Shin’ichi Chiba, better known to Western audiences as Sonny Chiba, had a career spanning 200+ films and TV appearances over nearly 60 years. He worked mostly in Japan, though Western audiences might remember him as sword maker Hattori Hanzo from Tarantino’s Kill Bill, or even as Uncle Kamata from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Though if you’ve forgotten everything that went on in that film, we can’t blame you.
He dabbled in almost every genre of movie at one point or another in his career, and with so many films of his to pick from, it might be difficult to decide where to start. Enter Eureka Entertainment with their new double disc release of Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2, a duology of Western themed Yakuza films with Chiba in the starring role. How convenient!
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Yakuza Wolf (aka Yakuza Wolf: I Perform Murder) sees Chiba as the black-clad, taciturn and effortlessly cool Gosuke Himuro, who has returned to carry out bloody and murderous revenge on the Yakuza organization that killed his father and kidnapped his sister and sold her into slavery. This film pushed a lot of boundaries at the time with its graphic portrayals of nudity and violence, leaning heavily into the Western influences with Chiba dressing similarly to a Django-esque inspired gunslinger, the soundtrack leaning heavily towards rattling percussion and harmonicas a la Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone.
Yakuza Wolf 2 (aka Yakuza Wolf 2: Extend My Condolences) is one of those classic spaghetti western style cash-ins, riding on the familiarity of the first film while also having literally nothing in common with it beyond casting many of the same actors again, playing totally different characters. In this film Chiba is less gruff and icily cool, instead playing the suave and charismatic former gun-runner Ibuki, who must gather a gang of like-minded companions to exact revenge on the Yakuza bosses who double-crossed him and sent him to jail. Spending much of the movie in bright and often shiny clothes, Ibuki is a world away from the dark and brooding Himuro from the original film.
The plot, tone and cinematography are completely different from the first film. Gone is the dark, gritty, violent Neo-Western stylings of the original, replaced instead with a plot that feels more Hudson Hawk or Oceans 11 then Django or Yojimbo, a brighter, lighter tone with a lot of outright comedy sprinkled through the on-screen violence. While the films are tonally about as far apart as you could possibly get, both are well worth a look in their own right, each packed full of violence, action and wild, vivid fight scenes featuring knives, pistols, spearguns and the occasional ballistic wad of bubble-gum.
Both films are presented here in Japanese audio with subtitles. They’re light on special features as well. Both films include their original trailer, and both have commentary tracks, provided by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, which are worth listening to as both are obviously fans of the genre and of these films. The first film also has a video essay by Howard Hughes called ‘Lone Wolves: Yojimbo, Django and Yakuza Wolf’ which looks into the influence of Spaghetti or ‘Macaroni’ Western films as the Japanese called them, and in the reciprocal impact of films like Yojimbo and Seven Samurai on the West. It’s a really interesting look at the two genres and just how intertwined they truly are.
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The Limited Edition release also comes with a slipcase sporting new artwork from Chris Malbon, and a collector’s booklet with new writing by Tom Mes and Howard Hughes, both of whom are experts on all things related to Japanese film.
While this is the first time these films have been officially released in the UK, it’s not the first time they’ve had a Blu-ray release. They’re also available in the ‘Sonny Chiba Collection’ boxset which was released in the US (for which you will need a region-free Blu-ray player in order to view them). However, that release has no special features at all, as opposed to the commentary tracks available here, so this new version is still well worth picking up and serves as a great entry point into Sonny Chiba’s body of work.
Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2 is out now on Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment.
