Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Yakuza Wolf 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 14, 2024

Buichi Saito's "Yakuza Wolf 2" (1972) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental feature on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema and vintage trailer. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

It has been three long years and you can barely wait to see Beverly Hills Cop II. You loved the first film and have very high expectations for the sequel. Martin Brest has been replaced by Tony Scott, but you could not care less because Eddie Murphy is back. It was all you needed to hear before you handed your dollars to the cashier at your local theater. You have your ticket, your favorite popcorn, and an extra-large Coke. You are ready to have a good time again.

But less than ten minutes after the opening credits of Beverly Hills Cop II disappear, you become confused, then seriously annoyed, and finally very, very angry. You bought a ticket expecting to be reunited with Alex Foley, the funny Detroit-based cop, so who the heck is Don Buck? Why is this character chewing tobacco and spitting all over the place? And what’s with the long cowboy boots he has put on? It is Murphy playing Buck, you are not hallucinating, so what is going on? While being shot at and having his butt kicked, this Buck guy appears to be in the wrong decade, too. Beverly Hills Cop was set in the 1980s, while this, well, ‘sequel’ appears to be set in the 1940s. Or could it be the 1930s? You look around the theater, and while it is quite dark, you can see that everyone else is as perplexed and angry as you are. What the heck is going on?

If in 1972 you were in Tokyo, saw Ryuichi Takamori’s Yakuza Wolf and loved it, and several months later rushed to buy a ticket to see Buichi Saito’s Yakuza Wolf 2, you almost certainly had an experience like the fictional one I described above. Why? Because Yakuza Wolf 2 is that kind of ‘sequel’. It brings back Sonny Chiba and then replaces absolutely everything that made the first film special, including Chiba’s character, who is no longer called Gosuke Himuro but Ibuke, and has a completely different personality. How bizarre. And it is even more bizarre that Chiba, already a superstar in Japan, apparently did not mind the change(s) at all.

Yakuza Wolf 2 begins with a rushed arms deal that falls apart and forces Ibuke and his partner to run for their lives. When the latter is hit by several bullets, Ibuke refuses to abandon him and is arrested by the police. While incarcerated, Ibuke then befriends Goro Yuki (Tatsuya Fuji), a charismatic criminal with big ambitions, and the two agree to begin working together once they figure out how to reclaim their freedom. After a massive brawl that they initiate and terminate, Ibuke and Yuki are commended by the warden and, much to their surprise, pardoned. Soon after, the two are picked up by Arakita (Ryohei Uchida), the brother of Ibuke’s late partner, who has put together a complicated plan to avenge his premature death by taking down an entire yakuza clan. Not yet realizing who Arakita is and that he has gone on the warpath, Ibuke, assisted by Yuki, begins tracking down the people who collapsed the arms deal and eventually organizes a small crew to destroy their masters.

It is impossible not to describe Yakuza Wolf 2 as a film of enormous, indefensible contradictions. It takes advantage of the box office strength of the original Yakuza Wolf film and shamelessly abuses Chiba’s star power in ways that are borderline grotesque, which is undoubtedly why many of its cast members frequently transform their characters into comedians shining in very awkward ways. Admittedly, some of the contrasts that emerge because of these switches can be somewhat entertaining, but the end product is a lot like J. Lee Thompson’s King Solomon's Mines -- very silly, very kitschy, and seriously undercooked.

The action, usually the greatest strength of Chiba’s best films, is a mixed bag, too. Instead of looking edgy and sleek, here the action is almost always rushed and cheaply done. Only during the final episode, where Chiba and his crew attack several big crime bosses in a posh mansion, some of the fireworks are good enough to compare to the ones from the original Yakuza Wolf film.

Saito’s director of photography was Yoshikazu Yamazawa, who lensed Junya Sato's The Bullet Train, which is said to have inspired Jan De Bont’s blockbuster Speed.

Yakuza Wolf 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Yakuza Wolf 2 arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release introduces a recent remaster of Yakuza Wolf 2 that was prepared on behalf of Toei in Japan. In case you are wondering, it is the same master that the folks at Shout Factory worked with to produce the American release of Yakuza Wolf 2, which is included in The Sonny Chiba Collection.

The overall quality of the presentation is almost identical to that of Yakuza Wolf. Yes, these films have different visual styles, but I refer to the manner in which native characteristics of their visuals are reproduced in 1080p. For example, despite some minor density fluctuations, grain exposure is identical, so delineation, clarity, and depth are very, very similar. Color balance is convincing. However, I do believe that in select areas some minor adjustments can be made to strengthen some of the darker supporting nuances. I did not encounter distracting black crush. Image stability is very good. I noticed a few white specks, but there are no large cuts, debris, stains, warped or torn frames to report.

Yakuza Wolf 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Japanese LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

While the soundtrack is not as impressive as the one from Yakuza Wolf, occasionally it produces some quite good contrasts. However, the most notable dynamic variety comes from the action footage, which can be pretty intense. The dialog is always very clear, clean, and stable. I did not encounter any age-related anomalies to report in our review.

Yakuza Wolf 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered trailer for Yakuza Wolf 2. In Japanese, with English subtitles. (3 min).

• Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. The two commentators rightfully highlight a lot of the strange that defines Yakuza Wolf 2, though they appear to have enjoyed the film a lot more than I did. Or, I could be wrong, and they are just too passionate during many of their critical observations. They spot the same flaws I did, like that jump on what must have been a giant mattress behind the truck in the beginning of the film, which is terribly shot and edited. Their comments about the out of sync comedy outbursts are entirely justified as well because all of them are impossible to miss and hurt the film a lot.

• Booklet - a Limited edition collector's booklet featuring new writing by Tom Mes and Howard Hughes, as well as technical credits.

Yakuza Wolf 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Promoting Buichi Saito's film as a sequel to Ryuichi Takamori's classic film is some genuine Japanese magic. These two films have absolutely nothing in common -- they do not share a single character or have any elements of their stories overlapping. Sonny Chiba is in both? True, so what? Imagine if some brilliant mind in Hollywood had promoted Vanilla Sky as a sequel to Eyes Wide Shut because Tom Cruise plays emotionally troubled characters in both. The other, even bigger problem with Saito's film is that it is pretty badly scripted and shot, which is why it often looks very awkward. In some areas, its cast begins acting in an action parody, which I assure you the film was not conceived to be. To be honest, I do not dislike it because some of the bad in it is rather entertaining, but it is one of the most random sequels I have ever encountered. It is included in Eureka Entertainment's upcoming Yakuza Wolf 1 & 2 two-disc set, which is Region-B "locked".