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MY REVIEW OF IT!!!!

posted 15 years ago by Martialhorror
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LONE WOLF AND CUB: WHITE HEAVEN IN HELL(1974)

(Directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda)

"Lone Wolf on ice!"- Signed by MartialHorror

Plot: Assassin Lone Wolf and Cub continues to tear the Shadow-Yagyu apart, causing Lord Retsudo to step up his game.

Review:

This is the last entry of the “Lone Wolf” series, and I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. I expected this to resolve the story. Instead, it ends like they always do. Retsudo escapes, and the movie seems to promise another sequel. Perhaps they didn’t originally intend for this to be the end of the series or something, but much like the “Zatoichi” movies, this series ended without a real conclusion.

The story begins with Lone Wolf and Cub in the snow, using the baby cart as a sled. We expect enemies to jump out at them, but we’re annoyed to see this isn’t the case. Meanwhile, Retsudo, the head of the Shadow-Yagyu, is informed that the Shogunate is about to name the Lone Wolf as a federal criminal. If they catch and kill him, then the Yagyu clan will be doomed. Retsudo, as a last resort, sends his daughter after him. You see, his daughter has an interesting dagger trick that seems unstoppable. She eventually tracks down Lone Wolf and challenges him to a duel. To our surprise, he kills her pretty quickly. So much for her!

Having lost his last heir, Retsudo reveals he has a bastard son who is exiled in the mountains. Retsudo attempts to recruit him, but the son refuses quite rudely. However, the son belongs to a mystic clan and he decides he will complete his Fathers mission, but then replace the Yagyu clan. He then raises three zombies…wait, what? Zombies?! Did Lucio Fulci direct this movie or something? Well, yes, there are zombies. But pretty quickly they lose their zombie traits. In fact, I’m not even sure what happens to them. I think they are the three guys who fight Lone Wolf near the end? Maybe, maybe not. This movie is pretty confusing. Anyway, these new enemies hunt Lone Wolf down and announce that if Lone Wolf converses with anyone in any way, or takes food from them, etc., then those people will be murdered. What follows is a series of cat and mouse games between them.

The coolest thing about this movie is that it almost feels like Lone Wolf walked into a horror movie. Besides the zombies, this clan has a surprisingly frightening preasance. You don’t even see them, but hear their voices. The movie has a strong atmosphere and the fight scene in the lake house is surprisingly haunting. I was actually surprised how much suspense was to be found in this movie. It’s pretty nail biting.

I was a little bit miffed when Kenji Misumi, one of the few directors whose name I can spell without looking it up because I’ve reviewed so many of his movies, was not the director here. Still, the style is a bit similar, although the snowy photography occasionally feels flat. This movie has plenty of absurd traits. I mean, the final battle is basically a bunch of ninja/samurai on ski’s, chasing down Lone wolf on his bobsled baby cart. Then there is a scene where he kills a bunch of people hiding in a wall, which is completely out there considering I don’t think jumping out of a wall would be a very good way of sneaking up on someone. Everything about it is so off-the-wall and absurd that the stupidity of it all hardly matters. Oh yeah, the score feels like “Shaft” mixed in a bit with “Godzilla”. What a combination! I did love the more somber score as well. Finally, the director nails the pacing here. The fight scenes, while not as good as usual, are still good. But oddly I was never bored. Downtime is one of the series’ problems.

On the downside, I was often confused. Retsudo has a weird and confusing family tree. I mean, he keeps saying he has only “one more child” until another is revealed. Finally, what was with the sister? I did feel that considering this was the last movie in the series, it lacked a sense of finality. The feud apparently continues after this, but we don’t know how it ends. Still, the final scene of Lone Wolf and his cub staring at each other is pretty touching and at least ends the story on a cute note.

“Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell” isn’t the best entry in the series, nor is it the worst. Good or bad, you have to say it’s pretty weird. Zombies, ninja’s using ski’s, bobsled baby carts, machine guns, magic, incest, etc…..Considering how weird the series is, this one fits in perfectly.

Tomisaburo Wakayama(Ogami Itto) owns as always as Lone Wolf and his last bit with Akihiro Tomikawa(Daigoro) was touching. The cast overall does well, but props to Junko Hitomi(Kaori) as the dagger wielding daughter who was very cool in her limited screentime.

Violence: Heavy R. Lots of flying limbs and murder. The goriest scene is when someone is cut in half and their lower half slides in the snow.

Nudity: One girl shows her breasts/behind quickly when her brother attempts to rape her…don’t ask.

Overall: “Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell” has a tight pacing, lots of gore, so many weird happenings and an atmosphere of horror. What’s not to like? Sure, it’s confusing but I think fans will appreciate it.

3/4 Stars

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[–] Xcalat3 13 years ago

thanks

nice review

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] Ehrgeiz 10 years ago

"On the downside, I was often confused. Retsudo has a weird and confusing family tree."

Yep. But that was part of the original story. I dig the whole yagyu background a lot and they have difficult ways of breeding.
Retsudo was already an illegitimate son of the main yagyu branch, what made his clan the "Ura yagyu" (translated "shadow yagyu", though I do not know if its a literal translation). He had three legitimate sons, which were mostly easy prey for Itto. And he had two illegitimate children, Kaori and her brother, which are shown here. Which made them especially illegitimate, not allowed to be in presence of the Ura-Yagyu and being treated cruelly by their father, practically being another warriors at hand without even having the right to look at him.

In the comic, with the Yagyus ninja spies its more difficult, they are having a very complex system of breeding young fighters, for example exchanging the female newborn, putting them in a village together, so they can produce male ninja later.

Some of it seems very obscure, but not totally far from reality, if you recall that the japanese imperial family had also a very elaborated systems to get tons of offspring of which the future tennos would be chosen.