Cast Member: Tsunehiko Watase

What prevents Battles Without Honour and Humanity from being a true masterpiece is its confused, muddled plot.

Not as riotously entertaining as the first instalment, ‘Bodyguard Kiba 2’ is still a fun watch, mainly to see Chiba strutting his cool stuff and for the impressive fight scenes that open and close the film.

You will probably have to be in a certain mood to watch a film as pessimistic as this, but the reward is an excellent piece of entertainment with plenty of food for thought.

Cool, swift, and breezy, ‘Yakuza Wolf 2’ may be different in tone and style to the first film, and nowhere near as satisfying, but is still some fun gangster action with Chiba at the top of his game.