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Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance Director: Kenji Misumi Number of Items: 1 Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: Unrated Running Time: 83 minutes Studio: AnimEigo Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-08-26 Buy from Amazon

From Amazon.com "Child and expertise for rent," reads the banner flying from the wooden cart of rogue samurai Itto Ogami (Tomisaburo Wakayama). With his infant son and a baby carriage stocked with a veritable arsenal in tow, Ogami rents his services for 500 pieces of gold while awaiting his revenge on the corrupt clan that murdered his wife. Director Kenji Misumi draws his distinctive graphic style from the legendary manga series written by Kazuo Koike (who adapted his own work for the screen) and adds an inspired cinematic device: when Ogami enters battle, the world falls silent, literally, until his sword strikes. The fights are savage--blades slash, limbs fly, and blood spurts like geysers--yet the film relaxes in moments of serenity and tenderness as the cooing baby boy marvels at the wonder of the world. An essential of Japanese action cinema, it launched a classic six-film series. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 "Pretty Good" Sword of Vengance as it stands alone from the graphic novel series is a good film. I gave it 4 stars because I was really into the graphic novel and in comparison to the graphic novel the film does not match up in some areas. I was surprised how good the quality is for the dvd seeing as how the film is old. If you've never read the lone wolf and cub series but just like martial arts films you should pick it up. Of course if you are a fan of the series you should have this. Its a good movie. "Aspect Ratio Confusion" I think this may be an explanation for the aspect ratio problem. I am using a standard television, and my DVD player is configured properly. However, there is some bug in the disc that seems to interact with certain DVD players. On my player, after the menu kicks in, the initial video setup setting is changed automatically on the player from "letterbox" to "pan and scan." This leads the film to be shown at about a 1.85:1 ratio. To get it to play at the correct aspect ratio, I need to stop the disc at the Toho logo, get into the initial setup menu, change the video setting back to "letterbox," and hit "play." If, during the film, I ever go back to the menu, it will kick back to "pan and scan." I don't think this is the case for all players, though. So those of you who have problems with only getting the film in 1.85:1,try my solution. "Incredible" This movie reminds me of the 50's movie Horatio Hornbolower staring Gregory Peck in one important way. It proves that only good things come of having the author of the books write the screenplay. Since this is based on one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) comics series of all time it had a high standard to meet. It followed the books so exactly that the subtitles were almost unneeded. I don't know how exagerated the bloodletting was but that is the only fault one can find with the picture. The acting is straight,and the story of Ogami walking the assassins road to avenge his wife and clan is classic. I personally think it could be an excellent hour long TV series on cable if done correctly, until that day I shall make do with pleasure. I eagerly await my next paycheck to have the next one. "Fun movie, faithful to the manga" What a great, great movie. I've been getting back into samurai flicks after a long hiatus. I wanted to see this after having seen Kill Bill v.1 -- you can see the influence after watching Lone Wolf and Cub -- and boy, this movie and its vol. 2 sequel (baby cart on river styx) -- great! Clean picture, clean sounds. This is an awesome DVD. I also read the manga before the DVD and can say: it is very faithful to the manga, doing a wonderful job of bringing the Kojima's artwork to the screen. Readers of Dark Horse's manga series, vol. 1 will recognize the care taken to adapt the manga. I showed this film to a bunch of friends and they hooted and hollered. Great fun. "Subtitles different than the VHS" The subtitles for the DVDs part with all established format for subtitles. The subtitles are placed higher on the screen, in the actual film image (!). On the tapes the subtitles are as they should be, in the black lower portion of the widescreen matte. Also, the subtitles' typeface has black borders, therefore increasing the amount of image intruded upon, and making the subtitles an irritating distraction. For some reason this company has completely trashed their excellent product. The graphic design of the DVD packaging makes the films look like B-movie rubbish.