The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

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Guro Taku
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The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

Post by Guro Taku »

Looks like Toei went ahead with a sequel to Kazuya Shiraishi's 2018 film The Blood of Wolves (孤狼の血), since filming for it took place from last September to last November and the release in Japan is dated for April 2021. The sequel, which will notably not be based on any original material by writer Yuko Yuzuki (whose novel was the basis of the original) is set 3 years after the events of the original and will tell the further developments in Hioka's (Tori Matsuzaka) life and career. Koji Yakusho, meanwhile, won't return, for - if you've seen the original - obvious reasons! The most prominent feature of the original (I reviewed it here) were the uniformly excellent performances by the cast, followed by a few bursts of gnarly ultraviolence. I'm looking forward to a trailer, which should be coming any week now.

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Guro Taku
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Re: The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

Post by Guro Taku »

The official title for the film has been changed to "The Blood of Wolves - LEVEL 2" (孤狼の血 LEVEL2), apparently reflecting director Kazuya Shiraishi's desire to take things to the next level for the sequel. The release date has been set for August 20th, so I either misread something when I made my initial post or they moved it back.

The cast includes Tori Matsuzaka as the lead, Ryohei Suzuki as the main villain, Nijiro Murakami, Nanase Nishino, Taichi Saotome, Takumi Saito, Baijaku Nakamura and Kotaro Yoshida.

I'm also sure you will be relieved to hear that the crew underwent anti-harrassment training prior to filming. According to Toei, this was the first time something like this was done in Japan except for netflix originals, where it's been standard procedure for a while. This included raising awareness for sexual harrassment, "power harrassment" (basically abusing your subordinates) and "alcohol harrassment" (forcing people to drink, forcing people to drink in one gulp, inappropriate behavior while intoxicated).

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HungFist
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Re: The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

Post by HungFist »

Cool info, thanks.
Guro Taku wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 11:01 "alcohol harrassment" (forcing people to drink, forcing people to drink in one gulp, inappropriate behavior while intoxicated).
My university got famous about 8 years ago when the American Football club welcomed their new members. Five or six to the hospital, one to the grave. And they were all underage (the drinking age is 20 in Japan).

They stopped selling beer in the university convenience store after that, and professors had to move all their teacher-student drinking parties to the neighbouring town. And empty the seminar rooms of all the booze :lol:
Guro Taku wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 11:01 sexual harrassment
A few years later we were in the news again when one professor was fired for this...
Guro Taku
King of Beggars
Posts: 658
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 16:37

Re: The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

Post by Guro Taku »

HungFist wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 12:14
Guro Taku wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 11:01 sexual harrassment
A few years later we were in the news again when one professor was fired for this...
Judging by this old blog post from my beloved Naoyuki Tomomatsu, maybe it is a problem in the film industry!

https://ameblo.jp/n-tomomatu/entry-11268438285.html

I wasn't even aware of this particular rant, though I know Tomomatsu's, well, "creative" views on this topic. That he wrote all that in 2012 is pretty impressive! Dude was way ahead of his time with all this incel talk! :lol:

By the way, I only found out about it because some woman dug it up and angrily tweeted about it. Tomomatsu simply retweeted it without comment. :lol:
Guro Taku
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Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 16:37

Re: The Blood of Wolves 2 (孤狼の血Ⅱ) (Kazuya Shiraishi, 2021)

Post by Guro Taku »

Official English title is LAST OF THE WOLVES:

https://fantasticfest.com/films/last-of-the-wolves
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