This film essentially begins during the reign of an extremely insecure shogun who goes completely insane and orders that everyone he suspects of being disloyal to him be put to death-regardless of whether they are actually disloyal or not. To accomplish that, he calls upon his grand executioner named "Ogami Ito" (Tomisaburo Wakayama) to carry it out. At first, being a loyal samurai, Ogami obeys his orders. However, being totally insane, "the Shogun" (played by Tokio Oki) soon begins to suspect that Ogami is also disloyal. So, to satisfy his paranoid delusions, he eventually sends ninja assassins to kill Ogami at his home. Unfortunately for the Shogun, although his ninjas end up killing Ogami's wife, they fail in their efforts to kill their primary target--and because of that the Shogun's worst fears are about to become a reality. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie is actually a condensed version of the first two films of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series. On that note, while I enjoyed this version when it first came out over 40 years ago, I must admit that--because of its heavily edited nature--it loses something in the transition and suffers somewhat in comparison to the two original films. Be that as it may, I still found this film to be entertaining for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.
Review of Shogun Assassin
Shogun Assassin
(1980)
A Condensed Version of the First Two Films in the "Lone Wolf & Cub" Series
7 January 2023