Urufu gai: Moero ôkami-otoko

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.

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.

I saw this for the first time recently n I am totally surprised at the kind of bizarre stuff shown in this movie. Without having read the adult novel or the manga series and without having seen its prequel (Horror of the Wolf), I enjoyed this due to Sonny Chiba. They say its prequel has a transformation scene which is lacking in this one. We have a detective who is the last surviving werewolf n till the end we r deprived of a transformation scene. Since our detective is played by Sonny Chiba, there is tons of martial arts. We also have a girl who can kill people by jus thinking about their deaths and that too in a tiger fashion way of ripping the body apart. Now this is some serious X-woman stuff. This film has plenty of action, gory deaths, lots of nudity, over the top facial expressions of our dear Chiba n some bizarre stuff.

Who expects to see a usual werewolf transformation, you must skip this Japanese picture, the star fight Sonny Shiba portraits a reporter Akira Inugami at Tokyo modern days whom in every lunar cycle he turns in an offbeat werewolf, he got an inner power and becomes a sort of unbeatable guy without any visible metamorphosis at all, he investigates several bloody murders of a rock band members that including a pretty girl, also the Yakusa entering in the game sponsored by a powerful politician.

An action horror picture mixing martial arts, extremely gory and surreal concerning a ghost tiger, actually Akira is a last survivor of ancient bloodline of werewolves, the plot delves into a Tokyo underground circuit of nightclubs, drug dealers and prostitution under the command of Yakusa, a sexploitation flick strongly inspired on Japanese Manga, colorful and sexy girls, where the beast-hero Sonny Shiba burst without mercy, fine entertainment from seventies.

Thanks for reading.

Resume: First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.

Wolf Guy was a vehicle for popular Japanese action star Sonny China. I'm pretty much a novice concerning Japanese cinema, only have seen a handful of movies. This film in particular is more of a action piece than horror. Wolf Guy moves along pretty fast with some nice kung fu action, naked chicks and blood. A lot of blood! Sonny China has some nice Wolverine type of pork chops and hair like Mr. Brady. Wolf Guy was different than I expected and for a horror/action hybrid that is 90 percent action works on its own terms. As I stated before I have only seen a few Japanese movies and maybe 2 of those were Sonny China flicks. In any case, I thought Wolf Guy was cool and I will definitely watch it again.