Sharpen your swords for a slash fest with Grimm Up North’s Samurai Splatter double bill

EXTREME VIOLENCE: Shogun Assassin

By Jen Lau

Forget chocolate hearts and red roses – Manchester’s getting ready for a bloody Valentine with a samurai splatter-fest on Friday.

Grimm Up North are back this month with their Samurai Splatter double bill of horror cult classics: Shogun Assassin and Baby Cart to Hades.

Shogun Assassin is one of the most popular Japanese samurai films since the days of Akira Kurosawa and was originally adapted from a hugely popular comic book saga.

The film is a high-definition, re-scored and re-dubbed reassembly of the first two films in the Lone Wolf and Cub series.

When it was first released in the UK in 1983, the film’s extreme violence almost caused it to be banned by the Home Office so expect a sensation on the silver screen.

A showing of Baby Cart to Hades, the third film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, promises iconic characters, memorable set pieces and violent action.

Festival director Simeon Halligan said: “This series more than lives up to its reputation as a pinnacle of Japanese exploitation cinema whose musings on the meaning of honour in a lawless world still resonate today.”

One of the most infamous scenes is when main character Ogami kills 150 people on screen – the highest body count for a single character in a single film in cinema history – guaranteeing the evening will turn into a bloody affair.

The screening kicks off at 7:30pm on Friday February 17 at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation (Cambridge Street) and tickets cost £6.50.

For further information and to purchase tickets visit: http://grimmfest.com/grimmupnorth/2011/10/samurai-splatter-double-bill-friday-17th-february/