Gokuaku bozu - Nomu utsu kau

The fifth and apparently last of the Wicked Priest series. Aside from the first film, the series was caught in a place of low budgets and rushed film making. The scripts never really have the logic holes fixed and the whole productions are only different from a standard Japanese TV show by being shot on 35mm widescreen film instead of 16mm. That said this film is a marked improvement from the previous couple of entries.

The film opens with Shinkai exhausting several prostitutes with his sexual prowess and he wants more! The session is interrupted by a gang of yakusa with whom Shinkai fights and beats up. Shinkai takes up with a group of squatters in an abandoned mansion and gets caught up in their pretty schemes. One scheme brings Shinkai to a transport company run by a kindly old man. They make friends but the transport company is in the evil sights of a company thats been bribing the local police. The squatter's mansion is also in the cross-hairs. You can see the plot taking shape.

The Wicked Priest series never really could distinguish itself enough from the Zatoichi series although this one actually starts to show some promise. There are glimmers of the violence of next year's Lone Wolf films. One showdown seems to be an inspiration for a great scene in a later Lone Wolf film. The lewd sexual content of this film is greater than the earlier films although there is no nudity. The action scenes are good overall and the story is decent. The great Takashi Shimura plays the old man.

Better than average for the series.