Members
of a rock group are found torn to shreds by what looks like a tiger’s
claw. Reporter Sonny Chiba (who also
happens to be a werewolf) investigates, and learns they had all previously
raped a woman at the behest of her fiancé’s rich father. While on the trail of the raped girl, he
learns she has a tiger spirit living inside her and uses her “grudge” to kill
her attackers. Things get really weird
when a top-secret government agency brainwashes the girl and forces her to
channel her rage at their enemies, thereby turning her into a weapon. It’s then up to Sonny to rescue her.
Wolfguy: Enraged Lycanthrope takes great liberties
with the established werewolf lore. I
guess because it was made in Japan, they may not have known exactly what the
traditional werewolf lore was, so they just made it up as they went along. Even though Sonny doesn’t sprout fangs and
hair, he is invincible during the full moon, so there’s that. In that regard, he’s more like a superhero
(or Popeye) than your average movie Wolfman.
The scene where he heals himself in the moonlight is just one of the
film’s many batshit insane sequences.
Folks, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen Sonny Chiba’s guts
reverse-motion themselves back inside his body.
Sonny
is great as always. He’s particularly
fun to watch in his Street Fighter-style fight scenes where he beats up a bunch
of yakuza members. (There’s one clever
bit where he takes out some bad guys by throwing coins at them.) These moments are more of the marinade than
the meat though.
The
scenes of people being torn apart by an invisible tiger spirit are jaw-dropping.
The wounds just appear on the victims and
blood streams out of their bodies. Trust
me, this movie will teach you to never cross a syphilis-ridden junkie with the
vengeful spirit of a tiger lurking inside her.
Just
when you think it’s over, there is an entire section where Chiba goes off into
the wilderness and gets it on with a hot mountain woman. While he’s in the throes of passion, he
imagines himself breastfeeding from his mother, which somehow restores his wolf
powers. You won’t catch Lon Chaney, Jr.
doing that, that’s for sure!
If
you can’t already tell, Wolfguy: Enraged
Lycanthrope doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Then again, when there’s so much crazy shit in this movie, you start to
think a little thing like “sense” is overrated.
It moves at such a crackling pace that you don’t get a chance to even
scratch your head because it’s already halfway through the next zany sequence.
Die-hard
werewolf purists will be appalled. Sonny
Chiba fans might not know what to think of it.
However, purveyors of WTF cinema will champion it as an unsung masterpiece.
AKA: Wolf Guy.
AKA: Wolf Guy: Enrage, Wolfman. AKA:
Wolfman vs. the Supernatural.
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