This film, the second installment of the 'Babycart' series, finds the deceptively formidable mercenary-assassin Ogami Itto (Tomisaburo Wakayama) and his young son Diagoro (Akihiro Tomikawa) hired to hunt down and extirpate a traitorous dye-maker who is guarded by three deadly brothers, while in turn being pursued by various agents of the venomous Yagyu Clan, including a troupe of lethal women. Like its predecessor, the film is filled with preposterous violence, with even more grisly dismemberments and fountains of bright-red blood (one poor Ninja is hacked into more pieces than the Black Knight was in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' (1975)). To keep the blood-letting fresh, more exotic weapons are showing up: huge metal claws, razor edged straw-hats, and weaponised radishes (I kid you not). Itto's rolling arsenal (Diagoro's killer-stroller, the titular baby-cart) is deadlier than ever, with shin-slicing blades that are activated by the toddler himself. The little guy has a bigger role in this story and the film's baby-wrangler did an excellent job with the four-year old actor. If a doll was substituted in in the tougher-looking scenes (such as when a trussed-up Diagoro is being dangled over a deep well), the switch was very well done and the segment where the boy gets food for his injured father by exchanging his jacket for rice cakes left as an offering to the Buddha is a sweet moment amidst the technicolour carnage. The action set-pieces are as ridiculously over-the-top as those in the first film but still immensely entertaining in a pseudo-gruesome way, and there are some really odd flourishes (such as the aforementioned razor-radishes and the backward-running woman). The climactic battle with the Hidari brothers is over pretty quickly but the lead-up scene, where ambushers are unearthed by the eldest, deadliest, brother, is great. If you like this sort of thing, you'll love this film; if you don't, you likely won't make it past the first blood-bath.