#Chiba Kazumasa

[jareckiworld]

Chiba Kazumasa — Paradise (inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy") [watercolor paper, acrylic and pastel, on panel, 2018]

[videoreligion]

Wolf Guy (1975)

[thegazette-chan]

J-Birthday List (Updated 16.07.19)

01.01 -Ice (Ex. Xodiack / Ex. Black Gene For The Next Scene/ solo-musician)

05.01 -Miku (Ex. An Cafe)

07.01 -Tsubasa (XOX)

08.01 - Daisuke (Ex. Roach/ Jupiter)

19.01 -Keiji (Mix Speaker��s,inc.)

20.01 -Aoi (The GazettE)

20.01 -Rui (Ex. SCREW/ now Solo-musician)

24.01 -Yuta (IVVY)

29.01 -Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

29.01 -Shota (BLACK IRIS)

29.01 -Reo (SUPER DRAGON)

01.02 -Ruki (The GazettE)

07.02 -Miki (Mix Speaker’s,inc.)

08.02 -Joonho (JOONHO&GYUMIN)

09.02 -Takuya (Ex. An Cafe)

09.02 -Yuta (XOX)

12.02 -Kazumasa (XOX)

15.02 -Rio (BLACK IRIS)

16.02 -Reon (Ex. RoNo☆Cro)

17.02 -Hizaki (Versailles/ Jupiter)

17.02 -Sougo (SUPER DRAGON)

18.02 -Yuki (Ex. Jupiter/ Versailles)

18.02 -Ren (Danger Gang)

21.02 -Tatsuki (FlowBack)

26.02 -Sorao (Ex.THE KIDDIE)

27.02 -Tsuyoshi (SUPER DRAGON)

27.02 -Koki (SUPER DRAGON)

07.03 -Miko (Exist Trace)

20.03 -Omi (Exist Trace)

20.03 -Shinpei (Ex. SuG)

25.03 -Ryohei (Megamasso)

01.04 -Judai (FlowBack)

02.04 -Chisa (Ex. Nexx/Ex. DIV/ ex. Chisa&Shogo/ ACME )

09.04 -Yusa ( Ex. THE KIDDIE/ Guts and Death)

10.04 -Teru (Versailles/ Jupiter)

10.04 -Jyou (Exist Trace)

12.04 -Lin (MADKID)

15.04 -Tomoya (SUPER DRAGON)

15.04 -Hal (ACME)

16.04 -Rucy (Ex. Killaneth/ Ex. Jupiter)

17.04 -Taka (ONE OK ROCK)

23.04 -Tsubame (BugLug)

25.04 -Masashi (Ex. Jupiter/ Verasailles)

25.04 -San (Ex. Nega/ Ex. Black Gene For The Next Scene/ Lack-co)

28.04 -Reiji (FlowBack)

28.04 -Raku (SUPER DRAGON)

04.05 -Hiroto (Alice nine)

05.05 -Jean (SUPER DRAGON)

07.05 -Issei (BugLug)

11.05 -Takeru (SuG)

13.05 -Taiyu (IVVY)

13.05 -Waka (Danger Gang)

15.05 -Mark (FlowBack)

20.05 -Masaharu (FlowBack)

23.05 -Riku (XOX)

26.05 -Masato (SuG)

27.05 -Shalf (BUZZ-ER)

27.05 -Reita (The GazettE)

01.06 -Gyumin (JOOHNO&GYUMIN)

02.06 -Hyoma (SUPER DRAGON)

04.06 -Hiroto (IVVY)

07.06 -Yuko (Wagakki Band)

09.06 -Uruha (The GazettE)

09.06 -Kento (IVVY)

23.06 -Manabu (Ex. SCREW)

11.06 -Rame (Ex. Vidoll/ Ex. Black Gene For The Next Scene)

15.06 -Youta (MADKID)

24.06 -Saga (Alice nine)

27.06 -Tomoya (ONE OK ROCK)

30.06 -Jui (Ex. Vidoll/ Gotcharocka)

03.07 -Yukihisa (Ex. Yeti)

03.07 -Hiro (BLACK IRIS)

04.07 -Gackt

05.07 -Shou (Alice nine/ DIAWOLF)

05.07 -Kanon (Ex. An Cafe)

08.07 -Takuya (BLACK IRIS)

13.07 -Yuya (BUZZ-ER)

18.07 -Setsuki (Ex. RoNo☆Cro)

19.07 -Kohey (BUZZ-ER)

19.07 -Kamijo (Versailles/ solo-musician)

21.07 -Sadao (XOX)

21.07 -Kazuki (MADKID)

22.07 -Jin ( Ex. SCREW)

27.07 -Yuki (MADKID)

28.07 -S (Mix Speakers,inc.)

