SHOCHIKU FILMS LTD.
Produced by: KOIKE KAZUO COMPANY LTD.
Produced in Cooperation with: EIZO KYOTO COMPANY LTD.
I am Ogami Itto, your official second.
Have you any last words?
I pray that I might tread bravely on the five paths...
between heaven and earth...
and that I may thus...
attain salvation.
LONE WOLF AND CUB: THE FINAL CONFLICT (Kozure Okami Sono Chisaki Teni)
"I NAME HIM, DAIGORO"
Look, he is smiling.
Your father asks you to be brave and strong
as you walk the five paths.
Your name is Daigoro.
When you grow up...
what will you see with those eyes?
What will you touch with these little hands?
Let me hold him.
Look! The carp are swimming upstream.
Yagyu Kurando...
Ogami Itto...
Hear me!
This year, the Shogun's heir,
Lord Kinimatsu, turns six years old.
The Yagyu and the Suio...
will compete on his birthday, in front of the Shogun to determine
which of these two schools of swordsmanship he will be trained in.
Prepare yourselves!
I do not deserve this great honor.
I express my humblest gratitude.
I undertake this task with deep respect.
This contest should not take place.
I opposed it in the Council,
but Yagyu Bizen insisted.
The Yagyu clan wants the post of Official Executioner.
They are plotting to dominate the Shogun's Council...
and control all the 60 provinces.
Beside the Shogun, only you, as Official Executioner
may wear the Tokugawa hollyhock crest.
You must win this contest.
You must win!
I intend to stake even my head on this contest.
There will be no better chance for the Yagyu clan
to strengthen its foundations.
Therefore, we must all act with our greatest resolve.
Kurando!
You will lead the Yagyu clan against Ogami Itto.
Return glorious in victory!
Retsudo...
This will secure the future of our clan.
There is no one in our clan who can stand alone
against the Suio-ryu 'Water-Gull' technique he uses.
Are you saying our Yagyu can't match the sword of Suio?
Remember, that if we lose, the Yagyu clan will cease to exist.
I am the only one who can stand against Ogami Itto.
But you are a shadow Yagyu.
No one can know your branch of the clan exists.
Only the three of us...
Kurando, Hyoga and myself...
are officially members of the Yagyu clan.
You and your sons, Benma, Tenma and Raima,
can only work behind the scenes.
The same is true of Nanao, your daughter.
You cannot fight in this, my brother...
no matter what happens.
Even if you know we will lose?
Then we must be appointed...
the young lord's teacher, without a contest.
If the shadow Yagyu killed him...
No!
There is no one who could assassinate Ogami.
Before the contest takes place,
we will find a way to have him removed from his post.
Nanao...
Take a look around Ogami's estate.
See if there is a shrine there.
What's the matter?
Isn't there any way you can withdraw from this contest?
What harm would there be if the Yagyu won?
Whatever we might lose, what harm would there be?
I'm afraid that something terrible will happen.
I'm worried about Daigoro.
The house of Ogami has a tradition of swordsmanship,
and a special place amongst the Shogun's retainers.
As Official Executioner, I hold an important position.
The Yagyu want it.
I don't mind if they have it,
but that would not be good government.
It would weaken the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Azami.
There's nothing to worry about.
All I want is for...
the three of us to live happily together.
That's all I want...
Nothing more.
Azami...
Daigoro?
Daigoro!
Well... there you are.
Oh... I'm sorry.
Ah, a sachet.
It's beautiful.
Give it back, now.
Don't trouble the lady.
I'm sorry.
All right Daigoro. Come on now.
Oh, that's okay. I think he likes it.
But it's so pretty.
It's just something my father gave me.
Your father must be very nice.
This little one must have come out to meet his father.
Daigoro. Daddy's not back yet.
Three more days.
Nothing from Bizen?
No.
Nothing unusual going on around you?
Nothing.
The Yagyu will try something.
I'm sure of it.
