LoneWolf/Cub films; I've got ?'s

lambertlambert 1,166 Posts
edited October 2007 in Strut Central
Looking for some direction here.Recently I just got the first of the Lone Wolf & Cub movies. I haven't watched it yet, but I know it encompasses the first 2 or 3 books of the series.What I'm wondering is, do the other LW&C films follow the general story lines of the book, and also, do they conclude the story at some point on film?I'm a little hesitant to get the other films as I'm concerned that Lone Wolf & Cub may have just become a serial franchise that dished out non-linear/unrelated sequels, and that the story never gets resolved on film. I've read all the books so I'm hoping the films are a good non-tangential counterpart to them.Thanks in advance!

  Comments


  • E_DailyE_Daily 812 Posts
    I've also been carefull about starting to get into this.
    Standing infront of the LW&C section at the dvd store made me wonder whether its best to see the movies first (and which one too) or to go for the beginning of the series. does it matter at all? someone drop the knowledge, I have no time to lurk around nerdy eastern forums

  • I've only read a couple of the comics...

    It doesnt matter if they follow or not, they are dope PERIOD.

    Get them all, along with the Zatoichi seires...

    Peace...
    Mimizu

  • deLYSdeLYS 388 Posts
    The movies are good, I don't know if I've seen them all, I seen Shogun Master but the Television series, now those episodes are the cream of the crop! They are so badass, I was just recently interpreting a scene in which this dude kills himself out of honor and he needs to get coitus with his sister with the blade inside him with his dying breaths so he can continue his fathers lineage as the scariest movie scene ever. They are intense, especially for tv. I haven't watched in a number of years and have only seen shogun master first loong before that, but I remember liking each episode a lot better than the movies. He fights all these dudes in the snow too with the baby carraige, I borrowed them all from a friend and have since lent him my Yakuza Papers box set for like 3 and a half years. That shit takes a while to digest though...

  • E_DailyE_Daily 812 Posts
    on those yakuza papers.

    Nice stuff.

  • SPlDEYSPlDEY Vegas 3,375 Posts
    I've only read a couple of the comics...

    It doesnt matter if they follow or not, they are dope PERIOD.

    Get them all, along with the Zatoichi seires...

    Peace...
    Mimizu

    8-bits would probably have a good answer for these questions..

    Skip Zatoichi.

    - spidey

  • GambleGamble 844 Posts

    Skip Zatoichi.

    BAN.


    I would definitly recommend buying ALL the Zatoichi and LWAC dvds.

  • i've seen all the babycart movies, and read the whole manga series, and they only
    mesh on a superficial level; however, there's apparently a long running japanese
    tv serial that straight jacks the books -- i've never seen it, but try looking for it
    in torrent-land.

    rumor has it that darren aaronofsky is slated to direct a new remake of shogun assassin.

    if you like the books, you should check that "lone wolf 2100" mini-series that dark horse
    put out a few years ago.

  • 8bits8bits 146 Posts





    Manga

    When Lone Wolf and Cub was first released in Japan in 1970, it became wildly popular (some 8 million copies were sold in Japan) for its powerful, epic samurai story and its stark and gruesome depiction of the violence during Tokugawa era Japan. The story spanned 28 volumes of manga, with over 300 pages each (totaling over 8,700 pages in all).

    Lone Wolf and Cub was initially released in North America by First Comics in 1987, as a series of monthly, square-bound prestige-format black-and-white comics containing between 64 and 128 pages, with covers by Frank Miller, and later by Bill Sienkiewicz and Matt Wagner. Sales were initially strong, but fell sharply as the company went into a general decline. First Comics shut down without completing the series, publishing less than a third of the total series in 45 prestige-format issues. However, in 2000, Dark Horse Comics began to release the full series in 28 smaller-sized trade paperback volumes, completing the series with the 28th volume in 2002. Dark Horse reused all of Miller's covers from the First Comics edition, as well as several done by Sienkiewicz, and commissioned Wagner and Guy Davis to produce new covers for several volumes of the collections. Mike Ploog, Ray Lago and Vince Locke also contributed covers to the English translations of the series.

    Dark Horse announced at the New York Comic Con that they have licensed Shin Lone Wolf & Cub, Kazuo Koike and Hideki Mori's follow-up to Lone Wolf and Cub, starring the famous child in the baby cart after the original revenge epic.

    The release name for the series, which might be New Lone Wolf and Cub, and format, whether it will be released in the 6.0" x 4.3" dimension of the original Lone Wolf and Cub, are still being considered. Hideki Mori who takes up the job of illustrating the epic from the late Goseki Kojima. Mori employs an art style and vigorous, organic brushwork which is strongly reminiscent of Kojima's, but he brings his own individuality to the task.

    Koike begins the new "Lone Wolf and Cub" manga right where the original ended, with Daigoro amidst the aftermath of his father's revenge. A mysterious samurai appears at the seashore and forms a new bond with the boy.

    Volume 1 will also contain an essay by Koike about his return to the manga epic after almost thirty years, and his thoughts on the international popularity of the story, including its influence on the graphic novel and film Road to Perdition.

    Television series

    Two full-fledged television series based on the manga have been broadcast to date. The first, Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ōkami) was produced in a typical jidaigeki format and broadcast in three 26-episode seasons from 1973 to 1976, each episode 45 minutes long. Kinnosuke (Nakamura) Yorozuya played Ogami Ittō, he later reprised the role in a miniseries in the mid-1980s and several related television movies. Yorozuya's portrayal of Ōgami in the series, and the series as a whole, is said to be more faithful to the manga than the Wakayama films. Considering the length and number of episodes this can only be expected. The series was released for the Toronto, Canada market by CFMT-TV (now OMNI 1) in the original Japanese with English subtitles as The Iron Samurai. It has also been aired in Germany dubbed in German. It has also been aired in Italy dubbed in Italian, as well.

    The 26 episodes of the first season will be released in DVD in Japan on December 20th 2006, apparently without subtitles, though.

    The latest television series, also titled Lone Wolf and Cub (Kozure Ōkami), was aired from 2002 to 2004 in Japan. It had Kinya Kitaoji assume the role of Ogami Ittō. Episodes of this series are more readily available in DVD format, whereas the previous ones are extremely rare and often only bootlegged copies, if any, can be purchased.

  • hemolhemol 2,578 Posts
    I've seen all of the LWC movies and can certify that they are ill. Definitely watch them. I've never read any of the books. There's not huge resolution in the end (in fact, the bad guy might even get away), but there is a sick fight scene.

  • mrdeemrdee 29 Posts
    when you've finished the babycart series
    checkout the hanzo the razor flicks
    for crazy samurai/bondage mentalness

  • E_DailyE_Daily 812 Posts
    cosign on the hanzo flix, that dude is straight rawdawg
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