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Kibakichi 2 (Japan 2004)
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Director : Daiji Hattori
Cast : Ryuji Harada, Mike Tanaka,
Masaktsu Funaki, Yoko Kamon, and Aimi Nakamura.
Synopsis :
Its about a lone swordsman from Yokai, a land of monsters that
once co-existed alongside man. Raised on raw meat rations and with
an affinity with the full moon as well as a blistering skill with
the sword his Yokai persona is that of a werewolf. In his venture to
seek out the best in mankind, he finds himself in a desolate village
and in the middle of an age-old battle between good and evil. Geisha
turn into giant carnivorous spiders, samurai change into werewolves
and ghostly monsters and skeletons prey on humans, KIBAKICHI
delivers all the grit of a spaghetti western with the violent grace
of a samurai flick. |
Review
by Edward Tang
Ah, not to long ago for this very website I reviewed a little film
called Kibakichi. The film itself was full of monsters, spray-blood
effects and entertaining action. Not a classic by any means and not
really even a film that deserves to be remembered but it was fun.
Now low and behold, a sequel was made and I was quite eager to check
out the results. Well, not really eager because it is still a film
about a bunch of stupid fucking monsters and has blood effects that
are really quite hilarious if anything. But the film itself is so
short and enjoyable that I didn't really care. Yep, Kibakichi 2 is
solid entertainment that has an easy story to follow and above
average actions sequences that seem to take up the bulk of the 85
minute run time. There were a few things in general that I liked
more than the original one that includes more action as compared to
the first and the WOLF FIGHT, something that made me laugh that
wasn't suppose to be funny.
For those of you who haven't seen the first one (probably all of
you), Kibakichi is a half werewolf-man whose town people were wiped
out and now he wanders the land like Zatoichi, searching for a
purpose. This film starts out with Sakuramaru, a murderer who
terrorizes a small town, confronting Kibakichi and them having a
duel. Sakuramaru cuts Kichi good which makes the wolfman retreat to
a small village where he saves a blind girl from a rabid dog. She
instantly sees the good in him, while the town people are afraid of
him because he's a monster. During this, we meet Anju who is trying
to murder Kibakichi to kill off the remaining person from her
hometown (she's a monster as well) and eventually to kill herself to
remove the remaining monsters. Before they can get to this, a fuckup
named Dogan wants to kill all monsters and then humans so he can
take over the world. So Sakuramaru, Kibakichi and Anju eventually
team up to kill the bastard and then settle things with each other
later.
The story moves easily enough, it's only 85 minutes remember and
with this fact it never stays on anything for too long. The subplot
with the blind girl wasn't really necessary but they did it the
right way. The character Kibakichi isn't really that interesting or
worthy of mention because he rarely says a word and is dull when
he's not killing people. There's also some stuff about the
background of the Sakuramaru character and how he was the bastard
child of some white rapist who came to Japan and murdered a bunch of
people. Funny stuff. But as a story, it's successful at giving us
what is needed and not leaving any questions unanswered, there's
even a helpful fuck in the beginning who explains what needs to be
known (so basically you don't have to see the first one to get
everything here). It's not deep stuff and it's not gonna win any
awards in the near future, but you probably knew that the moment you
saw the DVD art (Kinda shitty eh?). WEREWOLVES AND MONSTERS! Fuckin'
stuff, man.
As for the monsters in this film, you should know before you see it
that it's full of a bunch of people in bad monster costumes. No CGI
or anything, just bad costumes. That surely doesn't tamper with the
film, probably makes the thing more entertaining. For action, I
think this film upped it from the last one as I recall it being
kinda boring in the middle (perhaps I was tired) until it picked up
at the end. There were a bunch of good scenes in this one, nothing
of GREATNESS but it does the job. The final duel is probably the
highlight, nothing compared to thousands of other great films but
hey it's entertaining with some type of ant-eater thing stabbing
people. But for me, the true moment of this film was the WOLF FIGHT.
I'm probably the only one who'll think this is funny, but Kibakichi
and Anju morph into wolves at the end of the film and supposedly
fight, but what we see here is almost like dancing and hugging. I
couldn't stop laughing for some reason, and thinking about it now, I
should really kick myself in the ass. The actors in the film were
decent, no standouts as before.
Ah Kibakichi 2 is a fun film like its predecessor and is enjoyable
for those who realize what it is and don't dismiss it for things
such as the stupid ass monsters (So very stupid, but stay with me
here). It doesn't deserve any type of praise for anything but the
entertainment value, and probably many of the moments were
entertaining when they probably weren't suppose to be. But as I fall
to sleep tonight, the image of the WOLF FIGHT will go through my
head and I'll wonder what the hell it was suppose to be. Fun film
and little else, but give it a shot if you like that sort of thing.
WOLF FIGHT
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| Notable Scenes: |
- the final duel
between Dogan/Kibakichi/Anju and Sakuramaru
- The WOLF FIGHT and various other fight scenes. |
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