Samurai cinema of the 1970s took an odd twist, as it left behind the epic sweep of Kurosawa and instead embraced the trappings of American exploitation films to create comic book hybrids. This is best exhibited in the six-part Lone Wolf & Cub series of films which decorate a traditional lone-Samurai tale with geysers of blood and smatterings of sex. Based on the manga by Kazuo Koike, those films were produced by Shintaro Katsu, best known for starring in the twenty six Zatoichi films (and TV series). In fact, it was Katsu’s brother Tomisaburo Wakayama who starred in the Lone
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