Oh man, I’m late to the party – somehow I missed Sonny Chiba, the king of Japanese martial arts exploitation movies in the 1970’s. Oh sure, I’d heard about him, but nothing could quite prepare me for the sheer surreal brilliance of “Wolf Guy” from 1975. I watched it last night, slack-jawed and dumbfounded, feeling like I was looking in a portal to another reality while a latent acid trip slowly saturated my brain. It made absolutely no sense in the best way possible!
I mean, when you have a movie like this you simply have to suspend your idea of reality and just submit to the experience. I had the same transcendent experience I felt when I saw José Mojica Marin’s Brazilian masterpiece from 1969 “This Night I’ll Possess Your Corpse.” Nothing, and I mean nothing, can prepare you for the weirdness you are about to see.
Anyway, I think I’ve found a new obscure exploitation obsession and it’s name is Sonny Chiba.
Dig it!