01:01:43,440 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 3: I was thinking, well, he's just like cutting the slicing

1104
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:49,080
Speaker 3: through everybody, like butter, Why is this guy such a challenge,

1105
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:51,400
Speaker 3: But it would make sense if we know something about

1106
01:01:51,480 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 3: him and that he has an advantage on the Yeah,

1107
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:57,000
Speaker 3: though they do show the sun. They don't talk about it,

1108
01:01:57,040 --> 01:01:59,640
Speaker 3: but they do show the sun being low and in

1109
01:01:59,680 --> 01:02:01,320
Speaker 3: his face. Yeah.

1110
01:02:01,440 --> 01:02:03,520
Speaker 1: Either way, even if you don't know all those details,

1111
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:07,440
Speaker 1: it is another super stylistically violent execution.

1112
01:02:07,880 --> 01:02:10,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. So this scene fades back into a scene of

1113
01:02:10,720 --> 01:02:14,000
Speaker 3: lone wolf and Cub at a campfire in the wilderness,

1114
01:02:14,360 --> 01:02:17,640
Speaker 3: and the camera slowly pulls back from them as father

1115
01:02:17,720 --> 01:02:21,280
Speaker 3: turns his head. And then on the soundtrack they had

1116
01:02:21,280 --> 01:02:24,840
Speaker 3: to add this in we get a guttural, animalistic growl.

1117
01:02:25,080 --> 01:02:31,640
Speaker 3: It's a wolf growling, probably just a dog right. Yeah, anyway,

1118
01:02:31,640 --> 01:02:34,480
Speaker 3: here the introductory I would say this is the part

1119
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:37,280
Speaker 3: where the introductory part of the movie gives way to

1120
01:02:37,320 --> 01:02:40,600
Speaker 3: the main plot. Though, as we said earlier, the idea

1121
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:44,160
Speaker 3: that this movie has a plot, it's very loose. Basically,

1122
01:02:44,200 --> 01:02:46,960
Speaker 3: the plot is the father wanders the country pushing his

1123
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 3: son in a wooden cart. They stop at places where

1124
01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:52,560
Speaker 3: the father can take contracts. He works as an assassin,

1125
01:02:53,040 --> 01:02:55,920
Speaker 3: and he makes money. He makes money to live this way,

1126
01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:59,080
Speaker 3: but he doesn't seem to really want to become rich

1127
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:01,440
Speaker 3: or like find a way out. He sort of seems

1128
01:03:01,440 --> 01:03:03,760
Speaker 3: to squander the money he makes. From what I can.

1129
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:06,200
Speaker 1: Tell, Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is

1130
01:03:06,240 --> 01:03:10,160
Speaker 1: like he's I mean, he has no future, Like his

1131
01:03:10,240 --> 01:03:12,600
Speaker 1: son is the only future that matters, and he will

1132
01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:15,560
Speaker 1: do everything for him, but like he has lost all honor.

1133
01:03:15,640 --> 01:03:18,360
Speaker 1: He's a wandering ronan. What is he going to do

1134
01:03:18,400 --> 01:03:20,919
Speaker 1: with this money except, you know, pay for the next

1135
01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:24,560
Speaker 1: night's sleep, pay for the next bath, and so forth.

1136
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1137
01:03:25,400 --> 01:03:28,880
Speaker 3: So, meanwhile, the shogun keeps hiring new ninjas and assassins

1138
01:03:28,920 --> 01:03:32,520
Speaker 3: to send after him and his son, so we follow

1139
01:03:32,560 --> 01:03:35,520
Speaker 3: several episodes of that where assassins are sent after them.

1140
01:03:35,920 --> 01:03:39,960
Speaker 3: The main mission of this film, especially in the second half,

1141
01:03:40,040 --> 01:03:42,440
Speaker 3: is a job that the Lone Wolf takes from a

1142
01:03:42,480 --> 01:03:46,040
Speaker 3: group of locals asking him to kill a lord Kirou.

1143
01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:49,880
Speaker 3: The Shogun's cruel brother who is oppressing them. But Lord

1144
01:03:49,960 --> 01:03:53,080
Speaker 3: Kirou is guarded by three ninja brothers known as the

1145
01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 3: Masters of Death, whom we mentioned earlier. Kind of the

1146
01:03:57,520 --> 01:04:00,120
Speaker 3: visual inspiration clearly, or at least part of the the

1147
01:04:00,200 --> 01:04:04,080
Speaker 3: DNA that inspired the three storms from a big trouble

1148
01:04:04,120 --> 01:04:08,200
Speaker 3: in Little China, the large wide hats, the specialized weapons,

1149
01:04:08,520 --> 01:04:09,760
Speaker 3: and the deadly auras.

1150
01:04:10,240 --> 01:04:13,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they do just cut everyone to ribbons when

1151
01:04:13,560 --> 01:04:16,760
Speaker 1: they jump into action. The Masters of Death are awesome.

1152
01:04:17,240 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so the final showdown at the end of

1153
01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:23,040
Speaker 3: the movie will be the Father versus the three Masters

1154
01:04:23,040 --> 01:04:25,760
Speaker 3: of Death in a scene in the desert. Strangely, I

1155
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:27,840
Speaker 3: was kind of wondering where that's supposed to take place.

1156
01:04:28,200 --> 01:04:29,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've never been to any of these, but there

1157
01:04:29,840 --> 01:04:33,120
Speaker 1: are a few different sand dunes in Japan, and I'm

1158
01:04:33,160 --> 01:04:35,520
Speaker 1: not sure which one we're looking at here, but I

1159
01:04:35,520 --> 01:04:37,360
Speaker 1: think I've seen it pop up in a few different

1160
01:04:37,440 --> 01:04:44,400
Speaker 1: Japanese films and TV shows over the years.

