Wolf
Guy
(1975/MVD Visual/Arrow Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B/B- Sound: B/B- Extras: B Film: C+
Move
over Lon Chaney Jr., there's a new 'wolf guy' in town! Shinichi
"Sonny" Chiba stars in Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Wolf
Guy
(1975), a long sought after B-Movie gem that is now landing on
Blu-ray and DVD disc thanks to our good friends at Arrow Video.
Complete with a startling new 2K HD transfer and plenty of cool new
extras, this film is fun for all fans of the werewolf and martial
arts genre. Directed by Yamaguchi, who is no stranger to B-Movies
(Sister
Street Fighter),
the film is elegantly shot and interestingly executed despite it's
short running time.
When
a man is murdered by a tiger after a bizarre hallucination in the
open city streets, it's up to Akira Inugami (Chiba), a sleek
detective with supernatural abilities that solves some of the city's
supernatural and mysterious crimes. The deeper he gets into the
case, the more is revealed about Inugami himself as well as a string
of vicious murders. Soon, it's discovered that Inugami has powers
that are linked to the lycans and that many are after his unique
blood type in an effort to steal his abilities!
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and
a nice sounding original uncompressed PCM Mono audio track
(compressed on the DVD as lossy Dolby Digital), the film looks and
sounds pretty crisp and clear throughout for the Blu-ray format. A
standard definition DVD is also included which features the film in
lesser, but still passable, quality. There's a bit of grain and some
minor wear on the film print, but the presentation here is restored
and has the film looking far better than previous releases.
Special
Features...
New
video interview with actor Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba
New
video interview with director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
New
video interview with producer Toru Yoshida
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Wes
Benscoter
FIRST
PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing
on the film by Patrick Macias and a history of Japanese monster movie
mashups by Jasper Sharp.
This
film is a lot of fun and this particular edition of the film is a
great buy for cult movie fanatics.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
