KIBAKICHI – WEREWOLF WARRIOR (2003)

Japan. Direction: Tomoo Haraguchi. Production: Masashi Kitagawa, Tsugio Oikawa. Screenplay: Mugi Kamio. Photography: Shoji Ehara. Music: Kenji Kawai. Edition: Kenji Sekiya. Cast: Ryuji Harada, Nozomi Ando, Mubu Nakayama, Kentario Shimizu, Miki Tanaka. Running time: 96 min

LANGUAGE: Japanese / SUBTITLES: Basque

A magnificent swordman, dressed in strange apparel, with a hat not unlike the hollow, dry wrapping of an enormous mushroom, fights in the wheat fields against a handful of enemies, spearing them, cutting them open, cutting pieces off them, dislocating them. Hell rest later. At an inn populated by beings stranger than him... Not a single digital effect in this movie directed by a great make-up man who has worked even with Kitano. Old tricks in the style of the glorious Japanese movies of the 50s, with their imps, goblins and beings from mysterious lands. Full moon on the wolf's skin, spider women to kiss, well kiss, in fact that's exactly what they don't do, and a melancholic air surrounding dead and living alike.