1161
01:04:48,160 --> 01:04:50,640
Speaker 3: Okay, well, I guess we've sort of sketched the general

1162
01:04:50,680 --> 01:04:52,640
Speaker 3: outline of the plot, but maybe we can talk about

1163
01:04:52,680 --> 01:04:55,480
Speaker 3: a few scenes that we just wanted to explore in

1164
01:04:55,520 --> 01:04:57,840
Speaker 3: a little bit of detail. One that I wanted to

1165
01:04:57,880 --> 01:05:00,280
Speaker 3: mention is closer to the beginning, and it's the scene

1166
01:05:00,320 --> 01:05:03,080
Speaker 3: where a lone wolf and cub visit a bath house

1167
01:05:03,160 --> 01:05:08,440
Speaker 3: in town. Because so Digoro is explaining in the narration

1168
01:05:08,640 --> 01:05:11,919
Speaker 3: that visiting a town is dangerous because they don't fit

1169
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:15,320
Speaker 3: in and the shogun's ninja are everywhere. But then he says,

1170
01:05:15,600 --> 01:05:17,760
Speaker 3: but sometimes you have to take a chance if you

1171
01:05:17,800 --> 01:05:20,240
Speaker 3: want to take a bath. So they go to this

1172
01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:23,080
Speaker 3: bath house and the manager tries to turn them away,

1173
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:26,360
Speaker 3: thinking that they are penniless beggars. But then lone Wolf

1174
01:05:26,440 --> 01:05:29,040
Speaker 3: flashes his wad of gold. He doesn't have a lot

1175
01:05:29,600 --> 01:05:30,880
Speaker 3: he like, gets it out of the cart, and the

1176
01:05:30,920 --> 01:05:35,080
Speaker 3: guy changes his tune. He eagerly goes to wash Digoro's feet,

1177
01:05:35,440 --> 01:05:38,640
Speaker 3: and then Digoro kicks water in the guy's face. And

1178
01:05:38,680 --> 01:05:42,080
Speaker 3: I like this scene because of the little moments of

1179
01:05:43,080 --> 01:05:46,800
Speaker 3: the child almost playing, like the way he stomps around

1180
01:05:46,800 --> 01:05:49,280
Speaker 3: in the tub. It's clear that for the rest of

1181
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:51,760
Speaker 3: his life there is very little room for play, but

1182
01:05:51,800 --> 01:05:53,040
Speaker 3: here you get to see him play.

1183
01:05:53,640 --> 01:05:56,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, these little moments of play, they're very effective here,

1184
01:05:56,800 --> 01:06:00,520
Speaker 1: and they've of course been very effective in the Man Laurian,

1185
01:06:01,120 --> 01:06:04,920
Speaker 1: very much copying this blueprint. You know, the cuteness of

1186
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:09,080
Speaker 1: the child, the baby Yoda, the Grogu, you know, very

1187
01:06:09,160 --> 01:06:09,960
Speaker 1: much patterned on this.

1188
01:06:10,400 --> 01:06:13,320
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also there's a moment here at the so they're

1189
01:06:13,360 --> 01:06:15,360
Speaker 3: like taking a bath. They're soaking in this big wash

1190
01:06:15,480 --> 01:06:18,360
Speaker 3: tub and it's supposed to be relaxing. You see the

1191
01:06:18,400 --> 01:06:21,800
Speaker 3: steam rising and they're kind of reclined. But there's an

1192
01:06:21,800 --> 01:06:24,840
Speaker 3: interesting moment where like the camera pulls back and reveals

1193
01:06:24,920 --> 01:06:28,280
Speaker 3: the father's arm is draped outside the tub and he's

1194
01:06:28,400 --> 01:06:31,880
Speaker 3: like gripping his sword. And there's never any attack in

1195
01:06:31,960 --> 01:06:34,240
Speaker 3: this scene. It's just that this is who he must be.

1196
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:34,640
Speaker 4: Now.

1197
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:38,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ogami can never truly rest. He always has his

1198
01:06:39,000 --> 01:06:42,000
Speaker 1: sword at his side, and in a moment that peace

1199
01:06:42,040 --> 01:06:42,720
Speaker 1: can disappear.

1200
01:06:43,520 --> 01:06:45,960
Speaker 3: And so there are more plots, Like there's a theme

1201
01:06:46,080 --> 01:06:50,160
Speaker 3: established that Lone Wolf's enemies want to take his son

1202
01:06:50,200 --> 01:06:52,840
Speaker 3: away from him. They think this will take away his power,

1203
01:06:53,520 --> 01:06:57,120
Speaker 3: and so there's one plot to steal de Gooro, and

1204
01:06:57,160 --> 01:06:59,840
Speaker 3: this leads to a fight scene in a river where

1205
01:07:00,120 --> 01:07:01,840
Speaker 3: these guys come and say, like, where is your son.

1206
01:07:01,880 --> 01:07:05,400
Speaker 3: We're going to take him, and then the father goes

1207
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:07,520
Speaker 3: to fight them, and then it's discovered that they're like

1208
01:07:07,640 --> 01:07:11,040
Speaker 3: hiding armor underneath their clothing, but he fights them anyway,

1209
01:07:11,600 --> 01:07:15,439
Speaker 3: and it turns into like a final duel between him

1210
01:07:15,520 --> 01:07:18,840
Speaker 3: and one of the lords who opposes him. Standing in

1211
01:07:18,840 --> 01:07:20,480
Speaker 3: the middle of a river at the base of this

1212
01:07:20,640 --> 01:07:22,280
Speaker 3: I was going to say waterfall, but I think it

1213
01:07:22,360 --> 01:07:24,880
Speaker 3: might actually be a kind of a man made like

1214
01:07:24,960 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 3: spillway sort of thing, and Lone Wolf wins this fight

1215
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:32,520
Speaker 3: by hiding his blade beneath the water before he turns

1216
01:07:32,560 --> 01:07:33,000
Speaker 3: to move it.

1217
01:07:33,720 --> 01:07:36,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we get another like super stylistic kill here.

1218
01:07:37,080 --> 01:07:40,320
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also after this duel is just the Shogun's just

1219
01:07:40,360 --> 01:07:42,360
Speaker 3: standing on a bridge over the water like, oh, I

1220
01:07:42,400 --> 01:07:45,480
Speaker 3: will get you. Yeah.

1221
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:48,720
Speaker 1: They keep the dream of an encounter occurring with the

1222
01:07:48,760 --> 01:07:52,520
Speaker 1: showgun alive, though it's again it's not gonna happen, not

1223
01:07:52,640 --> 01:07:53,280
Speaker 1: in this film.

1224
01:07:53,600 --> 01:07:58,440
Speaker 3: Yeah. There's another great scene, which is the scene of

1225
01:07:58,480 --> 01:08:02,240
Speaker 3: recruiting the ninja win. So one of the bad guys

1226
01:08:02,240 --> 01:08:04,960
Speaker 3: I think this is Lord Kouragawa working for the Shogun.

1227
01:08:05,680 --> 01:08:09,560
Speaker 3: He meets with a woman who calls herself the Supreme Ninja.

