Movie Monday: Shogun Assassin

So I'm sure almost everybody has seen Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies by now. Near the end of the second film, when Black Mamba and her daughter are having some bonding time, they watch a film. That film is Shogun Assassin. 

The film is narrated by a boy, the son of our protagonist, who himself is known as Lone Wolf. Lone Wolf used to be the enforcer/decapitator/hitman of the Shogun. Eventually the Shogun grew fearful of Lone Wolf and sent ninjas to kill him. Well apparently the ninjas decided it would be funny to kill Lone Wolf's wife instead. (Yeah, I don't get it either; maybe they were drunk.) Anyway, Lone Wolf pretty much loses his shit and kills the crap out of everyone and goes on a journey of revenge, taking his son with him.  

The Shogun keeps sending ninja hordes after them but, of course, Lone Wolf kills them all. He's like if John Matrix and John Rambo had a samurai baby.

This continues for a good bit of the movie until Lone Wolf and son face off against the Three Masters of Death who each wield a unique weapon. Just like every other enemy we've seen up to this point, these guys are built up to be huge badasses and then they just get absolutely slaughtered by Lone Wolf. He then kills the Shogun's brother and walks off into the sunset with his son, who laments that he wishes things could be different.

For real though, this movie is fan-freaking-tastic. An oppressive shogun, a mystical sword, a wandering samurai, hordes of slaughtered assassins, kind of sounds like Samurai Jack, doesn't it?

4 out of 5 Ninjas