Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart To Hades (1972)

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 […]

Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart At The River Styx (1972)

I had a VHS copy of Lone Wolf And Cub: Baby Cart At The River Styx (1972), the second film in the wandering samurai and son series from Japan, taped on a VCR during a SBS Cult Movie night. I’ve always remembered it vividly because the bad guys are a group of highly skilled assassins, […]

Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword Of Vengeance (1972)

It’s hard not to be nostalgic for things like Saturday Cult Movie nights on SBS with Des Magnan with the type of movies I’d get exposed to on free to air TV growing up as a teenager. The Lone Wolf And Cub series tended to get played a lot, and I think I’ve only seen […]

Je Tu Il Elle (1974)

One haunting image from the film, Je Tu Il Elle (1974; I You He She), is when Julie, the young woman played by the director, Chantal Akerman, has shifted furniture out of her ground floor apartment, and has moved her bed against the wall. Sitting against an alcove in the corner of the room, near […]

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

It’s all a matter of time. You hear about a film, you see it pop up (particularly if it’s in the public domain – so everywhere, public access TV, crappy DVDs, free on YouTube), and know that at some point you’ll eventually see it. The Hitch-Hiker (1953) was always beckoning on the side of the […]