A follow up (of sorts) to the excellent ‘Yakuza Wolf’ was released the same year, once again starring Sonny Chiba but this time playing a completely different character in a completely different setting.
This time he plays Ibuki, who along with his buddy Goro (Tatsuya Fuji), are recently released from prison after being set up and sent down by a local gangster. The two decide to get revenge on the gangster and his crew by planning a heist and recruiting several others to form a sort of gang to help exact revenge and score big.
Completely different in tone and style compared to the first ‘Yakuza Wolf’ those expecting another hard edged delve into the Yakuza underworld may be disappointed. Save for one brief scene of fairly graphic sex, ‘Yakuza Wolf 2’ is pretty much light in tone and even played for laughs on several occasions. Chiba is a cheeky, likable crook compared to his no nonsense, cool-as-ice, man-with-no-name character of the first film, that it takes a bit of readjustment to go with the flow of this instalment. But once he and Tatsuya Fuji are on the outside and putting their plan into play the film becomes much more of a buddy caper, the two having playful and infectious chemistry. In fact, Tatsuya Fuji is so cool he almost steals the flick from Chiba.
While the tone is lighter and the stakes less violent, ‘Yakuza Wolf 2’ is still stuffed with ace action. Chiba cuts a cool action figure as always, effortlessly traversing the underside of a bridge in dangerous fashion and looking cool dispatching loads of bad guys in the impressive final shootout: that tops the first film’s climactic showdown for slick gunplay and violent retribution.
Cool, swift, and breezy, ‘Yakuza Wolf 2’ may be different in tone and style to the first film, and nowhere near as satisfying, but is still some fun gangster action with Chiba at the top of his game.
Eureka Entertainment will release ‘Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2’ on UK Blu-ray on February 19, 2024. You can order it now from Amazon.co.uk.
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