Day Four of this road trip of gruesome sex and grizzly violence has us taking taking a look at the fourth film in the Lone Wolf and cub series: Baby Cart in Peril.  This film kicks right off with the good stuff as we are treated to a group of ninjas being absolutely destroyed by a topless female warrior that shows no remorse whatsoever.  We now cut to our main characters Ogami and his son Daigoro whom are in a small town looking for some work.  Ogami gets called in and is asked to eliminate the topless female warrior in which he accepts for his standard fee of five-hundred gold coins.  Meanwhile while Ogami is at the meeting we are treated to a bonus solo adventure starring Daigoro.  This side-story starts off with Daigoro watching some street clowns performing jokes for all the kids.  Once the show is over he starts following the clowns but they just tell him that they are done for the day and that he should go home before it gets dark.  Daigoro starts looking for his dad but he spots some ninjas roaming the streets and hides in an ally-way.  While this is happening Ogami is out about looking for his son but walks past him while he is hiding.  Daigoro begins wondering around searching for his father and while on his journey he is spotted by a samurai who is curious about the boy and he starts following him and studying him.  I would say what happens next but I won't as I really don't want to spoil it.  That's not all as there is a lot more that happens in this film but sadly the main page can't handle it so this will be continued after the jump.  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).

After that we get right back into the main story where Ogami must kill the topless female warrior.  Trying to figure out where she is he visits a few places including a tattoo parlor and a village and asks a few people on where she might be.  Everyone he asks isn't one-hundred percent sure but they do tell him rumors of where she might be.  Going by this information Ogami checks out those places in hopes of finding her and he is in luck as he finds her in a bathhouse.  How will this deadly game of shirts vs. skins go?  That was a very bad pun but what isn't bad is that we get a bonus third tale in this film which is one more tale than what we would normally get from these films.  Our third tale is a nice throwback to the first film as it turns out that Ogami's last job was in enemy territory and thus he has broken the agreement he made in the first film with a group of corrupted politicians.  That group gets word of this and goes right after Ogami and they have no intentions of showing mercy.  Will Ogami survive a clash with a blast from the past? 

While it was very nice getting three stories rather than the typical two they weren't as satisfying as previous installments in this series.  The solo story starring Daigoro did drag on for a little too long and got boring half-way in.  The movie picks up from the topless female warrior segments and while it was enjoyable the ending battle was anti-climatic and one of the weaker battles in this series.  The third tale came as quite a surprise and I quite enjoyed it although it was quite short and it is mostly battle but it is one of the strongest fights in the movie series.  Fancy that going from one of the weaker fights to one of the stronger ones in a span of a few short minutes.  The other battle scenes in this film were worth watching with some pretty interesting mixture of sex and gore that made for some solid viewing and I should warn that it's not for the light of heart as the gore is pretty darn gruesome.  Acting was great with the actors doing a great job adding to the story and characters.  The soundtrack is great with a nice heavy bass sound that made my spine tingle to the point of me feeling a tad bit... well you know... warm on the inside.

Special features are pretty much the same as the rest as you do get the original theatrical trailer and some promotional photos.  Unlike the rest of them this set doesn't have any production notes detailing the behind the scenes process.  Overall this one was very decent but the series is really starting to suffer from "sequelitis" and is losing some of it's spirit that made this film series very charming. 

Well that is it for day four of "Super Samurai Week" but that's not all as tomorrow we will be taking a look at the second last film in the series "Baby Cart in the Land of Demons".  Will I be right and it'll be all downhill from here?  I sure hope not.  Anyway see you all tomorrow.

Title: Lone Wolf and Cub - Baby Cart In Peril
Directed by: Buichi Saito
Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama
Genre: Action
Running Time: 81 minutes
Distributor: Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: MA15+ (High level violence)
Price: $39.95 (as part of "Lone Wolf and Cub Ultimate Collection")
Recommended: Yes