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Japan, somewhen in the Tokugawa-era: as a masterless swordsman (a ronin),
Kibakishi wanders the courtryside, is often challenged but never beaten. But
Kibakichi is not a mere Ronin but also a Yokai, a monster who has taken on
human form to live among the humans.
When he comes to a small village run by benevolent Onozi in a Yakuza-style
way & wins a fortune in his gambling den, Onozi & his men urge
Kibakichi to stay & take up work in Onozi's employ. Kibakichi agrees, being
especially enchanted by Kikyo, Onozi's girl. Then though he finds out what the
casino is really about:rich costumers are seduced to lose all their money
gambling & are then killed by Yokai ... & not only that, the all the
villagers are actually Yokai - except for sweet Kikyo, a human girl who was
abandoned by her human parents at an early age & adopted by Yokai.
In disgust, Kibakichi leaves the village, but not before Anjun, a girl from
Kibakichi's village, reminds him that his whole tribe was exterminated because
he trusted the humans once too often.
Onozi however tries to reach a treaty with human clan-leader Yamaji, whom he
helped to power in exchange for a land for him & his Yokai, a paradise
where Yokai & human can live together in peace ...
But of course Yamaji has no intentions to pay up, instead he intends to use
the Yokai for target practice for his newly acquired machineguns ...
When Kibakichi, on the road again, hears machinegunfire from afar,
slaughtering his people, he rushes back, to save whoever's left to save ... but
even when he arrives, most of the population including Onozi is massacred, but
he has his vengeance on Yamaji & his men ... even if that means he has to
turn into a wolf, the beast that's hidden inside him, to do so ...
In the end besides Kibakichi only Kikyo & a little boy have survived the
ordeal. & while Kikyo promises the boy to find a place where to raise him,
Kibakichi hits the road again ...
This horror-fantasy-martial arts hybrid actually plays more like a
traditional Japanese swordsmen- (or chambara-) movie, & for some
reason sticks to the rules of that genre rather closely instead of going wild
upon its wild premise - only the finale, when Yamaji tries to fight Kibakichi
the wolf with handgrenades hints at what might have been ... This all doesn't
make it too bad a movie as such, it's still solid genre entertainment with a
little twist ... but little more.
The monster masks by the way are not really impressive ... but do have a
certain cheap charm to them.
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