30.07 -Maya (LM.C)

30.07 -Rayto (Ex. GRiT/ BLACK IRIS)

31.07 -Nao (Alice nine)

04.08 -Jun (Ex. THE KIDDIE)

05.08 -Kazuki (Ex. SCREW)

05.08 -Batoshin (XOX)

08.08 -Takumi (Ex. v[NEU])

11.08 -Toya (Ex. Charlotte/ Gotcharocka)

17.08 -Sala (Ex. Black Gene For The Next Scene)

29.08 -Yuki (Ex. An Cafe)

01.09 -Zin (Jupiter/ solo-musician)

04.09 -Ryota (ONE OK ROCK)

05.09 -Shogo (Ex. xTRIPx/ Ex. DIV/ Ex. Chisa&Shogo/ ACME)

13. 09 -Machiya (Wagakki Band)

14.09 -Miyavi

14.09 -Toman ( Ex. XOX)

17.09 -Tora (Alice nine/ DIAWOLF)

19.09 -Takanori Nishikawa (T.M.Revolution)

20.09 -Namie Amuro

24.09 -Ban (Ex. Loud Grape/ Ex. Lolita23q)

24.09 -Ryuuji (Ex. Zoro)

02.10 -Shin (MADKID)

02.10 -Ayumi Hamasaki

03.10 -Shin (MADKID)

05.10 -Naoto (Exist Trace)

09.10 -Rikito (ACME)

09.10 -Satoshi (Ex. DIV/ Laplus)

12.10 -Hayate (SUPER DRAGON)

15.10 -Bikkey (Yeti)

17.10 -Kazuki (BugLug)

19.10 -Toki (Ex. Black Gene For The Next Scene)

21.10 -Yuji (Ex. SuG)

21.010 -Chiba (BUZZ-ER)

25.10 -Yui Itsuki (Yousei Teikoku)

26.10 - Mello (Ex. RoNo☆Cro)

28.10 -Kai (The GazettE)

29.10 -Saku (BUZZ-ER)

05.11 -Wasabi (Wagakki Band)

09.11 -Minami (Ex. Vurny/ Ex. RoNo☆Cro)

11.11 -Mitsu (Ex. v[NEU]/ solo-musician)

13.11 -Koda Kumi

13.11 -Satoshi (Ex. Aicle/ Yeti)

14.11 -Hau (BUZZ-ER)

17.11 -Jun (Ex. Phantasmagoria/ Ex. Spiv States/ Gotcharocka)

17.11 - Aiji (LM.C)

26.11 -Kayuu (Ex. v[NEU])

27.11 -Mally (Exist Trace)

01.12 -Kiyoshi (Wagakki Band)

04.12 -Chobi (Ex. xTRIPx/ Ex. DIV)

07.12 -Toru (ONE OK ROCK)

08.12 -Teruki (Ex. An Cafe)

10.12 -Hiko (Danger Gang)

18.12 -Asa (Wagakki Band)

19.12 -Toshiki (IVVY)

21.12 -Yuudai (Ex. THE KIDDIE/ Guts and Death)

26.12 -Shingo (Ex. Gotcharocka)

27.12 -Chiyu (Ex. SuG)

[hoogiehowser]

MEDIA DIARY JANUARY

:::::::::: MOVIES ::::::::::

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) I liked this so much I ended up seeing it twice. The animation is on a whole different level from everything else in theaters I just can’t believe it. Nothing has immediately endeared me to a character more that when Miles gets to the place where he’s going to put up graffiti and yells “BROOKLYN!” to get the echo. Absolutely perfect. 

Happy Death Day (2017) The trailer looked good but the trailer for the sequel looked even better. Good time repeating movie. Way better than Blood Punch. I’m excited to see more of this.

Alien: Covenant (2017) Had no clue what to expect going in but I actually dug it. It’s just Alien again like every Alien movie but what they do with David from Prometheus makes it really interesting. There’s also some straight up slasher movie sleaze that definitely appeals to me.

