Tokyo at night. An intertitle informs us it is Day three of the Lunar Cycle. A well-dressed man in a white suit runs through the streets, shouting that “she” is after him.
Reporter Akiru Inugami (Sonny Chiba), whose nickname is “Wolf”, leaps from his car and approaches the near-crazed guy. Still in a panic, the man, a criminal named Hanamura (Rikiya Yasuoka), tells Inugami that he is running from a Tiger, and that the “Curse of Miki” is coming for him.
Inugami follows him into an alley, where Hanamura is torn to shreds before his eyes. There is no tiger that we can see; he was seemingly slaughtered by an invisible force.
Thus begins director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi’s Wolf Guy. Based on a 1970 manga, Wolf Guy is jam-packed with action, mystery, and even horror. Sonny Chiba alone usually guarantees a fun film, and for my money this is one of his most entertaining.
With the help of his partner Arai (Harumi Sone), Inugami discovers that Miki is, in fact, signer Miki Ogata (Etsuko Nami), who was once engaged to the son of a powerful politician. None too happy with the match, this politician, with a little help, had Miki kidnapped and gang-raped by a band of Yakuzas, an encounter that infected her with uncurable syphilis. Her engagement off and her spirit broken, Miki now makes a living belting out tunes at a strip club, and begging for money to support her drug habit.
Inugami takes a special interest in Miki, whose hatred and anger is unleashed in the form of an invisible tiger, one that exacts revenge on those who ruined her life.
Inugami wants to help Miki in her quest for justice, but as we learn over time, he does so for his own reasons.
The first half of Wolf Guy is shrouded in mystery. Immediately after the strange and very violent pre-title sequence (blood flows from Hanamura’s deep gashes), the opening credits play over a flashback, in which an entire village is gunned down, leaving no survivors save a very young boy. This and many of the film’s other questions will eventually be answered, with each new revelation (including a cool one at the halfway point about Inugami’s heritage) more jaw-dropping than the last.
Along with the mystery, the movie boasts plenty of action, with Sonny Chiba kicking ass time and again as he takes on the gang that has basically enslaved Miki. Much like Chiba’s The Street Fighter and The Bodyguard, he puts a hurting on his opponents.
Which brings me to another facet of Wolf Guy: its blood and gore. The attacks by Miki’s “tiger” are violent as hell, as are Chiba’s fight scenes. That said, the movie also features what might be the single most disturbing torture sequence I ever sat through, a moment so graphic and shocking that, to decrease its impact, the filmmakers tinted it with psychedelic colors.
The film’s full title is Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope, and while it does occasionally delve into Werewolf territory, fans of that particular subgenre will likely be disappointed (it becomes more of a plot point in the final act, yet is never explored as much as I would have liked). Still, with action aplenty, a jazzy score, some stylish camerawork (chase scenes are shot hand-held), and a final showdown that you won’t soon forget, Wolf Guy is as exciting, intriguing, and amazing as they come.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10