Blockbuster Trash: Kibakichi 2

Well, we're back with another dose of Japanese werewolf samurai action.  For those of you who missed the last movie, our title character is a Yokai who can turn into wolf-like creature.  Despite the movie being billed as a movie about a werewolf samurai, he only turns into a werewolf in the last fifteen minutes and never fights with his sword at that point.  So, he is a werewolf samurai, if you can be both at different times and never the two shall meet.  What does the sequel hold in store?  Will we get a real werewolf samurai?  Will we get more crazy Yokai monsters?  Will the sub-plot about the woman who wants to kill Kibakichi come into play?  To find out the answers, check out my review of...

Kibakichi 2

The film begins with a village being assaulted by a crazed man with a sword.  Um, guys, do you want to lead in to that at all?  No?  Okay then.  This goes on for a few minutes until our hero shows up.  He has a fight with the man, which ends in Kibakichi being wounded and the two separating.  Wow, that was anti-climactic.  On top of that, the village is peaceful the next day, since a murderous rampage can really wear you out.  We are introduced to our female protagonist, who is a blind woman.  In her first scene, she is attacked by a stray dog- a common occurrence, apparently- but is saved by our hero.  In return, she takes him to a doctor for his wound, but he refuses treatment on the grounds that he is a Yokai.  You guys really hold a grudge, don't you?  He eventually lets up when she sells him a family heirloom- class act.  The next night, we get another fight between Kibakichi and the man, but this time they have company!  The woman from the first film who blames our hero for the destruction of their village- because he trusted humans- is back and wants revenge...um, still.  This fight ends anti-climatically as we start to feel that the movie is leading us on.  The evil man who attacked is instantly attracted to the woman, since she is not afraid of him.  I smell a romance sub-plot...

Sadly, I am right, at least to a point.  He loves her, but she could care less.  Her whole goal is revenge and nothing more.  She even states that she plans to die once Kibakichi is killed.  I guess that there are worse New Year's Resolutions!  He continues to follow her, while the blind woman takes care of our hero.  He says almost ten words in the whole movie, so don't expect a lot out of him.  Back in the forest with our 'lovebirds,' there is another threat.  A group of mysterious strangers wait out there and sic some guys on the woman when the crazed samurai is away.  She kicks ass, but he shows up anyhow to take credit for it.  This actually happens twice in this part of the movie, which feels a bit strange.  The people talk in vague terms about what their plans are, but are pretty mum about the details.  This middle portion drags a little bit as it lacks the freaky Yokai monsters that the last ones had.  In fact, the budget differences are hard to miss here, from the squibs to the make-up work.  Maybe this will get better when they explain everything...

Well, yes and no.  First, the group of strangers attacks the town with their small group of ninjas.  See- it's different from the first movie because it's a town full of humans.  By the way, the blind lady dies, so, um, yea.  Kibakichi kills a bunch of them- still in human form- before getting an explanation about the crazed Samurai.  Basically, a crazy white man attacked them and raped their women.  One of them kept the child they had, which was shunned and went crazy.  Sure, whatever.  All three of our main characters show up in town and fight, but are interrupted by the strangers.  They turn out to be all Yokai as well, leading us to a bunch of fighting.  The crazed samurai gets stabbed a lot by Kibakichi and seems to die, but that won't last.  The werewolf pair put aside their fighting to take care of the threat in front of them, which proves to be easier said than done.  The leader is a giant-horned guy who shoots fireballs, but otherwise does nothing.  The samurai just sort of gets up- they hint that it has something to do a bite from the lady earlier- and fights some more.  After he is finally killed, the pair turn into wolf-form.  Figures- they did it again!  They quickly kill off the leader with a double ninja-dash attack, which feels anti-climatic (it's the word of the day!).  Finally, they fight in wolf form, but this looks like crap since they use dramatic slow-mo for the whole thing.  It's like bad, werewolf ballet.  He beats her, but leaves her alive to wander the world.  Sequel bait again?  The End.

This movie is not all that bad, but it has some issues.  The fighting is good, but spaced out so much between all of the duels.  There are only monsters in the last thirty minutes or so, so don't hold your breath!  The plot is alright and does manage to actually follow up on the 'revenge for deeds not-really-done' plot set up in the first film, something that my friends doubted would happen.  The clearly-lower budget really ruins this thing though.  Even in the slow parts of the first film, they had spider-demons and evil skeletons. Here- just a bunch of ninja and samurai.  Yet again, they refuse to give you the full extent of the premise, which is a real crime.  I can see it for the first film, but you are going against the principle of 'sequel-itis' by giving me less this time!  On the plus side, this film can stand alone, which is a bonus in some way.  You had the chance to embrace your premise and do something great, but merely gave me another decent film that fails to really impress all that much.  Oh and seriously, who thought that ending fight looked good?

Up next, we begin Law Enforcement Week with a movie starring and directed by Bruce Le.  He is a master agent who is only hampered by the inclusion of Richard Harrison.  Stay tuned...