Theo Robertson This is one of these long forgotten obscure films that was very popular amongst my peers back in the day . . My peers were of course schoolboys in their early teens and when you're that age a film's quality is almost down to gore , swearing . nipple count and other low brow criteria . This means the greatest urban vigilante film wasn't TAXI DRIVER but THE EXTERMINATOR with its graphic scenes of mutilation and torture . By the same yardstick the greatest Japanese film wasn't by Kurosawa or Kobayashi but this one here . I didn't see it when it hit home video in the early 1980s where it subsequently banned circa 1983/84 but was constantly told about it by people who enjoyed seeing limbs and heads getting lopped off . After just seeing it I can't help thinking nostalgia plays a primary part in its very high user rating on this website There's no way you can accuse THE SHOGUN ASSASSIN in being boring but at the same time you can't accuse of being anything more than disposable exploitation schlock . Looking through the Movie Connection link on this page it's apparently three earlier films spliced together and dubbed in to English . One wonders how much milage there was in the previous films because story wise this one a very basic revenge tale with episodic fight scenes that go over the top . It's not enough to merely stab or decapitate someone and they must shoot a stream of blood . You know when you get a garden hose and put your finger over the nozzle and the water comes out in a high pressure spray ? Well that what happens here after a sword fight . It does become clearer and clearer the longer the film continues that is all the film rarely contains , a repetitive series of gory sword fights . Bare that in mind if you want to seek out the film due to its high rating . One also might have feared for a customer going in to a video shop in the early 1980s seeing the title and taking it home thinking it was somehow connected to the mini-series SHOGUN starring Richard Chamberlain . It's hardly family friendly but at the same time the violence is so silly and overdone it resembles MONTY PYTHON rather than some of the more infamous video nasties of the era and one wonders did it really need banned ?

BA_Harrison I imagine that many Japanese cinema purists look down on Shogun Assassin, viewing it as bastardised art, the film consisting of the juiciest bits from the first two classic Lone Wolf and Cub films edited together and re-dubbed for the US market. I, however, see the film as a fond reminder of the video nasty era when, against the wishes of the BBFC, I proudly owned an ex-rental, big box VIPCO VHS copy of the movie; it was one of the highlights of my collection, a gloriously violent saga that introduced me to the world of unflappable samurais and arterial spray, for which I will be ever grateful.Of course these days the censors have seen sense and all of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies are available in their entirety on DVD (pristine prints in their original language with English subtitles, no less); but while it's great to see the movies as the filmmakers intended, I still get a kick out of Shogun Assassin's incongruous American voice-over, grimy 80s synth score and erratic editing, elements that take me back to a time when collecting banned movies was a challenge and the viewing seemed more rewarding as a result. As soon as Daigoro's narration kicks in, I'm back in the darkened bedroom of my youth, revelling in all the stylish blood and violence wreaked by super cool rōnin for hire Ogami Itto (Tomisaburô Wakayama), enjoying the fact that I'm sampling forbidden fruit, and it tastes good.

Sheldon Aubut I'd just recently discovered the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series and having just watched all of them I found them to be some of the best of the genre that I'd ever encountered. I watched them in Japanese with English subtitles and found every one of them to be exceptional. When I saw that "Shogun Assassin" was based on the "Lone Wolf and Cub" series I was excited to see it, but oh what a letdown it turned out to be. Some hacks have taken the original series and cut clips out of each of them, then re-edited those clips into the most god-awful movie I've ever seen, and then claimed to be the "writers". I knew that something was off as soon as I saw that Retsudo, from the real series was shown as the "Shogun". In the originals he was the head of a clan who had stolen the post of royal executioner from Ogami Itto through deception. In the original Daigoro (the son) hardly ever speaks more than the word "Pa", yet in here he is the narrator. The dialog is just plain insipid and has no relationship to the original story. Skip this worthless dreck and find the original "Lone Wolf and Cub" series.In reading all the glowing reviews I have to wonder if they were written by friends of the people who put this together, or by people who have never seen the original series or other great Samurai series such as the Zatoichi movies or other greats of the genre.

lastliberal I generally hate dubbed movies, and I make no exception for this one. It would have been rated higher had it been subtitled. I hate losing the beauty of the language while watching a film.For those who want to see a Samurai film that shows the craft as well as the beauty, you could hardly go wrong with this film. Actually two different films joined together to make one, it gives a taste of the Lone Wolf and Cub series.Tomisaburo Wakayama was magnificent as the Samurai that traveled the roads with his son hiring himself out. You could bring anything to bear and he would dispatch them with ease. No matter how many came to kill him, he always walked away with his son. The Masters of Death were no match.There is blood, lots of blood. Limbs falling to the ground and blood spurting like from a lawn sprinkler. Death in a Samurai film is not pretty.