MovieChat Forums > Shogun Assassin (1980) Discussion > SHOGUN ASSASSIN - what's there not to li...

SHOGUN ASSASSIN - what's there not to like?


What, I just read a complaint about SHOGUN ASSASSIN on one of the threads about the climatic battle scene with the three, Masters of Death, who were three brothers, ronin mercenaries specializing in unique, non-samurai hand weapons, even though each brother still carried a sword as required of his samurai background.

What's there not to like? Can't you get into the classic, corny dubbing which I LOVE! Really! I'm not being sarcastic at all. The corny English dubbing helped give a certain lovable charm to this movie. I wouldn't change it for anything!

SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS

Here are some classic one-liner zingers that are immortal to "Shogun Assassin":

1) They will all pay, in rivers of blood!
2) You can never escape-the Shogun! You are marked for death, Lone Wolf!
3) I am the supreme ninja!
4) So... we have a reunion...
5) Now we will show you...masters of death!
6) How could you...throw your sword?!!
7) I always hoped to cut someone like that someday, to hear that sound, but to have it happen to my own neck, is, ridiculous.
8) 'Shogun'...means nothing to me! Die!

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THESE GREAT SCENES?

1) Lone Wolf assassin journeying down country roads, seeing strange women walking up to him, with hate and murder in their eyes? Don't you think they shouldn't have been that obvious?

2) Lone Wolf terrifies a group of spectator bystanders when he has to slaughter three female ninja posing as a traveling troupe of acrobats. They cower together and peer timidly at Lone Wolf as he calmly pushes his baby cart past him.

3) Lord Kiragawa, leader of a group of government sponsored ninja fighters, ends up showing something less than good common sense when he needlessly sacrifices one of his best ninja men in an exhibition duel pitting the hapless ninja against six, trained, and equally-armed female ninja.

4) All the Monty Python-like blood spurting gory scenes, especially the ones where you can see the actor samurai and ninja victims holding and squeezing fake blood tubes hidden in their clothing. Classic! I love it!

5) The three ronin brothers, Masters of Death, completely slaughter a squad of hired ronin mercenary hitmen on a wooden ship, who implausibly appear to have little skill with their own swords. One mercenary tries to use a Japanese matchlock carbine and takes so long aiming it that the eldest Master of Death brother knocks him down with a bale of hay then impales him with his steel claw.
It's never explained why the three brothers opted to specialize with exotic weapons that were not equal to the classic lethal katanas each one was carrying, as required of their samurai social status. It may have been just as was hinted at in the movie, the three brothers were little more than cruel, murdering thugs-for-hire, using thuggish-looking hand weapons.

reply