1228
01:08:10,480 --> 01:08:13,360
Speaker 3: The Supreme Ninja. She commands an army of women who

1229
01:08:13,440 --> 01:08:17,840
Speaker 3: are all themselves Ninja warriors and the lord shows up

1230
01:08:17,880 --> 01:08:21,720
Speaker 3: to task them with destroying Lone Wolf and cub but

1231
01:08:21,880 --> 01:08:25,439
Speaker 3: she well, first of all, she they tell her that

1232
01:08:25,479 --> 01:08:28,439
Speaker 3: he fought a duel with the Shogun's air, and she says,

1233
01:08:28,479 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 3: what was the outcome of the duel? And he says terrible.

1234
01:08:33,600 --> 01:08:38,160
Speaker 3: But the Supreme Ninja offers the Shogun's emissary a demonstration

1235
01:08:38,800 --> 01:08:41,760
Speaker 3: of her of the prowess of her lady warriors. So

1236
01:08:41,800 --> 01:08:45,280
Speaker 3: she's like, show me your strongest man, and this silent

1237
01:08:45,360 --> 01:08:48,400
Speaker 3: fighter and a brown cloak and a conical hat comes forward.

1238
01:08:48,439 --> 01:08:52,160
Speaker 3: We learned this is Juni, the strongest fighter of I

1239
01:08:52,200 --> 01:08:56,320
Speaker 3: think it's Lord Kuragawa here. And so the Supreme Ninja

1240
01:08:56,720 --> 01:08:59,640
Speaker 3: addresses Junin ands says, okay, you've got to try to

1241
01:08:59,640 --> 01:09:02,479
Speaker 3: find a way to escape from this room. But like

1242
01:09:02,600 --> 01:09:05,200
Speaker 3: as she says this, her women are gathering around him,

1243
01:09:05,560 --> 01:09:08,320
Speaker 3: and things are about to go very poorly for Junei.

1244
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:12,360
Speaker 3: He tries to escape using a grappling hook in the rafters.

1245
01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:14,639
Speaker 3: He throws it up to the ceiling and swing out

1246
01:09:14,680 --> 01:09:17,160
Speaker 3: of the chamber, but the women cut the rope, they

1247
01:09:17,360 --> 01:09:20,720
Speaker 3: rip off his cloak, they pull swords out of their dresses,

1248
01:09:21,080 --> 01:09:24,200
Speaker 3: and then they just run around slicing pieces off of

1249
01:09:24,240 --> 01:09:26,200
Speaker 3: this dude one at a time. So, like we see

1250
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:29,719
Speaker 3: his fingers hit the floor and then the skin from

1251
01:09:29,760 --> 01:09:33,000
Speaker 3: his face falls down to the floor like a rubber mask.

1252
01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:36,240
Speaker 3: Oh it's rough. They cut him into a lot of pieces.

1253
01:09:36,800 --> 01:09:39,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, this scene is so grizzly and wonderful. They just

1254
01:09:39,160 --> 01:09:43,240
Speaker 1: systematically take him apart, reducing him to a limbless, faceless

1255
01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:46,600
Speaker 1: husk that like rolls across the floor, and you know,

1256
01:09:46,640 --> 01:09:48,679
Speaker 1: then there's nothing left to do but dispatch him.

1257
01:09:48,960 --> 01:09:52,040
Speaker 3: And then the Supreme Ninja says, this is your best man.

1258
01:09:52,240 --> 01:09:55,400
Speaker 3: Lone Wolf would swallow him and then begin the most

1259
01:09:55,439 --> 01:09:59,360
Speaker 3: deranged Harley Quinn laughter. It goes on for a long

1260
01:09:59,439 --> 01:10:02,840
Speaker 3: time and stops quite suddenly, and she's calm and she says,

1261
01:10:02,960 --> 01:10:05,639
Speaker 3: my women will execute him.

1262
01:10:06,280 --> 01:10:10,160
Speaker 1: So basically this lays the groundwork for the next trio

1263
01:10:10,280 --> 01:10:13,439
Speaker 1: of sequences, as the has three different groups of the

1264
01:10:13,479 --> 01:10:16,960
Speaker 1: female Ninja's attempt to take out Lone Wolf and cut Yeah.

1265
01:10:17,000 --> 01:10:21,639
Speaker 3: So so first, well, this is outside. They're on the road.

1266
01:10:22,439 --> 01:10:25,920
Speaker 3: Eventually they're pushing the cart between Dikon fields and I

1267
01:10:26,040 --> 01:10:29,160
Speaker 3: like how at the Dikon Fields the women are like

1268
01:10:29,240 --> 01:10:31,679
Speaker 3: down in the stream washing the Dikon in the water,

1269
01:10:32,080 --> 01:10:35,240
Speaker 3: and there's this creepy scarecrow with this like wide eyed

1270
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:40,320
Speaker 3: face drawn on its headsack. It's interesting environmental details. But actually,

1271
01:10:40,320 --> 01:10:43,360
Speaker 3: before they get to the Dikon fields, there's an ambush

1272
01:10:43,400 --> 01:10:45,920
Speaker 3: by traveling entertainers on the road side. And I thought

1273
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:48,120
Speaker 3: this was funny because in our in our Ninja episode,

1274
01:10:48,160 --> 01:10:51,920
Speaker 3: we were talking about some classic story of Ninja running

1275
01:10:51,920 --> 01:10:55,680
Speaker 3: around and spying by pretending to be traveling entertainers.

1276
01:10:56,200 --> 01:10:57,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a perfect cover.

1277
01:10:57,800 --> 01:10:59,760
Speaker 3: So in this case, the father and son go by

1278
01:10:59,840 --> 01:11:03,439
Speaker 3: and the entertainers are they're like dancers or acrobats of

1279
01:11:03,479 --> 01:11:07,639
Speaker 3: some kind. They're jumping around, cart wheeling and somersaulting and stuff.

