Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)

Director: Kenji Misumi

Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Akiray Yamauchi, Hideji Otaki, Taketoshi Naito, Fuijo Suga, Rokko Toura, Shingo Yamashiroas, Tomomi Sato, Michiyo Ookusu, Koji Fujiyama, Sumida Kazuyo, Bin Amatsu, Taizen Shishido, Eiji Okada, Minoru Ohki

Finally, the downward spiral of the Lone Wolf and Cub franchise ends. After a slightly off beat western influenced entry (Baby Cart to Hades) and an entry that fully embraced its exploitative elements (Baby Cart in Peril), the fifth entry to this critically acclaimed series is back to running with all of the great things about Lone Wolf and Cub. You can say that a lot of this happens because of the return of Kenji Misumi to the director’s chair, which is a huge part of it, but Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons is just a better, more cohesive film all around. The artistic merits have come back into the fold, the performances are top notch, and the writing might be the most fluid that the series has seen thus far. While the first two entries certainly receive a bulk of the praise for this franchise, Baby Cart in the Land of Demons is just as good – and I’ll go there – if not slightly better than both of the first films. It’s a remarkable piece of chanbara cinema that takes the best artistic aspects and gives it that Lone Wolf spin in all the best ways.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972)

Director: Buichi Saito

Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akhiro Tomikawa, Yoichi Hayashi, Michi Azuma, Asao Koike, Hiroshi Tanaka, Tatsuo Endo, Asao Uchida, Shin Kishida, So Yamamura

Is it that strange that director Kenji Misumi would want to take a break from directing Lone Wolf and Cub movies after making three of them in one year? Not at all, but the fourth film in this acclaimed franchise could have used his talents in executing its concept. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril is easily the weakest of the films in the new Criterion box set thus far, continuing a downward slide in quality for the series since the second one, and it sincerely misses a lot of the artistic merit that Misumi would have brought into the fold. The film is still outrageously entertaining, almost to the point of reaching new heights of silliness for the ultra-violent series, and deserves some credit for making a lot of its flaws into enjoyable tidbits of grindhouse fun, but it suffers greatly from an overly complicated plot and lacks the focus to drive home its better concepts and characters.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)

Director: Kenji Misumi
Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Go Kato, Yuko Hama, Isao Yamagata, Michitaro Mizushima, Ichiro Nakatani, Sayoko Kato, Jun Hamamura, Daigo Kusano

Same year, third Lone Wolf and Cub film. Three films in a series in one year? That's unheard of! This isn't even the last film in the series to be released in 1972! Well franchise fatigue is starting to rear its ugly head as they are pumping these films out at an incredible rate as third entry takes a small step down from the previous two energetic entries. Does that make Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades a bad sequel? HELL NO! This is actually a terrific samurai film, just not quite up to par with the entries that came before.

Lone Wolf and his son are still roaming the Japanese country side, selling their assassin skills for 500 pieces of gold. While bunking in a motel, a girl driven in to prostitution comes running to his rescue after accidentally killing a purchaser that attempted to rape her. Lone Wolf volunteers himself to be tortured by the ruthless Yakuza family to save her life and in turn is hired by their leader to kill a rival.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)

Director: Kenji Misumi 
Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Oki, Shin Kishida, Shogen Hitta

This first sequel to the bloody successful (pun intended) rebel samurai film Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance is top notch, even bloodier and a cut above the original. Considering how good the original is, that's quite a feat, especially since this was pumped out the very same year!

Lone Wolf is hired by opprobrious Yagyu clan in order to assassinate a spy who has stolen some secrets about their plantation that harvests a precious dye. Lone Wolf's job is simple... kill him before he gets back to the Shogun. It's not going to be easy though as there are assassins all around him with a hit on his head as well as his son. The result is one of the bloodiest, most action packed samurai films ever made.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

Director: Kenji Misumi
Notable Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Fumio Watanabe, Tomoko Mayama, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Asao Uchida, Taketoshi Naito, Yoshi Kato, Keiko Fujita, Teruo Matsuyama, Yunosuke Ito

Revered director Akira Kurosawa created the samurai genre with his immortal Seven Samurai in 1954. By the time the 70s rolled around, things were getting bloody, real bloody as the 'slasher' versions of samurai films emerged with Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance being head of the pack shocking audiences with their extreme violence mixed with solid filmmaking. In other words this is the beginning of one of the most kick ass film series of all time!

Based on the popular Manga books at the time, Lone Wolf and Cub is a story about highly trained, noble samurai and son being wrongly accused by a corrupt Shogun. His wife in turn is murdered so Lone Wolf decides to turn to evil, killing without honor and roams the lands pushing his son in a baby cart, selling his skills as an assassin for 500 pieces of gold.