MacGruber (2010) It’s just a bunch of dick jokes while a bad action movie happens. There’s no clever spin to it.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Wanted to watch this due to the Fast & Furious connection. It’s a great movie about overachievers and getting away with shit. I think Justin Lin is a great director and his unique voice benefits every movie he does.

Collateral (2004) I didn’t realize until the credits that this was a Michael Mann movie but it was so obvious in hindsight. The premise is simple, Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx are great, and everything comes together in a genuinely cool film.

Wilson (2017) Based on a comic I don’t particularly like from Dan Clowes’ grumpy old man phase. The cool thing about the comic is that each page works on its own and has a different art style. The movie can’t do that. But it’s still faithful to the book which means it feels like a series of one page gags strung together until it finishes. Woody and Laura Dern are great though and it is pretty funny at times.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare (2018) There was another truth or dare based horror movie a year before that was a Syfy original. The Syfy one is better. The problem with them both is the supernatural contrivances that make people play truth or dare against their will. It’s such a strained premise.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Guy Ritchie made a King Arthur movie and it feels exactly like you’d expect. 

Thoroughbreds (2017) Girl who can’t feel emotions befriends girl who is very politely hiding her extreme emotions. Things get bad when they start to think about murder. Anton Yelchin plays a druggie scumbag loser. It’s such a good movie. 100% my kind of thing.

:::::::::: TV ::::::::::

The Great British Baking Show (Beginnings, Collections 1-4) Got addicted to this one. I love cooking competitions shows and pleasant ones are usually the best. I like seeing competitors that like each other. I like Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry not trying to tear people down. I love Mel and Sue. It’s just a nice show for the nice people.

Toei Spider-Man (Episodes 1-5) I’m not a big toku guy but Spider-Verse got me curious about various Spider-Men. Takuya Yamashiro wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he was injected with blood from the last survivor of Planet Spider and carries out a mission against Professor Monster’s Iron Cross Army to avenge Planet Spider and his own father. Next to nothing present from the classic Lee/Ditko Spider-Man and that’s totally alright. I’m going to try to watch more because the episode where Spider-Man has to donate his blood to hurt child has some serious heart.

The Prisoner (Episodes 7-17) I started watching this a while ago but only now got around to finishing. Mostly super clever plots and the atmosphere is always great. Patrick McGoohan sells it every single time. Some of the later episodes go really off the rails though. There’s an entire wild west episode. Nothing in this stretch tops my favorite episode, The Schizoid Man, where Number Two brainwashes Number Six to act differently and then forces Number Six to pretend to be Number Six while a different man is already pretending to be Number Six. The ending is solid though and carries a really good tv series to a confusing, surreal end.

Cutthroat Kitchen (Season 7, Episodes 1-7) Polar opposite of The Great British Baking Show. It’s the Mario Kart of cooking competition shows. Everyone tries to fuck each other over and Alton laughs at them the entire time. It’s brilliant.

:::::::::: PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING ::::::::::

TJPW Tokyo Joshi Pro ‘19 (January 4) I don’t follow TJPW and don’t know any of their wrestlers besides Meiko Satomura but I watched this because it was on before Wrestle Kingdom. Meiko vs Reika Saiki definitely made the show worth watching and the rest was pretty alright. Lots of fun, new personalities that I like.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 (January 4) Probably the most I’ve looked forward to a show and it absolutely delivered. For the past few years I’d watch WK and recommended matches but in in July I started following everything NJPW. That added investment made this WK special. Ibushi/Ospreay tore it up and I really hope Ibushi recovers soon. Jay White/Okada shocked me. Naito/Jericho was fucking brutal. And Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi was a match I was so invested in that I thought I was going to cry. If you haven’t checked out New Japan yet this show would make an excellent start. GO ACE!

Impact Homecoming (January 6) Impact has gotten pretty good. I’ve only seen a few of their most recent ppvs but it’s obvious that they have a wealth of talent and they’re willing to tell the kind of dumb stories that I really like. Since Homecoming was in Nashville I went and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to. The energy was insane all night and LAX vs Lucha Bros has to be the best match I’ve seen live. Now that they air on Twitch I’ve been following the weekly show and enjoying it quite a bit.

WWE Royal Rumble (January 27) I always love the rumble but the rumble was weird. Both rumble matches were okay but filled with dumb stuff and way too many recovery spots that were immediately deflated by the person getting eliminated. I like the winners. AJ/Daniel didn’t deliver like I wanted. Sasha and Ronda had a good match. I loved how Finn Balor worked Brock Lesnar’s diverticulitis. Fun show.

