Sonny Chiba post Yakuza Cop but pre The Streetfighter, so not much in the way of quality martial arts action here. The English language title is a bit misleading, as Sonny plays a man hell-bent on personal revenge, not killing for hire. Although he is the son of a Yakuza and does murder people, "perform" doesn't seem like the quite the right word to describe what he is doing and "lone wolf" would convey a more accurate impression of his characters behaviour.

The movie gets straight down to business, a Yakuza and a prostitute are in bed getting it on when, just as they are approaching climax, Sonny stabs the guy through the back with a dagger long enough to kill the woman at the same time. Nek minute he's chasing another Yakuza around the docks in his American muscle car. He first knocks the guy down and then comes back and runs over his arm. Followed by several more. Vintage Sonny then.

It becomes evident that he is following the classic Yojimbo strategy of trying to set one gang against another in order to reduce the odds, but why?

We learn that at some time in the past some various Yakuza factions conspired together to wipe out Sonny's father's gang, killing the father and taking Sonny's sister away to be raped and turned into a doped up sex slave. Bad mistake...

Sonny's back after 5 years in Okinawa, but the problem is he doesn't know where his sister is being kept, so he has to try and find the right person to provide him with that information. Therefore some people get to live a little longer than others.

The Cops get onto him, but they decide it is preferable to let him run free to thin the ranks of the Yakuza as much as possible, and then claim the credit for themselves afterwards.

All the usual Japanese misogyny is on display. While Sonny is following some low level Yakuza, they grab a girl they have been socialising with at a bar, drag her to their car to be gang raped, and then send her away to become a doped up sex slave. Sonny observes this but takes no action. He follows them to a bar and seems about to pick a fight with them, and hopefully provide some belated retribution, but instead a higher level Yakuza enforcer intervenes and they get to leave unscathed, while Sonny and the enforcer size each other up and decide to follow a path of mutual respect. So that was disappointing.

Later Sonny gets himself a prostitute for the evening and treats her with distain, but, of course, she falls in love with him anyway.

When Sonny does eventually find his sister, he makes no attempt to take her to a safe place and help her recover from her drug stupor or go cold turkey, no cold shower, not even a cup of coffee. Only a short time after driving her away from the "secret club" where she was being held, he loses patience and decides she's a lost cause. He drops her off in the middle of the city, where she wanders around in a daze for a while until being clipped by a passing car. The last we see of her she is in an ambulance, perhaps finally recovering some of her faculties, but it is was not clear to me whether she was going to live or die, or if in some weird way Sonny was hoping she would be picked up and taken to hospital, where they could treat her addiction better than he could. Typical Japanese moral ambiguity and ambivalence? (or just a lack of cultural understanding on my part?)

There are frequent mass battle scenes between the various Yakuza factions, involving crash zooms, fast pans and shaky cam (long before it became fashionable in Hollywood), however the fight choreography is of low quality, so nothing to write home about. The Yakuza eventually realise that Sonny is real the source of all the trouble, but he continues to rack up the body count as a one man army, and the factions continue to try and eliminate each other anyway.

Sonny eventually goes one on one against the enforcer, which is a quite good fight sequence, except that Sonny loses and has one of his hands crushed so that it is virtually useless. I didn't see that coming!

Now he seeks help from the lone surviving Yakuza of one of the factions, but that guy is having none of it and crushes Sonny's other hand. So now Sonny has become Django and comes up with a similar solution to his problem.

In the end the Yakuza are all dead and Sonny surrenders to the Cops

Better than average, but not quite up among the very best on Chiba's resume.

I recently watched the Chiba classic Yakuza Wolf (1972) on Prime. The story revolves around a man seeking revenge for his father's murder and sister's kidnapping by orchestrating a gang war to exploit the vulnerability of those responsible to save his sister.

This picture is directed by Ryûichi Takamori (Bodyguard 1 & 2) and stars Sonny Chiba (Street Fighter), Kôji Nanbara (Branded to Kill), Makoto Sato (The Hidden Fortress) and Yayoi Watanabe (Kamen Rider).

Yakuza Wolf delivers an exhilarating action experience on every front. Sonny Chiba portrays a compelling and relentless hero, making it easy to root for him. The film includes a plethora of sex scenes and nudity, particularly in the opening scene. The soundtrack is excellent, complemented by skillful weapon use and a memorable opioid house scene. The action sequences are both tremendous and random.

In conclusion, Yakuza Wolf stands out as another exceptional Chiba action film, boasting extreme violence, ample nudity, and a whole lot of fun. I would give it a 7-7.5/10 and strongly recommend it.