La bestia y la espada mágica (1983)

La bestia y la espada mágica: Directed by Paul Naschy. With Paul Naschy, Shigeru Amachi, Beatriz Escudero, Junko Asahina. In the 16th Century, the lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky travels from his native Europe to Japan, seeking a way to cure himself of being a werewolf. Only a Japanese sorcerer named Kian and a magic silver sword can save him.

“A late werewolf film written, directed and starring the irrepressible Paul Naschy. Apparently he had to go to Japan to finance this rather lavish production and that must be why much of the cast is Japanese and much of the filming done on location in that country. Co-stars the eminent Japanese actor Shigeru Amachi who among many films starred in the much earlier Black Line (Kurosen Chitai). Indeed this is one of his last films, dying a couple of years later. So neither he nor Naschy were very young when they did these pretty impressive action sequences. This is a bit slow starting but improves as we move to Kyoto and in the end this turns out to be a very colourful and energetic movie with some great moments and some nudity. A lot of sword fights but a really impressive one with chief villainess who wears a rather fetching red diaphanous costume. There is also a most impressive fight with a tiger. I donu0026#39;t whether this was a stunt man but its certainly a real animal someone in Naschyu0026#39;s costume is fighting (or pretending to). All in all not the directoru0026#39;s finest hour but certainly something a bit different.”