There’s something about Tomisaburo Wakayama’s portly stature and sullen demeanour as Ogami Itto, the wandering ronin, at the centre of the Lone Wolf And Cub series. A highly skilled and almost invincible assassin, Wakayama grounds everything with his grumpy stoicism and physicality, particularly in the face of enemy hordes and gushing blood sprays. Or in the case of Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart To Hades (1972), the third entry in the series, withstanding a sequence of prolonged torture. This forms one of the main storylines in this episodic tale, where Ogami submits himself for punishment in place of a woman who has killed the consort who sold her into sex slavery; the yakuza led by Torizo (Yuko Hamada) expecting justice to be served by the woman’s punishment until Ogami, whose son has taken a liking to her, steps in to take her place. Bloodied and beaten, there’s still jobs for Ogami to be offered, paid to assassinate an enemy of Torizo’s father who has fallen from grace due to feudal political manoeuvring. One of the other plot strands is a wandering samurai, Kanbei (Go Kato), who crosses Ogami’s paths and wants a duel to satisfy the question of what is a “true samurai”. Throughout Baby Cart To Hades, there is some unpleasant grimy exploitation material including a roadside assault by bandits on a mother and her daughter, several assassins denoted by their choice of weapon (duelling hand-guns, for example), sepia-toned flashbacks of palatial intrigue, close-ups of Daigoro the baby boy gazing at a cricket in the rain or remaining impassive as his father butchers through enemy samurai, and finally, a great climax where the lone warrior and his baby cart face an assembled army in their path within a gigantic sand-pit. The third film in this series was still entertaining, despite a few moments of unpleasantness, and has a great showdown and conclusion that makes it memorable, even if it doesn’t reach the heights of the previous chapter, Baby Cart At The River Styx. I’m halfway through “the demon way to Hell”, three more movies to go on the Criterion Collection box-set. Great score by Eiken Sakurai and a jazzy, melancholic closing credits tune. Directed by Kenji Misumi who helmed the previous two entries. Recommended.
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