In this, the second in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, ronin Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and his son Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) continue to wander the land as assassins for hire, all the while keeping an eye out for members of the nasty Ragyu clan, who want them dead.

When the wealthy Awa clan approach Itto, offering him 500 gold pieces to kill a man who might be able to ruin them financially, he accepts; in order to complete his mission, he must face many dangers, including a team of vicious female warriors, and the highly skilled Hidari brothers, also known as the Gods of Death.

Baby Cart at the River Styx sees director Kenji Misumi delivering a breathtaking sequel to his excellent Sword of Vengeance. Like a Japanese Sergio Leone, he once again uses extreme close-ups, rapid zooms, sparing use of a haunting soundtrack, and superbly choreographed violence to continue his epic tale of a man and boy on a gore-spattered journey through 'hell'.

From the opening scene in which Itto quickly dispatches of two Yagyu clansmen, through to the stunning climax which sees Lone Wolf and Cub battling the Hidaris in a desert, this film is a stunning and often beautiful display of carnage. Battles take place in complete silence, with the vanquished always taking a second or two before they fall to the ground, blood gushing from their wounds. Daigoro also gets in on the act, activating spring-loaded blades in his cart to slice off the feet of the enemy. Misumi's handling of these scenes is superb, with some great use of innovative and ground-breaking visual techniques (one great fight scene has images superimposed onto each other to give the action a surreal and dreamlike quality).

But it's not all mindless violence. There are occasional moments of tenderness too, with the close bond between father and son displayed in a couple of notable scenes: Ogami gently bathes Daigoro, with one hand on his sword in readiness for trouble; and Daigoro nurses his injured father back to health, trading his jacket for food.

My only gripe with Baby Cart at the River Styx is that the film is often very dark, and it was extremely hard to see what was going on, particularly during the many night scenes. Whilst this may be due to my DVD being a bad transfer, it did affect my enjoyment of the film (I had to re-watch the gory dismemberment of one unfortunate shinobi at the hands of the female ninjas with my TV's brightness and contrast whacked right up),which is why I give it slightly less than Sword of Vengeance—7.5/10 (although I have to round my rating up to 8 for IMDb, which technically puts it on a par with the first one).

The Lone Wolf and Cub series was co-produced by Shintaro Katsu--the same man who played the lovable Zatoichi in so many films. While there are clear similarities between the two series, the Lone Wolf and Cub series will not be mistaken for the Zatoichi films because they are clearly much more adult and more morally ambiguous. In the first Lone Wolf and Cub film, I was actually rather put off by this. The rapes, excessive violence and an unlikable main character made this tough viewing for me--especially when I would have been just as happy with yet another Zatoichi type film. Fortunately, while this second installment is still clearly an adult film, it has been toned down in some ways and was a lot more enjoyable to me. Now when I say 'toned down', I am referring to the main character. He is less an anti-hero and more decent in this film. In one scene it appears as if he's going to rape a woman but has no apparent intention to do this. Also the enemy are clearly bad and it was easy to root for Ogami Itto in his two major conflicts.

The film begins with the clan who is trying to destroy Ogami approaching a group of rather intense female ninjas for their help. In this initial scene, I was stoked--the women seemed nuts and practically were killing machines--a nice match-up for the film. Bizarrely, however, these insane killers turned out to be amazingly easy for Ogami to defeat--and as a result it seemed anti-climactic. Fortunately, another plot appeared involving three super-macho assassins and the secret that might destroy a clan. When the clan hires Ogami to kill the three and the man who is trying to betray his clan you can understand Ogami's need to kill them--and it sets up a great finale.

Be forewarned that although this movie has less nudity and is in some ways tamer than the first film, it clearly surpasses it in blood. I have never seen a Japanese film with more blood spraying in all my life--and this includes the super-bloody Zatoichi film made by Beat Takeshi a few years back! Oddly, some of the killing and gore was done by Ogami's tiny son in this installment!! As a result, you'd only be insane if you showed the film to kids--even if there are no rapes and the leading man is less of a jerk. No, this is an adult-oriented film--and an extremely bloody and entertaining one at that.

By the way, if you like to see mistakes, watch the bathtub scene. During this scene the water level goes up and down repeatedly--indicating it was pieced together (poorly) from several takes.

This follow-up to the excellent SWORD OF VENGEANCE is everything a sequel should be: it's better than the original, taking themes and running with them, and as a whole more expansive and elaborate than the first film. To be honest, I often find origin stories quite tiresome, as it can take ages to set up story lines. Here, we already know what's going on, and are thrust into the thick of the action right away! This one's definitely more focused on action, with endless battle sequences and none of the slow spots that the original had. I loved it to bits. It retains the style of the first movie but goes more overboard on the gore sequences, with all manner of grisliness – especially at the eye-popping climax, one of the goriest fight sequences I've ever watched!

Although the action-focused plot is slimmer than in the first film, the central characters are explored at more depth. Wakayama becomes ever more remarkable, a relentless assassin who can survive pretty much anything that's thrown at him – sometimes literally – and Tomikawa is scene-stealing as the infant the whole audience must love by now. In fact, he's quickly becoming, in my eyes, the greatest child character ever put on film – the scene with the water is endearing beyond belief. The supporting cast is pretty iconic, with a ruthless female fighter who becomes gradually attached to the killer twosome, and a trio of imposing 'gods of death' who cut quite the figure with their huge helmets and outlandish weaponry.

There are so many great bits in this short film that it's hard to remember them all. A highlight for me is when Ogami must contend with a clan of female assassins, who come at him in a series of spectacular ambushes. Then there's the fight in the forest, in which Daigoro reveals his own propensity for violence for the first time, and the bit on the ship. All of these (admittedly great) moments are eclipsed by the quite brilliant climax, with a desert backdrop, in which the blood flows like never before – and I'm talking literally! After I finished watching, I knew straight away that this was a film I'd taken to heart, and one I'm going to enjoy watching over and over. It may well be the most entertaining samurai film ever made!