Film Year: 1975
Genre: Action, Crime, Fantasy
Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
Starring: Sonny Chiba as WOLF GUY!
The Movie
MSTies may recognize Space Chief himself Sonny Chiba in the title role in this film. Chiba is a member of a clan of werewolves who gets sucked into dealing with a prostitute with syphilis who can turn into some sort of phantom tiger that mauls people by standing around and doing nothing. This leads him into an intense battle with the Yakuza, who do what they can to kill Chiba, but little do they know that he becomes more powerful in the moonlight.
This slice of Japanese craziness is based on a manga series, which is apparently a bit more crazy. Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope doesn't have much of a budget, which couldn't even to turn its werewolf protagonist into an actual werewolf. Sonny Chiba is always Sonny Chiba in this film, it's just that the moon gives him superpowers. One wonders why bother to do a werewolf movie at this point if you're just going to make a Sonny Chiba movie, but it doesn't skimp on the action. The action can overpower the fantasy though, which is a fun aspect of the film but is never truly explored.
Wolf Guy's plot is all over the place, as Chiba seemingly just goes from one character to another with little aim other than to beat up the men and/or sleep with the women. It's not much on story, but it's just an excuse to see some boobs and let some blood squibs explode. The werewolf fantasy aspect is redundant, as the film cares very little for it. Wolf Guy is gloriously weird, but unfortunately it's also gloriously sloppy and wasteful. It's not boring, and it's easy to watch. How satisfying that watch is will vary on the person.
The Drive-In
Joe Bob has a gleeful twinkle in his eye this episode, because he knows he's unleashing a different offering that few people have probably seen. He tries to describe it, but all of the words that come out of this mouth make this movie sound like the most insane thing ever filmed, which Joe Bob is trying to sell it as. He's not exactly underselling the movie, though the film itself may be underwhelming depending on exactly how weird you expect it to be based on Joe Bob's opening monologue. But he's right to be gleeful about it.
I do get the feeling that this movie was selected partially because Joe Bob wanted to talk about Sonny Chiba this episode, and he enjoys dropping tidbits about the world famous actor throughout, including his prolific film career, how he believed an actor needed to "train his abs," and how he tested stunts by "trying it once to see if it's dangerous." What a fun man to talk about! He also states that Chiba doesn't remember ever making the movie, but given how many films the man has made, that's not surprising. Joe Bob even opens with a crew member who has actually worked with Chiba too! There are also a few tidbits about the film's director and how he didn't care for the film, as well as the manga author who left a screening and threaten to sue the production!
When he's not glowing about Chiba, he tries to explain to the audience what they're seeing, in case they aren't picking up on how absurd it is. Joe Bob's descriptions of the film's scenes are absolutely golden, especially when it comes to sex scenes. He picks up on how every woman Wolf Guy meets winds up sleeping with him ("One look at Wolf Guy and the babes just drop their panties!"), and he is thoroughly obsessed with the film's final sex scene where Chiba suckles on a woman's breast while flashing back to his mother breastfeeding him.
Wolf Guy may not be the weirdest movie Joe Bob has ever shown, but it lights a fire under the man and the Joe Bob segments demand to be seen. The episode also ends with a charity plug for seacrestwolfpreserve.org, so good things may come of this episode yet!
Joe Bob's Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment