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After a guy dies in pretty much the arms of reporter Inugami (Sonny
Chiba) being ripped to shreds by a tiger - but without a tiger present or
any kind of assailant, Inugami decides to investigate, and he finds out
that the deceased was the member of a band, and all but one of the members
have died the same way. So he tracks down the last member of the band and
finds out that man and his bandmates had gangraped up-and-coming singer
Miki, and one of them had given her syphilis - and the "tiger
attacks" are believed to be her curse. Thing is, Inugami eventually
tracks down Miki and finds her in a sorry state, the syphilis is driving
her mad while she has become a cheap stripper addicted to heroin.
Something touches him about Miki's story, so he wants to help her but soon
runs foul of the local yakuza, then a convert gouvernment organisation who
want to turn both Miki and Inugami into killing machines. Because Miki's
curse is real, she can channel her rage into something along the lines of
an invisible tiger, maiming its victims without leaving a trace itself.
And Inugami? He's actually the last of a race of wolf-people, some
human-lupine hybrid (though it can't be cross-bred with either race) who
have the sharp instincts of wolves and are invincible every full moon.
Thing is, Inugami doesn't want to work for the organisation, and thus is
experimented upon. But the next full moon he escapes and returns to his
hometown - or what's left of it after the massacre that annihilated his
race. But once he arrives, he's greeted with anything but open arms ... Wolf
Guy is a rather wonderful piece of Japanese madness, it tells a rather
odd and far-fetched story in an over-the-top way, with plenty of action
and violence and a bit of sex along the way, and doesn't give much thought
to things like realism or the like ... which is exactly what makes this
film quite so exhilarating. And the fact that the movie's very stylishly
directed and features an extremely cool jazzy and funky score only adds to
its quality. Sure, on very close inspection, the film is less than
well-structured, and sometimes belief is actually suspended beyond
breaking point - but then it also moves very swiftly as to not give too
much weight to moments like these. Basically, rather a hoot of a movie
as one can expect only from Japan!
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