When the six parts of the LONE WOLF AND CUB movies were released by Toho Studios between 1972 to 1974, they took gore in the Japanese chambarra (swordfighting) genre to a new level.
In the early 70's, gory films were nothing new in Japanese cinema as several years earlier, infamous director Teruo Ishii had already introduced new heights of violence in his TOKUGAWA series for Toei Studios.
What was new was the combination of bloodshed and aesthetic cinematography, which made the LONE WOLF AND CUB films stand out. It did for swordfighting films what Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH had done for the Western genre several years earlier.
Responsible for four of the six films in the series was veteran director Kenji Misumi. Misumi was already well known for directing the very first of the highly-successful and long-running ZATOICHI movies (starring Shintaro Katsu, who also produced the LONE WOLF AND CUB series and was the brother of the main actor) as well as the second and best of the three DAIMAJIN films.
Probably to reference the comic books it was based on, the poster artwork for the first part (LONE WOLF AND CUB: SWORD OF VENGEANCE) was done as illustration, which was very rare in the 70's. The later ones however featured again the then popular photocollages.
