If you’re a fan of truly great old rap music and know of GZA’s “Liquid Swords” album from 1998, you’re definitely aware of the bizarre sound clips interwoven between songs. I’m sure you've wonder where they come from, and have to search you must do no more (in strange Yoda voice). Coming to the Coolidge Corner Theatre's "@fter Midnight" series this weekend is Michael Housten’s “Shogun Assassin,” one of the all-time great samurai revenge movies released in America.

It was released here, but the movie was shot in Japan, made up of the first two films of the “Lone Wolf and Cub” series. Housten edited the two films together to make one masterful piece of work – with much simpler translated English dialogue. It is the story of the Shogun decapitator and his young son Daigoro, who are in search of the senile Shogun – who is afraid of the decapitator’s skills.  

The decapitator, also known as the Lone Wolf, is out for revenge because of the fact that the Shogun’s ninjas killed his wife in cold blood while trying to kill all the remaining samurai in the land for the paranoid lord. It is an exploitive revenge flick, something that Housten crafted perfectly with the footage he was given. Some of the most epic scenes in the movie feature intense images paired with child-level English dialogue. 

An older Daigoro narrates the film, which makes it all the more interesting because of the fact that his narration comes from the future. At an older age, he finally understands the atrocity that went down when his father had to evade the Shogun’s ninjas. Nothing else from the plot is really necessary to know before going in and seeing this 85-minute tour de force in editing. It is an essential must see, especially if you’re a fan of the Wu-Tang Clan or American-made oriental flicks. 

Luckily, this film will be playing at the Coolidge, and the showtimes are:

Friday, March 16th: 11:59PM

Saturday, March 17th: 11:59PM

AT: Coolidge Corner Theatre

290 Harvard St. Brookline, MA

Off the Coolidge Corner T Stop

Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation