Yomigaeru kinrô

Any film in which Sonny Chiba DOESN'T play the coolest character has got to be worth a look, if only to see who could possibly be more of a bad-ass than he. In The Resurrection of the Golden Wolf, that person is Yûsaku Matsuda, who plays Tetsuya Asakura, a seemingly meek accountant who takes the fast track to success and wealth rather than spending years climbing the corporate ladder; once his office work is over for the day, Asakura whips off his wig to reveal a trendy mop of permed hair, slips on his shades, and pursues a second career as a ruthless, gun-toting criminal who will stop at nothing to make his dreams come true.

This promising premise leads to plenty of exploitative nudity and violence, as Asakura stoops to sexually exploiting his boss's beautiful mistress Kyoko (the scrummy Jun Fubuki), consorts with a gang of drug dealers after a heist leaves him with 100 million yen of unusable notes, and becomes involved in a deadly game of corporate espionage, blackmail and murder. With it's many plot threads, played out over a massive 131 minutes, and so many thoroughly despicable characters to keep track of, this hard-boiled crime-noir isn't always easy to follow, but the good stuff—the gratuitous nookie, the violent shoot-outs, the macho posturing, the topless go-go dancers, the bleak ending—definitely make it worth persevering through any moments of confusion.

I could not prevent myself to think about the Bret Easton Ellis adapted novel - AMERICAN PSYCHO - whilst watching this pretty disturbing feature, in the pure line of what wrote the Japanese author, with his BEAST TO DIE, made one year later. Another nihilist blood thirsty and disturbing, nasty Jap movie, not for all audiences. I love this kind of stuff, but could definitely not watching this every day.

Resurrection of the Golden Wolf is a Japanese crime epic about a seemingly innocent office worker that has a very, very interesting night life, namely killing drug dealers, stealing drugs, selling drugs, sleeping with women, tearing down large corporations, and just about everything else that you can think of.

If for nothing else, just watch this movie for the main character. Asakura is simply one of the must cut throat, evil, and simply awesome characters that you will ever see in any movie. Throughout the entire movie, Asakura will display his skills through a series of wonderfully shot action sequences, all of which are accompanied by some great funk music. Every action Asakura makes will disgust you, but it will also fascinate you, forcing you to continue watching, just to see how low he will stoop just for some yen.

Honestly, yes this movie does have some problems. The script has a few entertaining lines like "The safest thing to do is convert all my money into heroin,"but to me that just made the movie more enjoyable. There are a few plot holes. You might even be three fourths of the way into thee movie before you even figure out the plot, but in the end that is OK because the main character is so entertaining that you wont even notice. All you really will be doing is sitting on the edge of your seat and wondering what crazy, awesome thing Asakura will do next.

Oh, and for all of you watching the version in the Sonny Chiba collection, Sonny is the photographer guy.

Ultra-stylish film from 1979 features Yusaku Matsuda as a vicious criminal, whose ambitions lead him to a fascinating double life; by day Tetsuya works a boring and unsatisfying desk job at a large oil company. He sports a rather un-stylish haircut and eyeglasses. At night, the glasses come off, and Tetsuya emerges as an ultra-cool and hardened one man terror squad. He becomes a hunter, a wolf that wants out of his cage, (a boring nine to five life,) and to rule the corporate world. He has a plan to marry the daughter of one of the most powerful men in Japan, and he will crush whoever gets in his way! 'Golden wolf' has to be one of the coolest films to come out of the 70's, and Yusaku Matsuda is absolutely brilliant in his portrayal of one of the meanest bad guys in film history. A bad guy who turns out to be not so heartless, as we realize by the films conclusion. Matsuda possesses a wild sexual energy about him, and the ladies are all drop-dead gorgeous here as well. Featuring a memorable soundtrack and endless scenes of unforgettable style and beauty, it is surprising that this one is not more well-known among cult film fans. Featured in "The Sonny Chiba Collection" box set, strangely, as Chiba is barely in the film and he is virtually unrecognizable in his minor role. But the film is presented fully uncut in it's original Japanese language. This crime epic has it all; sex, sleaze, violence, romance, and Italian sports cars. If James Bond was a criminal, he would be Tetsuya Asakura!

I don't know what that other guy's problem with Jun Fubuki is, she's over 50 now but still pretty cute. Unless you live in Japan, where she does a lot of TV, you probably don't know what she looks like now, anyway. Back when this film was made she was hot, as were all the other women in this film. Especially the black go-go chick! Anyway, this movie isn't about eyeballing the ladies, though that's no chore. It's about hating your life because you have some soulless job that your whole life is centered around, and it's about one guy who decides he will break out of that box -- no matter how rotten evil he has to be to make that happen! How Asakura got to be so good with weapons and street-wise with his wheeling and dealing isn't gone into much, we just know he's trained as a boxer. But that won't bother you because you'll just be wondering where he gets the nerve to be so bad! You might also wonder, as I did, whether he'll have a redeeming moment at the end...

Some may find the pace a little slow, but even when the story fails to develop in spots, Asakura keeps saying and doing nasty things. Favorite lines of dialog (early in the film, so not a spoiler): "Do you have a family?" "Yes! Yes! Please don't kill me!" "They'll be happier when you're dead." bang.

Enjoy!