The Yagyu have always trampled on anyone in their way.
But there is never any proof that they have done anything.
If there was just some proof...
I have heard rumors...
That the Yagyu clan has a "shadow" branch...
whose leader is Yagyu Retsudo.
We could eliminate the Yagyu if that was true.
Lord Yagyu!
Early this morning, some men committed seppuku
outside the Yagyu mansion.
We are here because of accusations against you...
made in a letter one of them held between his teeth.
Accusations?
This is it.
The written are three men of the fief of Ikama.
You were second at the execution of their lord, Hirotada.
"Denunciation"
"Whereas the abolition of our clan,
"and the suicide of our lord, reflect moral government,
"we bear neither rancor, nor treasonous intent.
"We denounce only Ogami Itto,
"second at the seppuku of our Lord Hirotada.
"Though, by the Shogun's grace...
"he is Official Second at ritual suicides,
"he has conspired with the lords of the West to make
"this power his own.
"He has sought, treacherously to
"see the Tokugawa Shogun cursed and undermined.
"Proof will be found in the Ogami family shrine."
My duty is to search the shrine.
This memorial tablet bears the revered crest...
of the house of our Lord Tokugawa!
What is the meaning of...
this memorial to the Shogun's name?
In this shrine...
I pray for the Lords I have assisted in suicide.
That Shogun tablet should not be here!
As Inspector General, I will investigate.
Ogami Itto, you are under arrest.
Lord Yagyu, why have your men come dressed to fight?
We thought we might have to!
Then you would have come that way from the start.
There would have been no need to hide under top coats.
Behind all this,
I smell the shadow branch of the Yagyu clan.
What do you mean by shadow branch?
Are you suggesting we have
a secret and an official Yagyu branch?
Yagyu Retsudo...
His is the shadow clan.
I have never heard of any shadow Yagyu clan.
Need we say more?
Please, wait!
Azami!
There has been some mistake.
He was away...
This does not concern you!
Go inside!
Ogami Itto...
Take him away!
Wait!
No!
Azami... Azami!
Daigoro...
Dai...
Ogami!
Get out!
You wretch!
No! The Suio Style has the advantage in water.
Fall back Kurando!
Fall back!
Ogami Itto... you villain!
Daigoro!
These articles are evidence.
Lord Suo...
How will you justify these undeniable facts?
What are you saying, Lord Bizen?
Lord Yagyu, Inspector General or not,
I cannot agree to you passing instant sentence,
especially on Ogami Itto, the Official Executioner.
There is some mistake here.
I respectfully urge an investigation...
to uncover the truth.
Daigoro...
From this day forward,
your father will be a demon on the path of blood.
I will expose the crimes of the Yagyu to the world.
You will join...
your mother in the realm of the dead.
Do you understand, Daigoro?
You are going to your mother.
Azami!
Hear this...
Ogami Itto, military officer.
Though serving as our Official Executioner...
he has acted outrageously and is relieved of his post.
His house is abolished, his name expunged...
and he and his son Daigoro are to commit seppuku.
How appropriate that the Official Executioner comes to us...
wearing the white funerary robes.
I'm glad to see you came prepared.
I did not come here in these robes to disembowel myself.
Today we are dressed in celebration
as we set out on the path of blood.
This is the Shogun's order!
That is no more than a joke to
one that will walk the path of blood.
Ogami Itto has gone mad.
Cut him down!
To arms! Ogami Itto has gone mad!
To arms!
You unsheathe your swords before the hollyhock crest?
Remove it! Remove that crest!
Wait!
I claim the right to a proper duel.
The famous shadow Yagyu...
Yagyu Retsudo...
I presume.
If and when you defeat the Yagyu...
It matters not to me where you
and your child go or how you live.
As long as it is outside Edo.
The Yagyu will say nothing.
What?!
The Yagyu are warriors.
One who lives by the sword is true to his word.
Itto wants to expose the shadow branch of the family.
