Kibakichi, the half, man half-beast (or Yokai, if you may) swordsman wanders
the plains in search of peace, but he always ends getting mixed up in a duel,
this time with Surakamura, a swordwielding psychopath who just loves to fight
& kill. Surakamura proves to be a formidable foe, but Kibakichi, not inthe
mood to fight, uses a moment of carelessness to slip away.
Shortly after he comes to a village, where he is welcomed with less respect
than usual, & even the local doctor refuses to treat the wound Surakamura
has inflicted on him. Only Omatsu, a good-natured blind nurse whom Kibakichi
has saved from a pack of dogs, treats him kindly & nurses him back to
health. As a thank you, Kibakichi, who has learned that the whole village lives
in fear of Surakamura, promises Omatsu that he will free the village of the
evil swordsman.
But when they duel again, their fight is interrupted by Anju, a female Yokai
& swordsmaster from Kibakichi's old village who thinks he betrayed their
people - & now she wants to have her revenge & doesn't want Surakamura
to kill him prematurely. & while Kibakichi can make a getaway, having no
desire to fight Anju but seeing no other way to get to Surakamura, Surakamura
decides to stay with Anju, having fallen in love with her ... & she with
him too, although she hides it behind a mask of arrogance.
What neither Kibakichi nor Anju & Surakamura know though is that they
are watched by evil yokai/magician Dogan & his minions, who mwants his
Yokai-tribe to rule the world, even if that means killing everyone else, be it
Yokai or human. But since both Surakamura & Kibakichi are formidable
swordsmen who might prove an obstacle in the way to world-domination, he
decides to use them against each other by making Surakamura slaughtering most
of the village Kibakichi has sworn to protect, including blind girl
Omatsu ... that should be enough to fire up Kibakichi to fight Surakamura
to the death ... but when the 2 of them & Anju fiond out whose really
behind all that they put their differences beside & join forces to fight
Dogan & his hordes of Yokai ... & succesasfully too, since at the end
of the day, Dogan & company are no more - evwen if Surakamura comes out of
it horribly wounded. His injuries cannot stop him from attacking Kibakichi
though, even if he's in no condition to defeat him ... gut he thinks killink
Kibakichi himself is the only way to save Anju's life, who has sworn to take
her own life after having killed him.
However, merely defending himself with his bare hands against Surakamura's
sword, Kibakichi has to involuntarily kill him.
In shock about her lover's death, Anju turns into a wolf, & Kibakichi
does the same - & they fight ... or make love, with wolves it's sometimes
hard to tell ...
Anyways, they are both still alive the next day, when Kibakichi wanders off
while Anju heeds the memory of her deceased lover.
As with the first movie in the series (fittingly titled Bakko
Yokaiden Kibakichi), the horror & fantasy elements here take
backseat in favour of a rather traditional chambara story. As such, the
film is by no means bad, however one can't help but feeling it falls a few feet
short of its promises. & when the mobnsters finally do appear (fior some
reason not until the finale), they are definitely on the cheap'n'cheesy side -
which in a way looks very charming though ...
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