Baby Cart at the River Styx has Ogami and his son Daigoro back with more adventures about them making a quick buck for slicing off a few heads.  Yes Ogami is a hitman and a very good one for that matter.  In this film Ogami is being hunted down by not one but by two groups of ninjas.  One group is all male and the other is all female and they want to kill him because of stuff that happened in the first film that they can't forgive him for.  After the first wave of ninjas they send out fail to kill Ogami they think of another plan to trap him and their plan is to kidnap his son in hopes of getting Ogami to let his guard down so they can have an easy kill.  Just like the first film you also have a second story for the second half of the feature.  The second story actually starts at the beginning of the film before it flows into the ninja tale and has a dye farmer hire Ogami to kill a guy that will take their business down if kept alive.  Ogami agrees and is on his way.  While on his way it kicks into the ninja story.  After the ninja story Ogami hops onto a ship that will take him to the location where his target is.  While on the ship he sees three men in hats who look very dangerous.  These three men get attacked while on the dock getting some fresh air and absolutely destroy the men attacking them.  The leader of the attackers sets the ship alight in a desperate attempt to kill these men.  The three men easily escape the boat but before they do they go to Ogami and tell him that they are the bodyguards of the guy that Ogami is paid to kill and warn him that to get to his target he must get through them first.  Problem is that Ogami and his son are stuck on the burning ship and may not be able to get to the target if they are stuck on the burning boat.  Will the farther and son duo survive this hellish smoke on the water (yes I just did a bad Deep Purple pun)?  (Click "Read More" to read the full review).


After watching the first one I had some very high expectations that this was going to be a masterpiece but I would find that I set my expitations up a little too high as it did not meet what I was hoping it would be.  However it was far from being a bad film, actually it was pretty good with both stories telling very intense tales about murder and revenge .  The acting was very good and dramatic but not to the point where it gets over dramatic to where it gets cheesy.  In a blink of an eye they can go from dramatic to scary to a point where the characters seem more demon than human.  The great thing about these characters is while they do seem demonic they still remain a sense of humanity.  The film is very beautifully shot with nice scenery mixed in with some psychedelic angles common in B-films from the 1960's and 1970's.

Violence in this film is very gruesome with a bunch of no holds barred blood and gore that will make you go "yikes".  You will see the typical samurai violence like sword slashing that leaves the victim spewing out fountains of blood.  You will also get stuff that will make the lovely lady who is watching the film with you shield her eyes due to violence like: A ninja getting sliced to shreds (literally), guys getting their eyes gouged out with metal claws, and female ninjas getting their breasts sliced off.  On the topic of action you will see some really well done stuff that will pump you up full of adrenaline getting you all excited.  My problem with this film is that some scenes are very slow and don't serve much service other than to fill in some scenes. 

Special features include a selection of promotional photos and some production notes that gives you an idea on what went on behind the scenes.  Both of these features aren't in video so I only expect a certain amount of people will appreciate them (mainly the fans of this series).  Overall this was a pretty good film but nowhere near as good as the original but a worthy follow-up nonetheless.  Worth a watch. 

That slices up day two of Super Samurai Week 2013.  Make sure to check back in tomorrow for a review of the third adventure of Ogami and son, "Baby Cart To Hades".  Rest up all you wandering hitmen out there, it's going to be another bloody cart ride through hell.

Title: Lone Wolf and Cub - Baby Cart At the River Styx
Directed by: Kenji Misumi
Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama
Genre:  Action
Running Time: 81 minutes
Distributor: Madman Entertainment/ Eastern Eye (www.madman.com.au)
Rating: MA15+ (High level violence)
Price: $39.95 (as part of "Lone Wolf and Cub Ultimate Collection")
Recommended: Yes