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| The Greatest Team in the History of Mass Slaughter! |
| You asked for it! You begged for it!
You even threatened us about it! But it wasn't until a concerned Mom called us
about a matter of life and death -- her daughter “B.B.” needed a good copy of her
favorite bedtime movie -- that we knew we had to do it. After all, the life and
death being referred to was probably our own!
AnimEigo is pleased and proud to release the official release of the most
deliriously violent, the most outrageously bootlegged, and the most infamously famous
Samurai film of all time -- Shogun Assassin!
Academy Award-winning (*) Director Robert Houston's epic grindhouse mash-up, created
by slicing and dicing the first two Lone Wolf & Cub
movies, is now available in an officially licensed, 100% reconstructed edition. It's the
tender tale of a mighty swordsman trying to balance his career as an assassin with the
problems of being a single dad while being stalked by legions of extremely hypertensive
ninjas. In other words, if they actually let the plot get in the way of
the gratuitous bloodletting, it'd be one serious chick-flick!
See the film that inspired a generation of film-makers to make movies that your
Mom would most definitely not approve of!
See the most famous Samurai movie of all time -- that the Japanese have never heard of!
See the movie that you've watched a million times, but never really seen -- because
you bought the crappy bootleg DVD!
It's the one... the only... Shogun Assassin!
This July, the aisles of your favorite video store will run red with blood!
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Trailer
(Quicktime 7) |
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Orlando Sentinel |
Philadelphia Inquirer |
Cinegeek |
Film Fanaddict |
EInsiders |
DVD Talk |
DreamLogic |
Cinescape |
LA City Beat |
E Insiders |
Yellow Menace |
Brooklyn Rail |
Turner Classic Movies |
(*) Not that he got the Oscar for this movie, mind you!
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| The Lone Wolf is back, and the body count continues to climb! |
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The gory sequel to the acclaimed Shogun Assassin is now available - Shogun Assassin II - Lightning Swords of Death. And just like the original film, we've completely reconstructed it using our new digital transfers of the original Lone Wolf & Cub films.
Shogun Assassin II is the dubbed version of “Lone Wolf & Cub - Baby Cart to Hades”, which is also available from AnimEigo in
subtitled form.
After undergoing torture to demonstrate his honor and buy the freedom of a girl about to be forced into a
life of prostitution, the Lone Wolf is hired by his very-impressed torturers to kill a corrupt governor. The governor
figures out he's the target when the Lone Wolf turns down the governor's own commission, and the body-count soon starts rising to monumental proportions!
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CHUD |
DVD Talk |
DreamLogic |
Fotog Ink |
Film Fanaddict |
Film Freak Central |
CineGeek |
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| Death has never been so pretty! |
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We just couldn't let you Shogun Assassin fans down, so we've commissioned dubs of the last 3 Lone Wolf & Cub movies! And just like the original film, we've completely reconstructed it using our new digital transfers of the original Lone Wolf & Cub films.
First up, Shogun Assassin III - Slashing Blades of Carnage.
The Lone Wolf is hired to kill a tattooed female
assassin (she strips to kill!), but the job is not as straightforward as it seems. Meanwhile, Gunbei
Yagyu, disgraced by the Lone Wolf in a duel before the Shogun, happens upon the young
Daigoro, and sees his chance for revenge. In the end, the Lone Wolf will have to defeat
a horde of Yagyu warriors before he can face his arch enemy!
Shogun Assassin III is the dubbed version of “Lone Wolf & Cub - Baby Cart in Peril”, which is also available from AnimEigo in
subtitled form.
Loved it. Absolute best in the series. -- Chris Nelson, Dreamlogic
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Film Fanaddict |
DVD Talk |
DreamLogic |
Inside Pulse |
Underland Online |
Blood Type Online |
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| And you thought cashing your paycheck was hard! |
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The Family that Slays Together and Stays Together is back in: Shogun Assassin 4 - Five Fistfuls of Gold!
5 warriors challenge the Lone Wolf to
duels. Each has 1/5th of his usual fee, and 1/5 of the information he needs to
complete his new assignment. Our hero has to be skillful enough to not only kill them,
but kill them in such a way as to allow them to tell him what he needs to know, or
he's not the man for the job. His mission is to kill a mad Daimyo before he destroys
his clan -- a Daimyo guarded by a legion sworn to give their lives in his defense,
even though they've just hired Ogami to kill their own master!
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Trailer
(Quicktime 7) |
Trailer
(Windows Media) |
DreamLogic |
Inside Pulse |
DVD Talk |
Comic Mix |
Blood Type Online |
DVD Corner |
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| The Critics All Agree (and not just because they're scared the Lone Wolf will visit them!) |
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"Shogun Assassin" is the bloodiest, most action packed DVD I've had the pleasure of seeing this year.
-- Rusty White, EInsiders.com
You can't have a samurai movie without a little blood, singing, swinging blades.
And body parts.
And trash talk.
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel
...this restored film looks and sounds fantastic, especially if you are into
graphic decapitations and six-foot-high blood streams.
-- Rob Watson, Philadelphia Inquirer
Animeigo has truly done fans of this film a service...
-- Mark Jason Murray, Film Fanaddict
Any fan of Chambara simply must own this DVD...
-- Suzie Lackey, CineGeek
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| They show no mercy, but we're just in it for the money... |
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Rumors have reached us that some people have been foolish enough to buy
bootleg copies of Shogun Assassin. We know you've been horribly disappointed
by how bad they are, and despite the advice we got from the Lone Wolf himself (“Slay the dogs where
they stand”) and the Cub (“Make them pay retail!”) we've decided to be merciful
and provide a way for you to upgrade to the Official edition for a mere $10.00
If you have a bootleg copy of Shogun Assassin, fill out our
Amnesty Application and send it in, along with your bootleg disc
and your penance. We'll send you the gloriously reconstructed Shogun Assassin by US Mail!
But beware! This offer is only good during the long, hot days of summer!
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| Wow, you can even tell their blood type! (**) |
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(See before-and-after still images in our Reconstruction Gallery)
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When we set out to release Shogun Assassin, we knew that the currently available materials would
not be up to AnimEigo's typical obsessive quality standards. But as everyone knows, Shogun Assassin
was created by re-editing the first two Lone Wolf & Cub films, and when we released those films,
we got fresh prints off the original master prints, and did new digital video transfers.
So, being almost as crazy as most of the characters in the movie, we came up with a devious
plan. We ripped the film off a bootleg DVD and used it as a guide to reconstruct the movie using our
pristine masters of the original two films. We literally laid the new video on top of the old,
precisely recreating every edit. With the exception of about 2 seconds of stock footage of some castles
that we were not able to obtain, every frame has been restored using uncompressed 24p (video-geek
jargon for “really good”) source materials. Even better, the film is now presented
in 2.35:1 anamorphic!
Check out our Reconstruction Gallery
for more before-and-after visuals from the film.
Alas, we could not do a similar job on the soundtrack. Original-source soundtrack materials
were no longer available, so we had to make do with the current one. But it's still pretty good, so
don't worry about it!
(**) Most movie ninjas have blood type KARO-negative, in case you're wondering.
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Shogun Assassin ©1980,2006 Toho Co., Ltd. Licensed to AnimEigo by Toho International Co., Ltd.
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