This film essentially begins in the winter with the exiled samurai named "Ogami Itto" (Tomisaburo Wakayama) sledding through the snow on the baby cart he has built for his infant son "Daigoro" (Akihiro Tomikawa) sitting safely inside. Meanwhile, the man who instigated Ogami Itto's exile, "Retsudo Yagyu" (Minoru Oki) is now feeling a great deal of pressure for not being able to kill them and, having already lost his three sons, now sends his daughter "Kaori Yagyu" (Junko Hitomi) to finish the job he started. Failing that, he also has another son from one of his concubines he can petition--but that would only happen if he was truly desperate. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this is the sixth--and last--film in the series and, quite honestly, it is not one of the better installments. For starters, it lacked the in-depth plot and character development of the others, which made the entire film seem rather formulaic. Likewise, the ending was quite ridiculous as well. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a bad film by any means, it just didn't seem to rise to the same level as some of its predecessors and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