NXT UK Takeover Blackpool (January 12) NXT UK doesn’t really grip me aside from the women’s division. I liked this well enough but nothing really changed my mind. Finn Balor made a surprise appearance and he looked like such a star compared to everyone else. Excited to see what WALTER can do here though.

GCW 400 Degreez (January 12) GCW’s brand of hardcore indie nonsense is my absolute favorite. 400 Degreez isn’t the best they’ve done but it was full of disgusting beautiful deathmatch bullshit. Markus Crane vs Nate Webb especially.

NXT Takeover Phoenix (January 26) Takeover always delivers. Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet was definitely the match of the night. I don’t dig the War Raiders schtick but their match was great. Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler also killed it.

:::::::::: COMICS ::::::::::

One Piece by Eiichiro Oda (Volumes 1-10) I wanted something long to start reading so why not One Piece? Enjoying it so far. I like getting the crew together and Usopp’s story in particular is great. Oda is a master cartoonist. I love every time we get reaction faces.

Spider-Man: Fever by Brendan McCarthy Spider-Man fever got me wanting to revisit Spider-Man: Fever because I remember liking it. I still like it. Doctor Strange accidentally opens a doorway into a spider dimension and Spider-Man gets caught in Doctor Strange’s bathtub and the alternate dimension spiders take him. All this and McCarthy’s art make Fever pretty far out. 

Spider-Man 2099 by Peter David, Kelley Jones, and Rick Leonardi (1-15) Miguel O’Hara wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider, he had Peter Parker’s DNA put into him by weird future DNA machine and he wages war against the gigantic corporations that control everything. I like Spider-Man 2099. Miguel is so different from the Peter Parker archetype and he’s got claws and fangs. He’s brutal. It’s got a neat post-hero future kind of like Batman Beyond. I stopped reading because the next part is a crossover with Punisher 2099, Ravage 2099, Doom 2099, and X-Men 2099. I’ll hopefully pick it back up because I want to know what happens with the hologram that’s in love with Miguel. 

Spider-Man by Kazumasa Hirai & Ryoichi Ikegami Yu Komori was bitten by a radioactive spider and he definitely wishes he wasn’t. It starts off a lot like our usual Spider-Man but the villains are so much more tragic and Yu deals with some heavy shit. Ikegami’s art evolves from cartoony to serious as the tone of the book changes. He’s a really incredible artist who is consistently pulling neat tricks and trying new things. I really liked this and it may top my favorite Spider-Man comics. It’s just so bleak and unforgiving to poor Yu. By the way, the final plotline is exactly the same as the Sonny Chiba movie Wolf Guy. Turns out the comic that movie was based on was written by the same guy that write Spider-Man. An odd find.

:::::::::: VIDEOGAMES ::::::::::

Axiom Verge Had my eye on this for a long time and finally picked it up on sale on my Switch. It’s okay. There are a lot of clever ideas here that I don’t think work for me. But I do like the decorrupter and the teleport. Some of the movement feels great but some stuff like the grappling hook feels awful. I hate the story. Completely incoherent sci-fi nonsense. But it’s a fun game and I enjoyed my time with it.

Hollow Knight I’ve spent about 30 hours on this game and I feel like I’m close to the end of the story. I absolutely love it. The movement, the combat, and the exploration all feel excellent. I’ve played over ten metroidvanias in the past year (I really like them) and this might be the best. My favorite part about them is how you’re almost never wasting time because there are new secrets to discover all across the map and Hollow Knight does such a good job with that.

[popmovie888]

Gintama The Very Final กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ ไฟนอล (2021) ซับไทย