1280
01:11:08,160 --> 01:11:12,600
Speaker 3: Whatever these people are. They I think they somehow hypnotize

1281
01:11:12,720 --> 01:11:17,479
Speaker 3: Lone Wolf with the spinning patterns on their clothing as

1282
01:11:17,520 --> 01:11:20,599
Speaker 3: they spin around. So it gets very strawberry alarm clock

1283
01:11:20,640 --> 01:11:24,559
Speaker 3: for a minute here. But of course these are really

1284
01:11:24,600 --> 01:11:27,800
Speaker 3: the Supreme Ninja's assassins in disguise, and they try to

1285
01:11:27,880 --> 01:11:30,080
Speaker 3: launch a sneak attack, but Lone Wolf is too quick,

1286
01:11:30,200 --> 01:11:34,439
Speaker 3: even though he was briefly hypnotized by the clothing. His

1287
01:11:34,479 --> 01:11:37,360
Speaker 3: sword flashes and they are done. And this is the

1288
01:11:37,400 --> 01:11:40,760
Speaker 3: scene where Diegero starts counting the dead Ninja. You know,

1289
01:11:40,840 --> 01:11:42,880
Speaker 3: he says, I try to count them so I can

1290
01:11:42,920 --> 01:11:46,240
Speaker 3: pray for their souls. Father tells me not to count them,

1291
01:11:46,280 --> 01:11:48,600
Speaker 3: but I have to to know how many to pray for.

1292
01:11:49,720 --> 01:11:52,000
Speaker 3: And then I think he says, they're up to three

1293
01:11:52,040 --> 01:11:53,400
Speaker 3: hundred and forty five, Ninja.

1294
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:54,759
Speaker 1: It's quite a count.

1295
01:11:54,960 --> 01:11:57,200
Speaker 3: Yeah. So then we get to the attack at the

1296
01:11:57,280 --> 01:12:00,479
Speaker 3: Dikon fields. So they're like going down the road in

1297
01:12:00,520 --> 01:12:04,400
Speaker 3: the cart and these women come up in different waves,

1298
01:12:04,439 --> 01:12:07,400
Speaker 3: Like the first wave of women throws these flying killer

1299
01:12:07,479 --> 01:12:11,080
Speaker 3: hats with blades on them, the blades on the brim,

1300
01:12:12,000 --> 01:12:15,080
Speaker 3: and Lone Wolf fights them off, kills them, and then

1301
01:12:15,600 --> 01:12:21,320
Speaker 3: there are the next wave has knives hidden inside the Dikon, which, okay,

1302
01:12:22,000 --> 01:12:22,400
Speaker 3: I love it.

1303
01:12:22,439 --> 01:12:24,880
Speaker 1: The dicons are like piercing the cart and all and

1304
01:12:25,000 --> 01:12:27,320
Speaker 1: oh and I have to mention in the the original

1305
01:12:27,800 --> 01:12:31,439
Speaker 1: the second Lone Wolf picture, when they're preparing the dicons

1306
01:12:31,479 --> 01:12:34,160
Speaker 1: by the river, they're singing a little song and the

1307
01:12:34,240 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 1: lyrics are something like, what's the side dish for tonight?

1308
01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:41,040
Speaker 1: Oh it's dicon. Uh.

1309
01:12:41,400 --> 01:12:44,040
Speaker 3: So yeah, there there are these little a lot of

1310
01:12:44,080 --> 01:12:46,800
Speaker 3: little tricks and secrets and reveals in this fight scene

1311
01:12:46,840 --> 01:12:49,720
Speaker 3: like secret knives popping out of the baby carriage, and

1312
01:12:49,800 --> 01:12:52,160
Speaker 3: our protagonists fight through it all until they get to

1313
01:12:52,439 --> 01:12:56,040
Speaker 3: the Supreme Ninja. She herself comes out to UH to

1314
01:12:56,160 --> 01:12:59,800
Speaker 3: administer the final attack on Lone Wolf here, which she

1315
01:12:59,840 --> 01:13:00,799
Speaker 3: does with a net.

1316
01:13:01,400 --> 01:13:04,639
Speaker 1: That's right, she nets him. The net prevents him from

1317
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:08,200
Speaker 1: immediately being able to draw his sword, and of course

1318
01:13:08,200 --> 01:13:10,519
Speaker 1: he does eventually draw his sword, but they engage in

1319
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:14,320
Speaker 1: this short, intense close combat sword fight where it's clear

1320
01:13:14,360 --> 01:13:18,360
Speaker 1: that they're pretty evenly matched, and we get to see

1321
01:13:18,400 --> 01:13:24,719
Speaker 1: her effectively pull off that sword clap shinkin Shihadori maneuver

1322
01:13:24,920 --> 01:13:28,880
Speaker 1: against Ogami, clapping his sword blade before it can hit her,

1323
01:13:29,200 --> 01:13:31,720
Speaker 1: and then she even does the twist and sends him

1324
01:13:31,720 --> 01:13:34,519
Speaker 1: a sprawling So it's a fun little like you know,

1325
01:13:34,640 --> 01:13:39,439
Speaker 1: evenly matched, you know, very close confines battle here, But.

1326
01:13:39,400 --> 01:13:41,800
Speaker 3: Then it gets kind of looney tunes right at the end,

1327
01:13:41,880 --> 01:13:44,320
Speaker 3: like they sort of fight to a draw, but when

1328
01:13:44,360 --> 01:13:47,400
Speaker 3: Lone Wolf is finally ready to like land a sword

1329
01:13:47,400 --> 01:13:50,439
Speaker 3: blow on her, he like hits her, but it doesn't

1330
01:13:50,439 --> 01:13:53,720
Speaker 3: actually hit her. She avoids it by jumping out of

1331
01:13:53,760 --> 01:13:57,400
Speaker 3: her clothes. She's not naked she's like still wearing some

1332
01:13:57,479 --> 01:14:00,400
Speaker 3: kind of full body stalking, but just lee gives her

1333
01:14:00,439 --> 01:14:03,120
Speaker 3: original clothes standing there and leaps up in the air

1334
01:14:03,160 --> 01:14:05,880
Speaker 3: out of them, lands in a field nearby, and then

1335
01:14:05,960 --> 01:14:09,720
Speaker 3: starts fast motion running backwards as if the tape were

1336
01:14:09,760 --> 01:14:11,080
Speaker 3: in reverse up a hill.

1337
01:14:11,640 --> 01:14:14,600
Speaker 1: Yes, Oh my god, this outcome is so wild. I

1338
01:14:14,600 --> 01:14:16,519
Speaker 1: can't stress enough how bonkers it is. I think looney

1339
01:14:16,600 --> 01:14:19,000
Speaker 1: tunes is the right word, because it's not like she

1340
01:14:19,800 --> 01:14:22,640
Speaker 1: peels out of her clothing in a realistic manner. It

1341
01:14:22,720 --> 01:14:26,599
Speaker 1: is like her outer garments are a jet fighter and

1342
01:14:26,640 --> 01:14:28,040
Speaker 1: she has ejected from them.

