Destroy All Podcasts DX Episode 89 - Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death

Hosts: Jeremy, Mike

This is about baby carriages stuffed full of machine guns, Japanese Jane Austen, and especially sweat, cicadas, and lots and lots of grass.

Click [HERE] to chop up guys with a katana in each hand.

More after the cut.

Originally this film was released in Japan as Kozure Ôkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubaguruma or literally Lone Wolf and Cub: Perambulator Against the Winds of Death. The more sensible English translation is Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades, which is what AnimEigo used for their uncut, Japanese language subtitled edition.

The film was released dubbed in US theaters in the 1970's under the title Lightning Swords of Death, without the extensive reworking the first two movies would later get as Shogun Assassin. It has no sweet synthesizer soundtrack, it's just one film instead of the main story of one film with the best action scenes of another spliced in at the beginning. It also has a really lackluster dub compared to Shogun Assassin.

The Lightning Swords of Death version of the film was released on DVD by AnimEigo under the title Shogun Assassin 2: Lightning Swords of Death, despite the fact that the original Shogun Assassin was not created until years after Lightning Swords of Death, but I kind of like it anyway. I appreciate that AnimEigo is so dedicated to sleazy 70's and 80's exploitation film that they will release both the uncut, unaltered Japanese original and its trashy American version.

Also, Mike's cats sure are in love.