Shogun Assassin 4: Five Fistfulls of Gold — dvd review
So if you check out this site, and you’ve read my reviews of Shogun Assassin 2 and Shogun Assassin 3, you know what to expect from Shogun Assassin 4: Five Fistfuls of Gold. Yup, Shogun Assassin 4 is the dubbed version of the fifth Lone Wolf and Cub film, Baby Cart in the Land of Demons. If you’ve seen that film, there’s nothing new to see here. If not, read on.
This fifth outing (or fourth, depending on if you started with Sword of Vengeance or Shogun Assassin) sees Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) hired by a secretive clan to take out a less than savory Buddhist priest. You see, the priest has some dirt on the clan’s heir, and should that dirt make its way to the shogun, it could cause quite a bit of trouble for their small group. The only catch is that in order for Itto to learn about and be paid for his mission, he must confront and conquer five messenger/combatants, each holding 1/5 of his fee and 1/5 of the information. By this time you should probably know that the mission agreed-to is not quite as straightforward as initially laid out. Suffice it to say, Ogami’s journey will lead him into encounters with a staggering number of baddies, a prominent Yagyu colluder (getting closer to the vengeance owed there), a likeminded 
female agent (always interesting for the Itto), and onward toward a final mission that will test both his moral fiber and paternal instinct. Before the dust settles, allegiances will be shuffled and buckets of blood will be spilt. What else would you expect from Lone Wolf and Cub?
A far lesser film than its immediate predecessor, Shogun Assassin 4 ranks somewhere in the middle of the Lone Wolf and Cub canon. It’s worth nothing this film was director Kenji Misumi’s last go round with Ogami and son, and as far as the technical aspects are concerned, everything is on par with previous entries. Fights are fun as always, but the action plays out with an odd distanced feel to it, quite possibly due to the absurdity at of the film’s initial scenes. The first twenty minutes or so consist primarily of agents delivering information segments to Ogami while in the midst of their death throes. Amazingly they have breath to spare, even when they’ve lost enough blood to color an entire river red. This being the dubbed version, the audience is treated during these sequences to lengthy passages spoken by English dub actors doing their noble best Philips’ Milk of Magnesia commercials. Besides being a bit unintentionally funny, the sheer strangeness of it all serves to bring you out of the narrative, 
which itself seems a bit unfocused compared to the earlier films.
Things do pick up in the latter half, however, including a strange and interesting bit involving Daigoro and a female pickpocket (something of a Koyuki lookalike), a cool river sabotage/assassination sequence, and later, close-quarters indoor battles with countless foes. These never quite muster the same excitement as the sequences in Shogun Assassin 3, but they’re still pretty entertaining.
Being that this is the dubbed version of Lone Wolf and Cub 5, some discussion of the dub is necessary. Before I let the statement in the above paragraph lead you to think the dubbing is bad, let me assure you of the contrary. Like Shogun Assassin 3, the brand new AnimEigo dub is surprisingly competent. There are a few strange pronunciations and forced bits here and there, but on the whole everyone seems to be emoting earnestly, while doing a surprising job of matching their lines with the mouths of the actors. Special shout out to Stan Wood for never letting his Itto veer into the realm of parody.
In closing, Shogun Assassin 4 may not be the best of the series, but it’s still worth a look for fans, as even an average Lone Wolf and Cub outing remains
a cut above its peers. If you have been collecting these films so far, you’ll want to check it out.
The DVD.
AnimEigo’s presents Shogun Assassin 4 in a completely restored transfer, maintaining its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. And man, this transfer is amazing. Seriously, after seeing the lazy restoration of last week’s review title, Delinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night Dreams, Shogun Assassin 4 provided a nice treat for my suffering eyes (for more info, see my forthcoming One Piece The Movie and The Nines reviews). Blacks are deep, reds are bright, flesh-tones are fleshy. In fact, the video was so crisp, I initially questioned the decade it was made (I figured maybe early eighties). 
Good stuff.
Extras on the DVD are a bit lighter than usual, containing only five pages of production notes (covering geography and the Zen concept of emptiness), a series of eleven photo stills, and a trailer for the movie.
Oh, and for those (like myself) who enjoy the AnimEigo warnings, the one on this package reads: “Contains demonic violence (No actual gold inside DVD package).”
All in all, a very nice transfer of a decent Lone Wolf and Cub outing. There’s nothing too much in the way of extras, but if you’ve been collecting the Shogun Assassin dubs so far, this DVD will make another nice addition to your collection.
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