1343
01:14:28,120 --> 01:14:31,960
Speaker 3: Yes, and then runs like a spring snake in the can.

1344
01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:34,760
Speaker 1: Like a spring snake. And then the running backwards. I

1345
01:14:34,760 --> 01:14:37,679
Speaker 1: guess the idea is, like you, she can't lose sight

1346
01:14:37,680 --> 01:14:41,760
Speaker 1: of her opponent something, so yeah, she's just running backwards

1347
01:14:42,160 --> 01:14:46,599
Speaker 1: and doesn't take her eyes off of lone Wolf for

1348
01:14:47,120 --> 01:14:48,840
Speaker 1: quite a while, like at least a half a mile

1349
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:52,680
Speaker 1: running backwards across the field. It's amazing.

1350
01:14:52,840 --> 01:14:55,040
Speaker 3: But she's going really fast, so we don't have to

1351
01:14:55,080 --> 01:14:57,920
Speaker 3: watch her go, you know, normal normal speed to a

1352
01:14:57,920 --> 01:14:58,679
Speaker 3: half mile.

1353
01:14:58,560 --> 01:15:00,120
Speaker 1: And he just sort of like looks at her. He

1354
01:15:00,400 --> 01:15:01,560
Speaker 1: just watches it.

1355
01:15:03,160 --> 01:15:10,040
Speaker 3: I've seen that trick before well matched. Then they also

1356
01:15:10,080 --> 01:15:12,599
Speaker 3: have to fight some more ninja in the woods. This

1357
01:15:12,640 --> 01:15:14,840
Speaker 3: is a more I don't know. There's a bunch of

1358
01:15:14,840 --> 01:15:18,080
Speaker 3: guys in the in the hats again and in this

1359
01:15:18,120 --> 01:15:20,439
Speaker 3: fight they use the cart as a weapon, like it's

1360
01:15:20,439 --> 01:15:22,800
Speaker 3: got blades that come out the sides and chop all

1361
01:15:22,840 --> 01:15:27,760
Speaker 3: the ninja's legs off. But after all this we come

1362
01:15:27,800 --> 01:15:30,000
Speaker 3: to the part I mentioned this near the top of

1363
01:15:30,040 --> 01:15:31,960
Speaker 3: the episode. We come to the part where Lone Wolf

1364
01:15:32,160 --> 01:15:35,640
Speaker 3: is injured and this leads to a sequence where the

1365
01:15:35,680 --> 01:15:37,920
Speaker 3: boy has to take care of his father, like his

1366
01:15:37,960 --> 01:15:42,040
Speaker 3: father is hiding in this little hut, and so I

1367
01:15:42,120 --> 01:15:44,240
Speaker 3: mentioned the scene earlier of the boy trying to bring

1368
01:15:44,320 --> 01:15:47,040
Speaker 3: him water from the river and he ends up having

1369
01:15:47,040 --> 01:15:49,479
Speaker 3: to carry it in his mouth. But there also he

1370
01:15:49,520 --> 01:15:52,240
Speaker 3: goes looking for food and he finds a food offering

1371
01:15:52,360 --> 01:15:55,960
Speaker 3: at a shrine, but then he and he wants to

1372
01:15:56,000 --> 01:15:58,439
Speaker 3: take it, but he doesn't want to be disrespectful, so

1373
01:15:58,439 --> 01:16:00,519
Speaker 3: he leaves an offering of his own in its place.

1374
01:16:00,560 --> 01:16:02,400
Speaker 3: He takes off some of his clothing and leaves it

1375
01:16:02,439 --> 01:16:03,240
Speaker 3: at the shrine.

1376
01:16:03,800 --> 01:16:07,559
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a very sweet section and of course

1377
01:16:07,560 --> 01:16:11,960
Speaker 1: we have that great Digoro's theme playing and yeah, we

1378
01:16:12,040 --> 01:16:15,200
Speaker 1: see him, you know, bring water and then food back

1379
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:19,760
Speaker 1: to Ogami as Ogami lays, perhaps dying we don't know

1380
01:16:19,920 --> 01:16:22,640
Speaker 1: at this point, but helping him to recuperate.

1381
01:16:23,040 --> 01:16:28,320
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1382
01:16:31,640 --> 01:16:31,840
Speaker 4: Oh.

1383
01:16:31,880 --> 01:16:34,519
Speaker 3: This leads to the part where Dikoro gets kidnapped to

1384
01:16:34,560 --> 01:16:39,840
Speaker 3: the Supreme Ninja and the Shogun's Lord. They decide, okay,

1385
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:43,000
Speaker 3: we've got to steal him to steal the Lone Wolf's power.

1386
01:16:43,439 --> 01:16:47,280
Speaker 3: So they take Digo away and they lure the Lone

1387
01:16:47,320 --> 01:16:49,760
Speaker 3: Wolf out to find them in the middle of the night,

1388
01:16:50,280 --> 01:16:54,160
Speaker 3: and he finds them standing around a well where Digoro

1389
01:16:54,200 --> 01:16:56,880
Speaker 3: is suspended by a rope over the opening to the well.

1390
01:16:57,520 --> 01:17:00,320
Speaker 3: How's lone Wolf going to get out of this one? Well?

1391
01:17:01,720 --> 01:17:04,240
Speaker 3: So I think there's a clever little thing that I

1392
01:17:04,280 --> 01:17:06,840
Speaker 3: missed the first time around, but I was rewatching the

1393
01:17:06,920 --> 01:17:10,360
Speaker 3: scene and I realized what it was. So he says

1394
01:17:10,400 --> 01:17:14,040
Speaker 3: something to Digoro and then Digoro kicks his sandal off

1395
01:17:14,160 --> 01:17:17,519
Speaker 3: and it falls down the well, and I think that

1396
01:17:17,680 --> 01:17:20,800
Speaker 3: is letting the father know how long the drop is,

1397
01:17:20,880 --> 01:17:23,439
Speaker 3: like the timing of the drop, because what happens is

1398
01:17:23,439 --> 01:17:26,479
Speaker 3: he draws his sword and he quickly slashes a bunch

1399
01:17:26,520 --> 01:17:28,679
Speaker 3: of the bad guys and then stomps on the rope

1400
01:17:28,720 --> 01:17:31,880
Speaker 3: as Digoro is falling to stop him from falling, to

1401
01:17:31,920 --> 01:17:33,960
Speaker 3: stop him before he hits the water at the bottom.

