#841: SAITO, Buichi: Baby Cart In Peril (1972)
SAITO, Buichi (Japan)
Baby Cart In Peril [1972]
Spine #841
Blu-ray
81 minutes
Baby Cart In Peril [1972]
Spine #841
Blu-ray
Taking over from Kenji Misumi, director Buichi Saito (a veteran of Nikkatsu studio's "Diamond Guys" youth films) front-loads his first entry in the Lone Wolf and Cub film series with bare breasts and blood, quickly setting the coordinates for his distinctly lowbrow — but irresistibly fun — take on the material.
Lone Wolf is hired by the Owari clan to assassinate a tattooed woman named O-Yuki (Michi Azuma), who is killing her enemies and disgracing them by cutting off their topknots with her short sword. While tracking his prey in gumshoe-detective mode, Ogami meets with an elderly artist who recalls giving the femme fatale her signature tattoos.
Meanwhile, Daigoro follows a pair of traveling performers outside of town, becoming separated from his dad. Ogami, suspecting that his enemies — the Shadow Yagyu clan — are pursuing him, must let his son fend for himself during a musical interlude in a rainstorm (the winsome "Daigoro's Theme" is a big break from the steely tone the series had established so far but became a massive hit in Japan).
Lone Wolf and Cub are taken prisoner and brought before the leader of the Owari clan. They manage to escape and take the sniveling head official captive, but their archenemy, Retsudo Yagyu, attacks and enters the battlefield, determined to kill both of them.
With a plot revolving around street performers, Baby Cart in Peril feels like a kabuki theater take on Lone Wolf and Cub — not the culturally treasured version of kabuki as it is today but the original mode of vulgar entertainment for the masses. Series producer Shintaro Katsu and star Tomisaburo Wakayama got their start as entertainers on such stages and know exactly how to pitch this material to the cheap seats. But there's still plenty of hard-line samurai philosophy to consider throughout, including one of the grimmest aphorisms in a series full of them: "How lucky it would be for a child to have a parent who'd wish for his death."
81 minutes
Color
Monaural
in Japanese
2:40:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016
Monaural
in Japanese
2:40:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016
Director/Writers
Based on the manga by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima.
Screenplay by Koike.
Buichi Saito was 47 when he directed Baby Cart in Peril.
The Booklet
Thirty-six page booklet featuring an essay and film synopses by Japanese pop-culture critic Patrick Macias.
Commentary
None.
Interview 1
With Koike, writer of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series and screenwriter on five of the films.
L’âme d’un père, l’âme d’un sabre
A 2005 documentary about the making of the series.
Interview 2
In which Sensei Yoshimitsu Katsuse discusses and demonstrates the real Suio-ryu sword techniques that inspired the ones depicted in the manga and films.
Interview 3
With biographer Kazuma Nozawa about Misumi, director of four of the six films.
Silent documentary
From 1937 about the making of samurai swords, with an optional new ambient score by Ryan Francis.
Trailers
Extras Rating (0-40):
By Spine #
The Film
A
Film Rating (0-60):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Thirty-six page booklet featuring an essay and film synopses by Japanese pop-culture critic Patrick Macias.
Commentary
None.
Interview 1
With Koike, writer of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series and screenwriter on five of the films.
L’âme d’un père, l’âme d’un sabre
A 2005 documentary about the making of the series.
Interview 2
In which Sensei Yoshimitsu Katsuse discusses and demonstrates the real Suio-ryu sword techniques that inspired the ones depicted in the manga and films.
Interview 3
With biographer Kazuma Nozawa about Misumi, director of four of the six films.
Silent documentary
From 1937 about the making of samurai swords, with an optional new ambient score by Ryan Francis.
Trailers
Extras Rating (0-40):
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