Matsudaira is behind him.
That makes it all the more important
that the truth about our two houses remains unknown.
Because it is hidden, our secret branch is powerful.
Bizen... listen.
I live by the sword. I will fight him.
What are you saying?!
That cannot be.
Not even the Shogun knows our secret.
The Yagyu are finished if the truth is revealed.
Brother!
Was it not your branch that raised us to these heights?
Hyogo!
You will fight him.
On my honor as a Yagyu.
Be sure of it!
I shall avenge my brother.
Father. He will fail.
Hyogo...
You have only just taken a wife.
Think of how she feels.
But father...
Have children!
Ensure that the Yagyu line continues.
Father...
Hyogo...
There is one time that you might prevail against Itto.
That is when the evening sun is at your back.
Now!
Remarkable!
Why did you let him get away?
He is the only one who knows of our shadow branch.
We can't leave him alive.
The word of a warrior.
The shadow branch is not of the warrior class...
so your 'word of a warrior' means nothing.
That is the truth of 'moral government.'
The Shogun receives me in audience.
Have you ever met him?
The shadow branch can survive only as assassins.
You are to pursue Ogami Itto and kill him...
even to the ends of the earth.
Have you grown old, Yagyu Retsudo?!
Don't fool yourself, Bizen!
Who is it that put you in the Shogun's Council?
Representing the Yagyu family, you have achieved the power...
of a Shogunate Minister without soiling your hands.
That has always been the dearest wish of all Yagyu.
But it's always been the other branch, wretched, disowned...
that has plied murder on murder.
Striking from the dark,
to shed blood and bury those that would oppose our clan.
"One is for fig, two is for carrot,
"Three is for pepper tree, four for mushroom.
"Five is for burdock, six for barleycorn.
"Seven for the seven herbs, eight for the eel.
"Nine for cucumber, ten for green pepper.
"Nine for cucumber, ten for green pepper."
You missed!
Dad!
Dad...
Ouch!
Is it good?
"One is for fig, two is for carrot,
"Three is for pepper tree, four for mushroom.
"Five is for burdock, six for barleycorn.
"Seven for the seven herbs, eight for the eel.
"Nine for cucumber, ten for green pepper.
"Nine for cucumber, ten for green pepper."
Dad!
Look how he has grown...
Mother...
Sir Ogami Itto?
He is in meditation now.
I will speak to him, but whether he will answer...
The Shogunate is mining gold on the Sugu River
in Mutsu Province, as you know.
This year the government says they
will bring the gold through Tanakura.
They will pass along the Mita road and across the lands
of our Iwakidaira clan.
Apparently, it's the order of General Inspector Yagyu Bizen.
The Shogunate is after your 30,000-koku stipend.
That is easy to see.
I knew it!
If anything happened to the gold in our territory,
they would have an excuse to seize our property
and destroy our clan.
The Inspector will have the clan's shadow branch attack it.
Yagyu shadow branch?
So the rumors of the shadow Yagyu spies are true?
That's why I am the shadow hunter.
I will reveal their sins to the world.
That is my mission in life.
The gold reaches our land tomorrow at ten.
Will you help us?
I will.
There is a cedar grove here, and a sacred tree here.
This is the boundary. This side is Shogunate land.
This side is land under our clan.
This is the only road that goes to our castle town.
We have to stop the gold shipment before it reaches here.
If it gets to our land, we are lost.
There is nothing we can do.
Where is Ogami Itto?
It's now or never!
Hey!
Watch the gold!
Hold the horses!
Watch the gold!
This way!
Keep together! Don't scatter!
Hold the horses!
Watch the gold!
Who dares attack an official performing Shogunate business?
The 'Lone Wolf'! Prepare!
What? The 'Lone Wolf'?
Put the fire out!
Retreat!
Dad!
Sir Ogami!
Don't worry.
If he drinks this he will get better.
Today and tomorrow are critical with a fever like this.
