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Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell
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Wikipedia article
{{Infobox film
| name = Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell
| image = Lone Wolf and Cub White Heaven in Hell.JPG
| alt =
| caption =
| native_name =
| director = Yoshiyuki Kuroda
| producer =
| screenplay = Tsutomu Nakamura
| based_on =
| starring =
| narrator =
| music = Kunihiko Murai
| cinematography = Chishi Makiura
| editing = Toshio Taniguchi
| studio = Katsu
| distributor = Toho
| released =
| runtime = 84 minutes
| country = Japan
| language =
| budget =
| gross =
}}
is the final entry in a series of six Japanese martial arts films based on the long-running 'Lone Wolf and Cub' manga series about Ogami Itt, a wandering assassin for hire who is accompanied by his young son, Daigoro. Although this is the last film in the series, it does not end the story or include the conclusion of the series as written in the manga."Lone Wolf and Cub 28: The Lotus Throne by Kazuo Koike
Plot
After the Shogun threatens to disgrace the Yagy clan because of their continual failure to kill the wandering swordsman Ogami Itt and his infant son Daigoro, Lord Yagy Retsudo sends his daughter and last remaining child Kaori, an expert with flying daggers, to kill them. After she is killed, Retsudo attempts to use the Tsuchigumo, a secretive mountain clan that practices black magic and is commanded by Hyouei, an illegitimate son of Retsudo who is determined to cause the downfall of the Yagy by killing Itt and Daigoro himself. Hyouei sends his three most fearsome followers, whose abilities include the ability to burrow through the earth and who kill anyone Itt and Daigoro come into contact with.
Itt soon confronts and defeats Hyouei in sword combat along with all of his men. Fleeing to the mountains of northern Japan, Itt turns the tables on the three Tsuchigumo who cannot burrow under snow and ice and kills all three of them as well.
The story culminates in a final battle between Itt and the combined Japanese clan groups, numbering nearly 1,000 men, under Retsudo's personal command on a snow-capped mountain, in which the baby cart becomes a sled. Itt once again uses the baby cart's weapons first by gunning down a third of the army with the baby cart's gattling machine gun, then using the cart's weapons which Itt ends up shooting, stabbing, slashing, dismembering and beheading the entire army. But the one-eyed Retsudo once again escapes by riding away on a sled, vowing to kill Itt another day.
Cast
* Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itt
* Akihiro Tomikawa as Daigoro
* Junko Hitomi as Yagy Kaori
* Isao Kimura as Yagy Hyouei
* Gor Mutsumi as Ishine Kokaku
* Minoru ki as Yagy Retsudo
Release
'Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell' was released theatrically in Japan on 24 April 1974. The film was released on home video in the United States as 'Lone Wolf and Cub - White Heaven in Hell' by Samurai Cinema, a division of AnimEigo, Inc. The film was later released by the Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray on November 8, 2016.
See also
* List of Japanese films of 1974
References
Footnotes
Sources
*
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