กำกับโดย  Chizuru Miyawaki บทภาพยนตร์โดย  Chizuru Miyawaki ผลิตโดย   Kazumasa Sanjouba / Takashi Maekawa นำแสดงโดย  Tomokazu Sugita / Daisuke Sakaguchi / Rie Kugimiya / Akira Ishida / Takehito Koyasu / Susumu Chiba / Kazuya Nakai / Kenichi Suzumura / Kōichi Yamadera บริษัทผู้ผลิต   Bandai Namco Pictures จัดจำหน่ายโดย  Warner Bros. Japan วันที่วางจำหน่าย  8 มกราคม 2564 (ญี่ปุ่น) ความยาว   104 นาที ประเทศ   ญี่ปุ่น ภาษา   ญี่ปุ่น ตัวอย่าง Gintama The Final กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ ไฟนอล (2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnLoJEHBsME ภาพรวม Gintama The Final กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ ไฟนอล (2021) ขณะที่กำลังนับถอยหลังการล่มสลายของโลก กินโทกิ, ทาคาสุงิ, คาซึระซึ่งเคยเป็นพันธมิตรกันมาก่อนต่างก็มีความรู้สึกอยู่ในใจ แต่ผู้ที่ยืนตระหง่านอยู่เบื้องหน้าพวกเขา คือคนที่มีสายสัมพันธ์อันน่าเศร้า... อาจารย์ผู้สั่งสอนพวกกินโทกิ อีกบุคลิกหนึ่งของโยชิกะ โชโย “อุทสึโระ” นั่นเอง— เพื่อคุ้มกันพวกกินโทกิ ชินปาจิ, คางุระ, ชินเซ็นกุมิ และผู้คนในคาบุกิโจ หรือแม้กระทั่งพวกอดีตคู่แข่งต่างก็เข้าร่วมการต่อสู้! พลังของอุทสึโระที่    ดู   "หนังมาใหม่ฟรี"ขยายขึ้นเรื่อยๆ ทาคาสุงิที่เผชิญหน้าโดยเดิมพันชีวิตตัวเอง สิ่งสุดท้ายที่กินโทกิซึ่งสะบักสะบอมเห็นนั้นคือ...! สุดท้ายแล้วกินโทกิจะเอาทุกอย่างกลับคืนมาได้หรือไม่..   ดูหนังใหม่ Gintama The VeryFinal  / ดูหนัง Gintama The VeryFinal  / ดูหนังออนไลน์ Gintama The VeryFinal  / ดูหนังhd Gintama The VeryFinal  / ดู Gintama The VeryFinal  / เว็บดูหนัง Gintama The VeryFinal  / หนังใหม่2022 Gintama The VeryFinal  / ดูหนังใหม่ กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล / ดูหนัง กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล / ดูหนังออนไลน์ กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล / ดูหนังhd กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล / ดู กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล / เว็บดูหนัง กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล  / หนังใหม่2022 กินทามะ เดอะ เวรี่ไฟนอล  Read the full article

[amcinematheque]

WOLF GUY [URUFU GAI: MOERO ÔKAMI-OTOKO] (1975)

Friday, April 28 - 7:30PM, Egyptian Theatre, Hollywood, CA

TICKETS

1975, AGFA, 86 min, Japan, Dir: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

This Toei Studios-produced adaptation of the Kazumasa Hirai manga features action star Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba in the title role, an enraged, last-of-his-kind lycanthrope who uses his powers to solve crimes. Justly legendary, WOLF GUY mashes up horror, martial arts and cop movies to daze viewers into submission with a barrage of spectral tiger attacks, surgical experiments, government conspiracies and ’70s funk sounds.

[culturalgutter]

One of the greatest joys in my life is coming across almost ineffable wonder. I take pleasure in the good and the bad, sure, but there are wonders in this world. There is art that transcends our petty categories of “good” and “bad.” Things I find difficult or even impossible to evaluate because they fill me with awe. The merely competent rarely contains wonders. Most merely competent art rarely contains wonders because it often sensibly makes do with what it can accomplish what it can with the resources it has and the ambition or fervor to try anyway. Most art that is widely considered bad contains one or maybe two such wonders. Then there is Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975).

Wolf Guy is a film adaptation of the two-volume manga, Wolf Guy: The Origin (1971), written by Hirai Kazumasa with art by Hisashi Sakaguchi. The manga is itself an outgrowth of Kazumasa’s 1969 short story, “Vice School.” Kazumasa really felt wolf guy and over the next three decades his short story expanded into young wolf guy and adult wolf guy stories, novellas, manga and two film adaptations, Toho’s Horror of the Wolf (1973) and Toei’s Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope. Wolf Guy: The Origin concerns an American-Japanese middle school student, Akami Inugami, who is a werewolf. Akami transforms into a very groovy werewolf who reminds me of Wendy Pini’s wolf-riding elves in his personal wolf style. (Elfquest’s Wolfriders didn’t mount up till 1978).

Sakaguchi’s cover art for Wolf Guy: Origins, Vol. 2

ElfQuest art by Wendy Pini.

