Rating: ***
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa
A disappointing final outing from our heroes as the plot is shaky and disjointed, the bloodletting is lacking, the finale is ridiculous, and once again Lord Retsudo Yagyu (played by yet ANOTHER actor) turns tail and runs away at the end of the film. The film starts with Retsudo sending his only daughter out to kill Ogami and Daigoro. She fails. Then Retsudo begs his secret bastard son to kill Ogami and he sends three tunneling zombies (!) after him. Ogami finally defeats the zombies by fighting them in the snow where the ground is too hard to tunnel through. As Retsudo's bastard son lay dying from Itto's blade, he is rushed home to see his bastard sister whom he immediately rapes (!) before Retsudo kills them both. Then things start getting silly. At the climax of the film, the lone wolf and cub are in the snow covered mountains with the baby cart converted into a sled, being chased down the hill by hundreds of Yagyu soldiers on sleds and skis! Extremely silly with a sort of James Bond flair. Other oddities include Daigoro making blatent goo-goo faces for the camera and little snippets of Godzilla theme music sprinkled throughout the film. It's quite clear that the filmmakers had run out of ideas for the series by this time.