Dad!
You must not get up with that fever!
Sir Ogami, where are you going?
The bell is calling me...
Daigoro... wait here.
All of you, stay here.
Dad!
Ogami Itto.
Tell Yagyu Bizen nothing happened in this fief.
Your scheme has come to nothing.
Itto! There is no water to help you on these stone steps!
Nanao... kill him...
Kill him!
We are assassins, remember.
Kill him...
Dad!
Now I see...
It was you that hid Daigoro in the bath that day.
Thank you.
Abandon the sword.
Marry and have children.
Live your life as a woman.
This is my fate.
Is fate something you can avoid?
A child must follow in the path of its father.
I am still the child of Yagyu Retsudo.
Is fate something you can avoid?
A child must follow in the path of its father.
We will catch a huge carp.
Your father will eat it and get better.
The Buddha's teachings can be taken in more ways than one.
The five prohibitions, for example.
Look! We got one!
We got one!
Daigoro! The basket!
You are good at weaving.
Three years ago, my husband died.
We had been married just three months.
I unravel what I weave,
then weave what I have unraveled...
Waiting for a tomorrow that will never come...
Weaving, weaving, all day, every day.
Then finally...
on the night you recovered...
I finished my weaving.
The thread of my tears...
is woven into the cloth of my prayers.
I am Chizuro...
wife to Yagyu Hyogo, who died by your sword.
Here in this temple is the grave of Azami, your wife.
I knew one day you were sure to come here...
to pray for your dead wife's soul.
I have been waiting for you.
I know very well that your wife met her end...
at the hands of the Yagyu.
But a husband who has lost his wife,
grieves no less than...
a wife who has lost her husband.
You must know that!
May I challenge you to a duel?
You may...
You allowed her to strike one blow?
I tried to tell her it would be futile to challenge you...
but it seems she was bound to do so.
Fate works in mysterious ways.
To cut down an opponent who thinks they have won...
So they die thinking they have succeeded...
that is swordsmanship at its best.
See how happy my wife is?
Won't you agree?
We will raise him to be a great warrior.
Place your trust in me. Let us adopt him.
As his father, you have to think of his future.
I'm sure this is what his late mother would wish.
Dad!
Daigoro!
Are you leaving?
I won't let you... I won't!
Dad!
Chamberlain!
It's Daigoro!
Chamberlain!
Dad!
Careful! Don't move!
Don't stand up!
Don't move, Daigoro!
Don't move!
Quick, get him!
Daigoro!
Dad!
The shadow branch has been of no use.
I will handle it.
Bizen!
Face him with your official title if you think you can.
But don't say we are of no use.
We can't depend on the sword forever.
Don't fool yourself, Bizen.
Without the sword, what is left of the Yagyu?
This is our weak point... our sorrow.
I am the only one who can bring Ogami down.
Do not interfere, Bizen!
Hey! Don't do that off the bridge!
Buddha will punish you!
What do you think you are doing, you little brat?
You little brat!
Are you alright, brother?
Hey, little guy...
What is your name?
Daigoro.
I see...
You are Daigoro.
Are you Ogami Itto's son?
Come on!
Here I come!
Well? Come on.
Come on!
Daigoro, what are you waiting for?
What's the matter, Daigoro?
Come on!
Right!
Down goes the old guy!
Again!
Come on!
Here I come!
Father, that child is...
Dad come? One sleep, Dad come?
Two sleeps, Dad come?
One... do... three...
Not 'do', it's 'two'.
One... two... three... four...
Five...
Once more...
Dad!
No!
We have got Daigoro!
Raima!
Can you?
Dad!
Nanao!
Why?
Father...
Did you wish to put vengeance and wrath
in the hands of a small child?
What is it you would put in...
the hands of your daughter?
Yes, with the sword,
the shadow Yagyu was strong...
But what I wanted in my hands...
was my father's...
my father's love...
my father's heart...
Nanao!
Nana...