But rather than fun hijinx as Akami tries to hide his nature from the faculty and his fellow students, the manga is dark. There are stabbings and rape. I have both volumes in Japanese, but I don’t read Japanese. So I’m going with what I can gleam from the volumes, Sakaguchi’s curly, twisty art and Patrick Macias’ introduction to Arrow Video’s blu-ray release of Wolf Guy. Incidentally, I highly recommend all the special features including interviews with Sonny Chiba, director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, producer Toru Yoshida as well as essays by Patrick Macias on “the resurrection of Wolf Guy” and Jasper Sharp on the context of Wolf Guy in film history. Sharp uses my favorite Japanese aesthetic term, ero guro nansensu–“erotic grotesque nonsense.”

In the film, our enraged lycanthrope, Akira Inugami, is played by Sonny Chiba. Inugami is the only survivor of a clan of werewolves who were massacred by their human neighbors. Now he lives in Tokyo and his wardrobe and soundtrack are fully 1975. The film opens as a terrified man in an immaculate white suit and gloves stumbles into traffic, screaming, “The tiger is coming!” Inugami  slaps the man trying to get him to calm down. But Inugami is much more compassionate than the street fighters Chiba often played, and slaps him almost delicately. The man is still in no state to explain as he raves about the tiger and how “Miki has cursed us!” Surrounded by stopped cars in all four directions, he flops from hood to hood before his back is slashed open by invisible claws. He turns and we see as his chest and throat are torn open. Inugami covers the dead man with his trench coat. As he looks into the neon, he sees a ghostly tiger panting–but he’s the only one who sees it.

Inugami is questioned by the police, and it seems like he always is. As the detectives grow impatient with Inugami’s answers, they bark at him, “Wherever you go, there’s always an incident!” A werewolf just can’t get along in this human world. But Inugami’s in luck. He’s exonerated by the autopsy report. The blame is placed squarely on a demon.

The detectives argue briefly before releasing Inugami. “It’s the only possibility. I can’t do anything about it,” the chief detective says.

“It’s unbelievable.”

“A human being wouldn’t be able to slash a body like that and not in such a short time, either.”

Miki sings at the strip club.

Yes, that’s the world we’re in. Is it noir? Is it horror? Is it martial arts? Is it science fiction? Is it a yakuza picture? A movie about a cat demon lady? It’s all of them. Inugami is released and begins an investigation into this tiger and the stripper/singer Miki who has cursed these men. And I think it’s more of an enticement than a spoiler to say that he discovers so much including:  amazing 1970s fashion; relentless funk and psychedelic guitar; blood like tomato sauce; a murder romper**; intriguing burlesque; labial butterfly club decorations; a distraction mouse; gangsters playing ring toss using a broken mannequin; threatening chanteusery; a grudge turned into a tiger; a band/ group of heavies called, The Mobs; government conspiracies; and a secret intelligence agency willing to weaponize the paranormal whatever the cost–including gross surgery represented with real surgical footage. There are so many wonders I cannot share them all.

Sweet opening titles

Do you notice anything about this butterfly

Distraction mouse!

The murder romper.

In making Wolf Guy, director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, writer Fumio Konami and producer Toru Yoshida created a wonder, even if maybe they don’t feel like it now, at least according to the interviews included in the special features. And while there are so many things I could talk about with this movie, I am going to focus on one. Sonny Chiba never transforms. He becomes invulnerable on the full moon, to the point that he can break steel bars and suck his own organs back into his abdomen with a smile. But he never gets hairy.  When I first saw the movie, this disappointed me. Because part of the draw was the idea of Sonny Chiba turning into a werewolf. I wanted to see his transformation. Seeing the film again, with time to ponder, I feel differently. It makes sense to me, not just in terms of the limitations of the resources given to the filmmakers and the time they had to research werewolf movies and read up on European folklore, (i.e., none). It makes sense that Sonny Chiba’s werewolf form is Sonny Chiba. In fact, Sonny Chiba might be the ideal werewolf form.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, “The Werewolf or the Cannibal.” c. 1512

Historically it’s not all that off. While the werewolf now is very much about the transformation, in the past the werewolf had mostly been recognizable for murder and cannibalism, often targeting children. So much so that when French missionaries encountered First Nations accounts of windigo, they understood the stories as about werewolves.*** During the period of the European werewolf trials, the accused didn’t always transform into a wolf. Some acted like wolves. Some just killed and ate people. And when given stories of how someone had transformed into a wolf by means of a salve, belt, robe or skin, there were judges and scholars who would dispute that the werewolf had in reality transformed. Instead, they argued that it was a matter of perception–that the accused believed and perceived themselves as changing into a wolf and that any eyewitnesses’ senses had been deceived.