1402
01:17:34,360 --> 01:17:34,599
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1403
01:17:34,680 --> 01:17:36,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is another thing where it's I mean,

1404
01:17:37,160 --> 01:17:40,519
Speaker 1: the editing here is tight and effective. In the original film,

1405
01:17:40,560 --> 01:17:44,639
Speaker 1: I think maybe more instantly make sense what's happening, but yeah,

1406
01:17:44,800 --> 01:17:46,040
Speaker 1: you still get the sense of it here.

1407
01:17:46,360 --> 01:17:49,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. So he slashes all of his enemies here except

1408
01:17:50,240 --> 01:17:53,439
Speaker 3: for the Supreme Ninja who's just standing there watching, but

1409
01:17:53,680 --> 01:17:56,880
Speaker 3: she does not attack, and neither does Lone Wolf, and

1410
01:17:56,880 --> 01:18:00,639
Speaker 3: they kind of regard each other, and then will freeze

1411
01:18:00,680 --> 01:18:04,080
Speaker 3: his son and they walk away, and Daigo says in

1412
01:18:04,120 --> 01:18:06,439
Speaker 3: the narration, that was the first time I ever saw

1413
01:18:06,520 --> 01:18:10,439
Speaker 3: my father's spare an enemy, So I think there's some

1414
01:18:10,520 --> 01:18:11,439
Speaker 3: mutual respect.

1415
01:18:12,040 --> 01:18:15,479
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah, and we'll come back to this character again too.

1416
01:18:16,320 --> 01:18:19,879
Speaker 1: But from here we kind of proceed into mostly dealing

1417
01:18:20,080 --> 01:18:21,559
Speaker 1: with the Masters of Death.

1418
01:18:22,880 --> 01:18:25,360
Speaker 3: There's a long sequence on a boat. I don't think

1419
01:18:25,360 --> 01:18:27,120
Speaker 3: we need to go into all the details of the

1420
01:18:27,160 --> 01:18:29,240
Speaker 3: boat journey and the fight on the boat, but there's

1421
01:18:29,320 --> 01:18:33,280
Speaker 3: like rebels who are fighting against someone and the Masters

1422
01:18:33,280 --> 01:18:35,439
Speaker 3: of Death mess them up on a boat. There's eventually

1423
01:18:35,439 --> 01:18:38,040
Speaker 3: a fire and everybody has to jump off the boat.

1424
01:18:38,280 --> 01:18:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, and after the everyone has to jump off the boat.

1425
01:18:41,200 --> 01:18:43,400
Speaker 1: This is I think where we eventually get this sequence

1426
01:18:43,439 --> 01:18:47,960
Speaker 1: where the Supreme Ninja, Lone Wolf, and Cob meet up

1427
01:18:48,000 --> 01:18:53,920
Speaker 1: again and they're all wet and cold and they huddle

1428
01:18:54,000 --> 01:18:57,040
Speaker 1: together for warmth, which is a scene where you don't

1429
01:18:57,040 --> 01:18:58,800
Speaker 1: really know where this scene is going at first. Is

1430
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:00,720
Speaker 1: this going to be like some sort of you know,

1431
01:19:00,840 --> 01:19:04,800
Speaker 1: just pure exploitation moment, But it ends up being quite

1432
01:19:04,880 --> 01:19:07,040
Speaker 1: sweet in its own way. Like, I mean, there's these

1433
01:19:07,080 --> 01:19:11,759
Speaker 1: three lost individuals huddling for warmth against in a dark world.

1434
01:19:12,120 --> 01:19:15,040
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, it's complex there because so he doesn't harm

1435
01:19:15,120 --> 01:19:18,200
Speaker 3: the Supreme Ninja and she doesn't want to harm him anymore,

1436
01:19:19,120 --> 01:19:21,800
Speaker 3: but she has to go away and he knows that

1437
01:19:21,800 --> 01:19:24,160
Speaker 3: that means her death when she goes back to the

1438
01:19:24,200 --> 01:19:26,280
Speaker 3: Shogun to like report what has happened.

1439
01:19:26,640 --> 01:19:29,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's bittersweet. And this is of course another

1440
01:19:29,320 --> 01:19:31,599
Speaker 1: thing where this is a little more complex and nuanced

1441
01:19:31,640 --> 01:19:34,519
Speaker 1: in the second film, but we get a nice, you know,

1442
01:19:35,479 --> 01:19:38,240
Speaker 1: edited down version of it here. But I think they

1443
01:19:38,320 --> 01:19:42,760
Speaker 1: ultimately spare us nothing of the violence inflicted by and

1444
01:19:42,880 --> 01:19:45,120
Speaker 1: upon the Masters of Death. All of that makes it

1445
01:19:45,160 --> 01:19:46,080
Speaker 1: to the finished picture.

1446
01:19:46,400 --> 01:19:49,559
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah. So the final conflict in the film

1447
01:19:49,640 --> 01:19:53,799
Speaker 3: is we get the Masters of Death leading their person

1448
01:19:53,840 --> 01:19:56,439
Speaker 3: they're serving as a bodyguard for in this sort of

1449
01:19:56,520 --> 01:19:59,200
Speaker 3: caravan through the desert. They're going up and down these

1450
01:19:59,200 --> 01:20:03,839
Speaker 3: sand dune and then suddenly there is an attack first,

1451
01:20:03,880 --> 01:20:07,160
Speaker 3: I think by some rebels against this group, and the

1452
01:20:07,200 --> 01:20:10,880
Speaker 3: Masters of Death just chop them up. They don't do well.

1453
01:20:11,080 --> 01:20:14,519
Speaker 1: Are these the ones that they're initially hiding under the

1454
01:20:14,560 --> 01:20:16,599
Speaker 1: sand to pop up and get the Masters of Death?

1455
01:20:16,680 --> 01:20:18,439
Speaker 1: The Masters of Death are just like stabbing them in

1456
01:20:18,520 --> 01:20:18,960
Speaker 1: the sand.

1457
01:20:19,320 --> 01:20:20,479
Speaker 3: It's kind of dune yeah.

