For millenia, humans and the monsters of Japanese mythology known as yokai have lived in peace. The humans know to fear and respect the monsters, and in turn, the monsters only eat as many of the humans as is absolutely necessary. Then, in 1707, the Edo government assembled teams of hunters to exterminate the yokai. The monsters that managed to survive the hunt fled to the hills and assumed human forms to stay hidden.

The movie proper opens with Kibakichi being attacked by bandits on a lonely road. Because what good samurai movie doesn’t begin with our brave ronin being attacked by bandits, just so we can see how much of a badass he is? Moving on, Kibakichi heads toward a nearby town. Warned by an old blind woman that no one leaves the town alive, he moves on and encounters several kappa, who guard the town from humans. After a short battle (scored entirely with creature sound effects of Kumonga and Kimakiras from Son of Godzilla), the water demons allow him to enter.

Kibakichi finds a town supported by a large casino, run by Boss Onizo. After an incredibly lucky bout of gambling, Onizo asks Kibakichi to stick around as a peacekeeper and bodyguard. Turns out Onizo and all the inhabitants of the town are yokai in human form. Onizo is in the process of negotiating a deal with a human named Yamaji, who plans to overthrow the shogun and make the world safe for yokai again. He is especially interested in this plan for the safety of Kekio, his adopted daughter, a strange, withdrawn girl.

Meanwhile, several wealthy humans are led from the casino to various rooms where they are eaten by various crazy looking monsters. The Japanese easily hold the contemporary award for weirdest people on the planet, but considering the age of many of the myths these monsters spring from, I’d say they had that market cornered a few thousand years ago as well.

Kibakichi dislikes the village’s practice of luring humans in for food, but he also distrusts the humans. He doesn’t believe Yamaji’s plans are sincere, but Onizo won’t hear of it. When Kibakichi heads outside to clear his head, he is attacked by a woman from his old village that was destroyed by humans. After a brief fight, she disappears (this scene was just laying groundwork for Kibakichi 2, in which K and the mysterious woman fight the whole movie).

Elsewhere, we now see the extent of Yamaji’s bastardliness. He came into possession of a gatling gun from England, and plans to use it to overthrow Edo. Now that he no longer needs the power of the yokai, he plans to use Onizo’s village as target practice. Yamaji is clearly a very progressive warrior, even if he is a complete douchebag. Even with all the technological advances being made in warefare over in Europe, most samurai laughed them off as clunky, useless toys, preferring to stick to swords, arrows, and spears.

Rolling into town the next day, Yamaji and his men mercilessly slaughter the yokai, finally trapping Onizo and Kekio in their house. Yamaji wants Onizo to kill Kekio as proof of his loyalty, and the rest of the town will be spared. Onizo sacrifices his own life instead, and just as Yamaji is about to kill Kekio himself, Kibakichi, fresh from having sliced and diced Yamaji’s men into so much sashimi, arrives to save the day.

Now remember when I said this movie was about a samurai werewolf? Aside from flashing a bit of fang here and there, Kibakichi never really wolfed out. Not that he really had any reason to, because there were hardly any fights the whole movie. But he wolfs out on Yamaji now, and the battle is spectacular. One of Onizo’s men turns traitor and attacks Kibakichi in monster form, resulting in another battle scored by Godzilla sound effects (these taken from Titanosaurus, Megalon, and King Seesar). After killing the itinerant yokai, Kibakichi shreds through Yamaji’s men until just the two are left. After wild grenade battle, Kibakichi rips Yamaji’s head off, and the grenade he was holding blows the corpse to pieces.

Leave it to the Japanese to take a concept as wild as a samurai werewolf, and make the movie a poignant character piece about loss, loyalty, and the universal desire to be allowed to exist in peace. Kibakichi is a haunted character, unsure of who to trust after humans destroyed his village. Onizo is a gruff but fatherly figure, watching over all the village, and his beloved Kekio in particular. Kekio herself is a strange girl. We never know much more about her than that humans abandoned her when she was small, and that Onizo took her in. She’s fiercely loyal to Onizo, even allowing him to kill her to save the rest of the village. And Onizo’s loyalty to her is equally fierce, facing down a platoon of gunmen with a single sword to protect her. Once the final battle begins, even the lesser yokai become more than creepy monsters, weeping over the bodies of loved ones, living siblings remaining with the corpses of their fallen brothers and sisters until Yamaji’s men cut them down. Oddly enough, the only characters that are basically broad caricatures are the humans, Yamaji and his men; black-clad po-faced warriors who do nothing but scheme and kill.

Of course, they make up for all that pesky character drama in part 2, which is pretty much wall to wall goofy action.

That said, I really dug Kibakichi. The acting, as much as you can decipher talent in people who aren’t speaking your language, is well-done and not as over the top as you’d expect from such a strange tale. The makeup effects, both for the various yokai and for when Kibakichi finally does wolf out, are damn good, even if Kibakichi looks more like bigfoot than a werewolf. It’s okay for the action to take a backseat in this kind of movie if the story is interesting and the characters are believable (as much as yokai can be) and likeable (which yokai certainly can be). And it’s all the sweeter when the action finally comes and kicks all kinds of ass. Seriously, monsters, werewolves, swords, gatling guns, and grenades, all in the same battle? That can’t not rock your damn face off.