Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance
| Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance | |
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| Directed by | Kenji Misumi |
| Produced by | |
| Screenplay by | Kazuo Koike |
| Based on | the manga by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Eiken Sakurai |
| Cinematography | Chishi Maikura |
| Edited by | Toshio Taniguchi |
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Production
companies |
Katsu
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| Distributed by | Toho |
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Release date
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Running time
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87 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (子連れ狼 子を貸し腕貸しつかまつる Kozure Ōkami: Kowokashi udekashi tsukamatsuru?) is a 1972 Japanese chambara film directed by Kenji Misumi. It is the first in a series of six films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series. The film tells the story of Ogami Ittō, a wandering assassin for hire who is accompanied by his young son, Daigoro.
Set in Japan during an unspecific year of the Edo period, Ogami Ittō, disgraced former executioner, or Kogi Kaishakunin, to the shogun, wanders the countryside, pushing a baby cart with his 3-year-old son Daigoro inside. A banner hangs off his back. "Ogami: Suiouryo technique" (Child and expertise for rent)(子を[son] 貸し[for hire] 腕 [arm|skill] 貸し[for hire] つかまつる [to serve] 水 鷗流 [Suiouryo] 拜一刀 [ogami ittô]), it says. His services are asked for in a most unexpected way, when an insane woman seizes Daigoro from the cart and proceeds to try to breastfeed the boy. Daigoro at first hesitates, but after stern look from his father, he proceeds to suckle the crazy woman's breast. The woman's mother then apologizes for her daughter's behavior and tries to give Ittō money, but the stoic ronin refuses, saying his son was hungry anyway.
As he walks in the rain, he remembers another rainy day several months earlier when his wife, Asami, was slain by three ninjas, ostensibly in revenge for Ittō's execution of a boy daimyo, but it was really part of a complicated plot by the shogun's inspector Bizen and the "Shadow" Yagyū Clan to frame Ittō for treason and take over the executioner's post.
Now a wandering assassin for hire, Ittō takes a job from a Chamberlain, to kill a rival and his gang of henchmen, who pose a threat to the chamberlain's lord. The chamberlain plans to test Ittō, but a quick slash behind his back with his Dotanuki sword dispatches the chamberlain's two men. The targets are in a remote mountain village that is home to hot-spring spa pools.
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