Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko

This film is completely demented. It starts with great flourish, violence, gore and excitement with only a hint of just how over the top it will become. There is a semblance of story at the beginning, however, strange and there is a mystery for us to work out and much extreme violence to deal with.

As the film progresses, though, it begins to get a little bit silly and gradually story and suspense give way to increasingly stupid and facile action which would not have been out of place in a comic. So stylish at the start it is a crime that in the end bombs are being tossed about in some disused quarry.

Sonny Chiba plays the only survivor of a clan of werewolves who relies on his feral, full-moon-activated superpowers to solve mysterious crimes. One night, a bizarre and bloody death in the Tokyo streets plunges him into a far-reaching conspiracy populated by crooked politicians, naked women, an invisible phantom tiger, and a shadowy organization known as the J-CIA.

Steve Kopian writes, "If you look up WTF in the dictionary, one of the top five definitions will be this film." He is not wrong. While this may not be one of he five most bizarre movies out there, it certainly makes every attempt. And if "weird" isn't your thing, there are also copious explosions and a great deal of gun play and squibs in the later scenes, evincing a definite Sam Peckinpah influence. So, there's that.

As author Bryan Senn points out, even though the title is "Wolf Guy", one of the strange things is that Chiba never actually becomes a wolf at all. He has his strength fluctuate based on the lunar cycle, and at its peak he can deflect bullets or even reverse the effects of being disemboweled. But at no point does he howl or even grow the slightest bit of hair.

If one person can be blamed for this bizarre mash-up, it must be writer Fumio Kônami (1933–2012). By this point in his career, he had already made a name for himself with "Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion" (1972) and "New Battles Without Honor and Humanity" (1974), both of which are available in the United States thank to Arrow Video. Director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's first impression upon being given the story was actually, "Is this worth making a movie out of?" Luckily someone said yes.

On top of all the awesome visuals, there is an unbelievably funky score that I need to have. As noted in other reviews, it would be great is Arrow (and others) would more frequently add a bonus music disc to their Blu releases. We need more love for the soundtracks, too.

For decades the film was presumed lost, and remains tragically little known. Thankfully, Arrow Video has brought it out of the depths and on to Blu-ray. They also give us new video interviews with actor Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba (14 minutes), director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (10 minutes), and producer Toru Yoshida (17 minutes).

If you like Sonny Chiba, you will enjoy this movie. It has a slice of literally everything that made 70s movies cool: martial arts, action & stunts, horror with gore, crime/detective mystery, revenge, Yakuza, and even a bit of X-Files. Imagine R-rated Blade mixed with Shaft, starring Sonny Chiba and made in Japan. It is wonderfully weird and unapologetic.

Everytime you think you have this movie figured out it throws you a new curveball.

The fight scenes are classic Sonny Chiba, hard hitting and realistic. Whoever in the special effect department that was in charge of blood was working overtime.

And the viral "Sonny Chiba eating a steak" video ain't even the tip of the iceberg.

It's called Wolf Guy, but I feel like the main character is a guy far more often than he's a wolf, or even just showcasing some werewolf-like characteristics. The title does mislead a little by putting the wolf part first, and maybe it's on me for getting my hopes up that this action/crime/horror mash-up would have an investigator who turned into a werewolf more often while solving various murder cases. The wolf part plays a less in-your-face role in the movie, which is unusual, because the rest of the movie isn't shy about being very in-your-face.

I guess the horror elements are surprisingly underplayed, but as an action-heavy 1970s Japanese crime movie, it works pretty well. The action mostly satisfies, and there is thankfully a lot of it. Sonny Chiba could play this kind of role in his sleep, and he's great here as the lead character. The story also moves pretty quickly and provides a good deal of stuff in a runtime that doesn't exceed 90 minutes. If a scene here or there isn't working, it never lasts long, and the movie consistently pivots to new, crazy ideas, meaning that the movie's weak points never linger long enough to feel hugely detrimental.

If you want a crime thriller/action movie with a twist, Wolf Guy satisfies. Once again, I will say I wish there had been some more actual wolf stuff, but werewolf mythology is still incorporated in other ways throughout the film, and it's usually enough to make this stand out as a unique and worthwhile oddity within the broad (and exciting) pantheon of Japanese genre movies from the 70s.

Wolf Guy (1975)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Sonny Chiba plays a detective who also happens to be the last member of a family of werewolves. On the force he uses his wolf senses to help solve crimes but the latest group of murders he's trying to solve won't be easy. People are screaming into a madness talking about a "tiger" when the next thing you know their bodies are being ripped apart. It's up to Chiba to try and figure out exactly what's going on.

WOLF GUY is a film that pretty much came out of nowhere to me. I'm a fan of Arrow Video so when they announced it most people were scratching their heads as to what it was. If you're looking for downright bizarre and surreal movies then you've got exactly that with this thing. It's part horror movie, part gangster film, part crime, part sci-fi and just about every other genre out there. You've even got long running stretches where the plot deals with syphilis as if this was one of those nutty sexploitation movies from the era! There's a lot going on here but sadly the film runs out of gas before it's over but more on that in a bit. There's still plenty of great stuff on display here so recommending the film is easy.

For starters, you get some outrageous and over-the-top gore scenes here that will have any gore hound screaming in joy. The scenes of the bodies being ripped apart and blood spewing everywhere certainly would have gotten the film a X-rating had it been released in America. If you thought Chiba's THE STREET FIGHTER was violence you ain't seen nothing' yet! Of course, Chiba is martial arts master so there are a great number of scenes where he has to battle a variety of men. The stunts are well-done and there's no doubt that they add some extra entertainment value. The film also offers up a lot of nudity and some bizarre sex story lines.

As you can tell, WOLF GUY is pretty wild on all exploitation levels. With that said, the film's third act does run out of steam and there's a great stretch of running time where the violence stops. It's really too bad they didn't keep up the pulp level but at the same time there's no question that the film deserves to be better known.