1458
01:20:20,720 --> 01:20:21,600
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1459
01:20:21,640 --> 01:20:24,479
Speaker 3: But this finally leads to the Masters of Death must

1460
01:20:24,520 --> 01:20:27,839
Speaker 3: face off against Lone Wolf. And I mentioned this earlier,

1461
01:20:27,840 --> 01:20:33,200
Speaker 3: but in this part the music infuses it with such vigor.

1462
01:20:33,240 --> 01:20:37,840
Speaker 3: There is this relentless synthesizer vamp and a high lead

1463
01:20:38,080 --> 01:20:42,680
Speaker 3: over this galloping drum beat. It's really good. Like the

1464
01:20:42,720 --> 01:20:46,200
Speaker 3: movie itself, I think pre dates this convention in video games,

1465
01:20:46,200 --> 01:20:49,200
Speaker 3: but it feels like boss music. It's like in Mega Man.

1466
01:20:49,280 --> 01:20:52,479
Speaker 3: It's the kind of music that kicks in in Mega

1467
01:20:52,520 --> 01:20:55,360
Speaker 3: Man when you like enter the chamber to fight Spark

1468
01:20:55,439 --> 01:20:59,400
Speaker 3: Mandrol don't you know what I mean, Like it's like

1469
01:20:59,439 --> 01:21:01,840
Speaker 3: it picks up the tempo and it's like really trying

1470
01:21:01,880 --> 01:21:03,240
Speaker 3: to get your blood pumping now.

1471
01:21:03,720 --> 01:21:07,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it is pretty relentless. At the end of

1472
01:21:07,800 --> 01:21:10,040
Speaker 1: the day, we know this can only go down one way.

1473
01:21:10,840 --> 01:21:14,160
Speaker 1: They may be Masters of Death, but they are not

1474
01:21:14,439 --> 01:21:18,719
Speaker 1: going to come out on top against ogami Eto. His

1475
01:21:18,720 --> 01:21:21,400
Speaker 1: his skill and his heart is just too powerful for

1476
01:21:21,479 --> 01:21:26,120
Speaker 1: them to overcome. So he stylishly defeats one of the

1477
01:21:26,120 --> 01:21:28,640
Speaker 1: three brothers, then the other of the three brothers, and

1478
01:21:28,680 --> 01:21:32,519
Speaker 1: finally it's a he's squaring off with the final of

1479
01:21:32,640 --> 01:21:36,320
Speaker 1: the Masters of Death. This is the guy with the claws. Claws, yeah, yeah,

1480
01:21:36,360 --> 01:21:38,719
Speaker 1: and you know they have a nice back and forth

1481
01:21:38,760 --> 01:21:44,559
Speaker 1: and then ultimately Lone Wolf cuts him on the neck

1482
01:21:44,760 --> 01:21:48,880
Speaker 1: with this like perfect cut. That and the spray, the

1483
01:21:48,960 --> 01:21:52,440
Speaker 1: arterial spray out of this cut is like a fine mist.

1484
01:21:53,120 --> 01:21:56,000
Speaker 1: This part of the of the film. This is another

1485
01:21:56,080 --> 01:21:58,160
Speaker 1: like just super weird, great moment and it's like this

1486
01:21:58,280 --> 01:22:03,040
Speaker 1: Serene Erotics's of death, a cut so perfect that one's

1487
01:22:03,120 --> 01:22:05,360
Speaker 1: life blood leaves the body in a kind of like

1488
01:22:05,520 --> 01:22:09,760
Speaker 1: high pressure howling mist like a dream. Such a cut

1489
01:22:09,800 --> 01:22:13,040
Speaker 1: as like the ultimate aspiration of any killer, and oh

1490
01:22:13,120 --> 01:22:16,280
Speaker 1: the irony. The master of death himself dies by this

1491
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:19,679
Speaker 1: cut without ever getting to inflict its perfection himself.

1492
01:22:20,000 --> 01:22:22,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a line in the film where they're talking

1493
01:22:22,840 --> 01:22:26,439
Speaker 3: about about like the sound of a winter wind blowing

1494
01:22:26,600 --> 01:22:27,200
Speaker 3: or something.

1495
01:22:27,520 --> 01:22:30,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, he says, I have the quote here when cut

1496
01:22:30,080 --> 01:22:33,120
Speaker 1: across the neck, a sound like wailing winter winds is heard.

1497
01:22:33,160 --> 01:22:36,360
Speaker 1: They say, I'd always hope to cut someone like that someday,

1498
01:22:36,600 --> 01:22:39,080
Speaker 1: to hear that sound, but to have it happen to

1499
01:22:39,160 --> 01:22:44,720
Speaker 1: my own neck is ridiculous.

1500
01:22:42,920 --> 01:22:46,439
Speaker 3: Ridiculous, It's wonderful. But doesn't he also say something like

1501
01:22:46,600 --> 01:22:48,679
Speaker 3: He's like, it was an honor to have been killed

1502
01:22:48,680 --> 01:22:48,960
Speaker 3: by you.

1503
01:22:49,360 --> 01:22:49,559
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1504
01:22:49,800 --> 01:22:52,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, because again, if you want to have your neck sliced,

1505
01:22:53,840 --> 01:22:55,479
Speaker 1: this is the guy you want doing it. You want

1506
01:22:55,560 --> 01:22:57,040
Speaker 1: you want it in the hands of a master.

1507
01:22:57,600 --> 01:22:57,840
Speaker 6: Oh.

1508
01:22:57,880 --> 01:22:59,920
Speaker 3: But then we also do, in a kind of anti

1509
01:23:00,040 --> 01:23:04,400
Speaker 3: climactic way, we get to see a lone wolf doing

1510
01:23:04,439 --> 01:23:07,559
Speaker 3: a grizzly finish to his contract, and then the movie's

1511
01:23:07,600 --> 01:23:08,200
Speaker 3: just kind of over.

1512
01:23:08,720 --> 01:23:12,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, we get like one final line from the boy.

1513
01:23:13,439 --> 01:23:15,559
Speaker 1: He says, what I guess, I wish it was different,

1514
01:23:15,680 --> 01:23:17,240
Speaker 1: But a wish is only a wish.

1515
01:23:17,840 --> 01:23:19,360
Speaker 3: No, justice for the Showgun.

1516
01:23:19,600 --> 01:23:22,880
Speaker 1: No again, if if you were attracted to this film

1517
01:23:22,880 --> 01:23:25,720
Speaker 1: because you thought a showgun was going to be assassinated, No,

1518
01:23:25,960 --> 01:23:30,080
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. And the character that is labeled the showgun

1519
01:23:30,320 --> 01:23:32,679
Speaker 1: he also does not get his come upance in this film.