Lord Retsudo...
You should guard your family name.
How many of your family have you lost already?
And none of them for the sake of your Yagyu clan.
Do you not realize that you have been used by Lord Yagyu Bizen
in his crazed lust for power?
All the more so because the shadow Yagyu cannot reveal itself.
Don't expect a warm welcome the next time you see Bizen.
For your clan, Yagyu Retsudo is a liability.
Nevertheless, I must bring this matter between us to an end.
And that, too... is fate?
Scary, isn't it?
People that do bad things...
go to hell.
Does it hurt?
It's alright. Don't worry.
Dad!
Excuse me for...
sneaking into a place like this, sir.
What's the matter?
What's wrong?
Daigoro, boil some water!
It's dead, isn't it... again?
Isn't it?
It's a pretty little girl.
Thank you...
Thank you, sir.
She's probably the last gift the Gods will give me.
There's no greater joy for a woman...
than to bring forth new life at last!
I have to think about her future.
I don't want her to walk the street like me.
Look... such tiny hands.
Daigoro, where does the river flow to?
The sea.
When the river flows into the sea, it turns to waves.
Big ones, small ones, they come in and go out,
over and over again, forever.
A wave!
A life is like that...
Just like these waves,
You are born, you live, you die, then you are born again.
One day,
your father will fall, and speak no more.
But just like the waves, life goes on forever.
It is reborn, rolling forward again...
Your life is the same.
Our lives never fade away...
they never disappear.
And in the next life, your father will be your father.
And in the life after that, you will be my son...
And Azami will be my wife.
Dad!
You have fought well to be alive
to face me now, Ogami Itto.
You are truly a demon on the path of blood.
There is no sword under heaven to match yours.
Nor, is there a samurai to match you in chivalry.
It is tragic, that you must die.
Of the Yagyu clan which rules the 60 provinces...
only Yagyu Retsudo remains!
I will fight!
As long as these arms and legs still move...
as long as these eyes still see...
as long as...
the blood still flows...
through this body.
Prepare.
That wonderful bare- handed grasp will not help.
Die in peace.
Remarkable!
I was sure you had no strength left.
But Daigoro's eyes said otherwise.
His eyes were those of one who did not believe...
his father would die.
Dad!
Drop it, Daigoro.
Daigoro...
Be strong...
I beg leave to speak...
Lord Yagyu Retsudo and Ogami Itto
died this morning in combat on Nishiki-ga-hama beach.
Don't lose your heart, though your father's skin burst
and his blood spilled forth.
Though his body fell, do not shrink back.
Dad...
Dad!
Though his eyes are closed,
and his mouth won't open, do not fear.
Reborn in the next life, he will still be your father.
In the life after that, you will be my son.
Father and son we will be...
for all eternity.
CAST:
"Ogami Itto" - TAMURA Masakazu
"Ogami Azami" - KOTEGAWA Yuko
"Ogami Daigoro" - SHODA Yushi
"Yagyu Nanao" - WAKAMURA Mayumi
"Yagyu Bizen" - HASHIZUME Isao "Matsudaira" - ISHIBASHI Renji
"Temple Priest" - TANAKA Kunie
FUJIMURA Shiho
KAWARAZAKI Choichiro ORIMOTO Junkichi
"Yagyu Chizuro" - IKEGAMI Kimiko
IWASHITA Shima
"Yagyu Retsudo" - NAKADAI Tatsuya
STAFF:
Produced by: KOIKE Kazuo
Executive Producer: NISHIOKA Yoshinobu
Producers: KUROKAWA Kanoko & ICHIKO Seichi
Original Story by: KOIKE Kazuo
Screenplay by: NAKAMURA Tsutomu
Music by: KAWASAKI Masahiro
Assistant Director: HANEISHI Ryutaro
Special Thanks to "Batman"
Directed by: INOUE Akira
Subtitled and Mastered by Cannibal King www.KuroTokagi.com