wolf guy

Pity those poor Sonny Chiba completionists. While Bruce Lee had a tragically shortened career, Chiba has 188 credits -highlighted by his forceful turn in the Streetfighter films of the '70s - stretching from his more lighthearted appearances in the early '60s right up to his role in Tarantino's Kill Bill movies and beyond. And only a very small percentage of them have ever made it onto Region 1 home video, let alone Blu-ray. So consider the release of Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975) a drop in a very big bucket.

Based on a popular manga series, the Toei produced film cuts so many corners it barely qualifies as a proper adaptation but works overtime to hold its audience interest. Chiba stars as Akira Inugami, the sole survivor of a clan of shapeshifters who is pulled into the investigation surrounding a series of deadly maulings, the victims torn to shreds by some invisible force. Caught between a yakuza plot, tragic romance and his own supernatural lineage, Inugami sniffs out the source of this psychic murder spree, only to become its next target!

A genre mash-up of ridiculous proportions, Wolf Guy's biggest flaw is the lack of any actual werewolf captured on film. Although Inugami is granted superhuman reflexes and, at one point, regenerative powers that enable him to tuck his intestines comfortably back inside his body, Chiba never sprouts fur or fangs. It's a bait and switch director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi tries desperately to cover up. From martial arts mayhem and random sex scenes to a 42nd street funkadelic score, Wolf Guy pushes every exploitation button available, using Chiba's natural charisma (and international marketability) to hold it together.

But with an approach this scattered, even Chiba struggles to sell it convincingly. The action scenes are serviceably entertaining, especially during one clever action bit where spare change is used like throwing stars to take out a pack of unruly gangsters. And the spirit animal attacks are impressively staged, with clothes and flesh shredding on camera in disturbing fashion. Here Wolf Guy actually stays ahead of the psychic killer trend that would flare up with Carrie (1976) just a year later. But the lack of any real lycanthrope transformations (a third act blood transfusion results in a short-lived superpowered antagonist, at least) is a betrayal no amount of topless love-interests can surmount.

Arrow Video understands, however, that a film this bizarre is going to find an audience. And when they do, they'll be damn happy with the hi-def presentation (this first-ever release in outside of Japan also includes a DVD copy) and a surprising amount of extras, including the theatrical trailer and three new video interviews with producer Tatsu Yoshida, actor Sonny Chiba and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, who laments the final product didn't get the budget it deserved. The first pressing also includes an illustrated collector's booket.