1520
01:23:32,720 --> 01:23:36,639
Speaker 1: I think it ultimately happens later on in the series,

1521
01:23:36,720 --> 01:23:41,280
Speaker 1: but played by a different actor. Yeah, but now I

1522
01:23:41,320 --> 01:23:43,120
Speaker 1: kind of want to finish that journey. I'm gonna have to,

1523
01:23:43,280 --> 01:23:45,880
Speaker 1: you know, in my own time, go through the next

1524
01:23:45,920 --> 01:23:48,040
Speaker 1: four of these pictures. I enjoy the first two, and

1525
01:23:48,080 --> 01:23:49,719
Speaker 1: of course Showgun Assassin so much.

1526
01:23:50,240 --> 01:23:51,960
Speaker 3: Well, that sounds great. I might have to check him

1527
01:23:51,960 --> 01:23:52,360
Speaker 3: out too.

1528
01:23:52,840 --> 01:23:55,400
Speaker 1: It's a fun ride, a demon ride to hell.

1529
01:23:57,240 --> 01:23:59,080
Speaker 3: Oh hey, but one last thought. I think I said

1530
01:23:59,080 --> 01:24:01,800
Speaker 3: this earlier, but even if you don't watch this movie,

1531
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:04,360
Speaker 3: which you know it's a hyper violent kind of thing,

1532
01:24:04,400 --> 01:24:06,840
Speaker 3: it might not be your style. And that's fine. I

1533
01:24:06,840 --> 01:24:09,360
Speaker 3: would recommend checking out the soundtrack if you can. The

1534
01:24:09,439 --> 01:24:13,120
Speaker 3: music is great, especially if you love synthesizer stuff.

1535
01:24:13,439 --> 01:24:16,200
Speaker 1: Absolutely to a terrific score. But I have to warn

1536
01:24:16,240 --> 01:24:18,240
Speaker 1: you the score, it may suck you in. The next thing,

1537
01:24:18,280 --> 01:24:21,200
Speaker 1: you know, you're watching Showgun Assassin, then you're watching the

1538
01:24:21,240 --> 01:24:23,639
Speaker 1: Lone Wolf and Cub series. That's how it gets started.

1539
01:24:25,439 --> 01:24:27,200
Speaker 1: All right, Well, this was a lot of fun. I'd

1540
01:24:27,240 --> 01:24:28,960
Speaker 1: love to hear from everyone out there. I know we

1541
01:24:29,080 --> 01:24:32,400
Speaker 1: have listeners who are very well acquainted with the Lone

1542
01:24:32,439 --> 01:24:37,200
Speaker 1: Wolf and Cub series and are more familiar with Samurai

1543
01:24:37,200 --> 01:24:39,760
Speaker 1: and Ninja pictures than we are, So hey, write in.

1544
01:24:39,840 --> 01:24:41,559
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you. We'd love your

1545
01:24:41,560 --> 01:24:44,680
Speaker 1: thoughts on Showgun Assassin, Lone Wolf and Cub the series. Oh,

1546
01:24:44,720 --> 01:24:47,320
Speaker 1: if you've read the manga, write in about that as well.

1547
01:24:47,520 --> 01:24:49,760
Speaker 1: I have not, so I don't have any familiarity with it,

1548
01:24:49,800 --> 01:24:53,000
Speaker 1: but of course it is considered legendary in its own right.

1549
01:24:54,000 --> 01:24:56,160
Speaker 1: Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

1550
01:24:56,200 --> 01:24:59,000
Speaker 1: primarily a science and culture podcast with core episodes on

1551
01:24:59,000 --> 01:25:01,519
Speaker 1: Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside most

1552
01:25:01,520 --> 01:25:04,080
Speaker 1: serious concerns to just talk about a weird film on

1553
01:25:04,160 --> 01:25:07,200
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema. And if you want to keep up

1554
01:25:07,200 --> 01:25:09,120
Speaker 1: with what we're doing on Weird House Cinema, you can

1555
01:25:09,160 --> 01:25:12,599
Speaker 1: always follow us on a letterbox dot com. Our username

1556
01:25:12,640 --> 01:25:14,880
Speaker 1: there is weird House. You'll find a list of all

1557
01:25:14,880 --> 01:25:16,800
Speaker 1: the films we've done so far and sometimes a peek

1558
01:25:16,840 --> 01:25:19,280
Speaker 1: ahead at what's coming out next, and hey, we are

1559
01:25:19,320 --> 01:25:21,519
Speaker 1: in December, so you know what that means. We're gonna

1560
01:25:21,520 --> 01:25:23,559
Speaker 1: we're gonna get at least one Christmas movie in there.

1561
01:25:24,120 --> 01:25:26,800
Speaker 1: Is it gonna have Santa in it? Can make no promises.

1562
01:25:26,840 --> 01:25:29,240
Speaker 1: Will there be a Christmas tree somewhere in the background

1563
01:25:29,240 --> 01:25:33,040
Speaker 1: of a scene? Probably that's probably probably how it's gonna

1564
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:33,400
Speaker 1: go down.

1565
01:25:34,240 --> 01:25:36,160
Speaker 3: Has it been a year since I Come in Peace?

1566
01:25:37,040 --> 01:25:37,439
Speaker 1: It has?

1567
01:25:37,600 --> 01:25:37,800
Speaker 5: Yeah?

1568
01:25:37,840 --> 01:25:41,320
Speaker 1: That was That was our Christmas action film from last year.

1569
01:25:41,400 --> 01:25:43,840
Speaker 1: Wasn't it that one had Christmas music in it? I

1570
01:25:43,840 --> 01:25:47,200
Speaker 1: think it was Christmas was more a part of the

1571
01:25:47,520 --> 01:25:50,000
Speaker 1: texture of the picture then some people give it credit.

1572
01:25:50,840 --> 01:25:54,599
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1573
01:25:55,040 --> 01:25:56,599
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1574
01:25:56,600 --> 01:25:59,240
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1575
01:25:59,240 --> 01:26:01,360
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1576
01:26:01,840 --> 01:26:04,559
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1577
01:26:04,560 --> 01:26:12,120
Speaker 3: your Mind dot com.

1578
01:26:12,240 --> 01:26:15,200
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1579
01:26:15,280 --> 01:26:18,080
Speaker 2: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1580
01:26:18,200 --> 01:26:20,960
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.