I have put off buying the Shogun Assassin DVD until now because there was some controversy as to whether it was missing part of the pre-credits scene. As Play were selling it for ?3.99 I decided to take the gamble and can reveal it is uncut (yeah but Music Zone are now selling it for ?2.97)

According to the reprint of the VN book, there are 2 cuts in the early 90's release, the initial decapitation (around 9 mins) is missing the shot of Lone Wolf's son blinding his opponent with a mirror, this is in both the pre-cert and the Vipco DVD.

Also in the scene on the boat (around 52 mins) the book says the eye gouging is in both versions but shortened in the cut version. In fact there are two eye gougings which are both longer in the DVD and trimmed in the pre-cert (the book compared the re-release against the US version).

I also had a look for the missing pre-credits scene, and found it on the DVD but it is missing on the pre-cert. When Lone Wolf despatches the assailant with a sword in his head immediately prior to the "Shogun Assassin" title, a second assailant comes at him through the air and is impaled on his sword, also there is a good deal more blood splashing across the screen from the head wound.

So there we have it, another case of a pre-cert actually being cut, looks like the DVD is the definitive version. In addition the pre-cert was letterboxed at 16:9 instead of the correct AR of 2.31:1

Aint lone wolf and cub a better way to go? None of that merged crap and 4 extra movies? They'll be uncut too since, well the japanese are nut cases...

Yeah but it's my nasty fetish

i just downloaded these 6 movies a week ago and watched all of them except the last one. i enjoyed them a lot and think they're definitely worth a look. apart from that i also had a peek at shogun assassin and i have to say that this american edit is much worse. i mean there are two half movies missing. plus the english dub isn't too good either.

if i were you i'd definitely download or buy the original japanese 'Kozure Okami'

Is the current UK DVD anamorphic? Vipco releases usually aren't.

I'd like to see a special edition of this, including a remixed 5.1 soundtrack with new sound effects and re-synchronised dubbing.

It surprisingly is anamorphic 2.35:1, mono soundtrack though and the dubbing is as bad as ever.

I also have the UK DVD of Baby Cart at the River Styx, I read somewhere this was cut, I'll have to check it out.

Better than I thought then, for ?3 I can't go wrong. Thanks!