And Wolf Guy is not alone in its cinematic presentation of a werewolf in human or mostly human form. A few recent movies present werewolves that way. In When Animals Dream (2014), Marie’s nails crack, she grows more body hair in awkward places and eventually her eyes change, but mostly she changes mentally. As her town’s doctor tells her, “You’ll also change emotionally and be short-tempered and aggressive.” Her mother, who goes full werewolf never looks like Lon Chaney Jr. or Benicio Del Toro in their respective transformations. Ginger Snaps (2000) has almost a sliding scale from the vaguely lupine Ginger when she’s having fun to angry, monstrous wolf. As far as I remember Sybil Danning remains constantly Sybil Danning in Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985).**** And in Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001), Béatrice Dalle’s Coré has all the signs of being a werewolf without the furry looks. Driven into a frenzy, she bites her lovers to death during sex.

Wolf Guy is much more peaceful than some of those werewolves. He doesn’t bite or eat human beings. Completely human JCIA Agent Katie (Kumi Taguchi) might lick his blood off his hand during sex, but he eats a steak at a fancy restaurant. In fact, he’s such a gentleman, I don’t remember ever seeing him without his pants on. In his most intimate moments he removes only his jacket, tie and shirt. He doesn’t kill in a ravening fury. He only kills to protect himself or others. Akira the last of his kind. As she died, his mother told him that it was his responsibility to avenge the wolf tribe, but he walked away from that. The brutality is reversed. He is a victim of human violence and still compassionate towards humans, even protecting terrible people. He tries to help the man killed in front of him, the last member of The Mobs and Miki (Etsuko Nami), the woman who has been tormented into becoming demonic. He is loved by three of the five women in the film: Kate; Miki, whose grudge is killing men; and, Taka (Yayoi Watanabe), a woman from his old village who loves the werewolves for their kindness. (One of the women was his mother).*****

Sonny Chiba in his werewolf form.

Even when he is driven too far, Akira’s instinct is to retreat from the world, to live peacefully by himself. His lycanthropic tragedy is not  that he is cursed to kill, to reveal the beast controlled and restrained by civilization. Instead his curse is that humans perceive him as an animal to be used or destroyed. And in the modern world, this human cruelty is inescapable.

If Yamaguchi had more resources, he might have made a werewolf movie that was more like a traditional Western werewolf movie, transformation and all. But I think the movie would be worse for it. As it is, Wolf Guy is a work of wonder.

*Horror of the Wolf was based on Kazumasa’s Wolfcrest novels, available in English from Kodansha.

**Inugami, as I note, is not murderous, but I really like the phrase, “murder romper” for his final outfit.

***No, you’ve read too much about werewolves!

****No, your sister is a werewolf!

***** Miki is also named after his mother. And then there’s a very awkward sex scene.

~~~

Wherever Carol Borden goes, there’s always an incident.

Wonder of the Wolf Guy One of the greatest joys in my life is coming across almost ineffable wonder. I take pleasure in the good and the bad, sure, but there are wonders in this world.

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HALF-WOLF, HALF-SONNY CHIBA! 'WOLF GUY' COMES TO BLU-RAY

HALF-WOLF, HALF-SONNY CHIBA! ‘WOLF GUY’ COMES TO BLU-RAY

Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba is a martial arts “manimal” in the ultra-70’s, 100% bizarre mixture of horror, action and sci-fi that is Wolf Guy, one of the rarest and most sought-after cult films produced by Japan’s Toei Studio. Based on a manga by Kazumasa Hirai (creator of 8 Man), and never before released outside of Japan, it’s a genre film classic waiting to be discovered and a completely…

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Chiba Kazumasa — Purgatory (inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy") [watercolor paper, acrylic and pastel, on panel, 2018]

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Sonny Chiba in Wolf Guy (1975)

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Chiba Kazumasa — Inferno (inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy) [detail, watercolor paper, acrylic and pastel, on wood panel, 2019]

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Wolf Guy (1975)

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Wolf Guy (1975)

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Wolf Guy (1975)

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Wolf Guy (1975)

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Sonny Chiba in Wolf Guy (1975)