General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Last of the Wolves (孤狼の血 LEVEL2)

Last of the Wolves (孤狼の血 LEVEL2, Korou no Chi LEVEL2) is a 2021 Japanese crime thriller directed by Kazuya Shiraishi (白石和彌) and the second installment in the film series adapted from Yuko Yuzuki's (柚月裕子) Korou no Chi novels. It follows the detective Hioka Shuichi, played by Tori Matsuzaka, as he manages Hiroshima's underworld three years after the first film, The Blood of the Wolves (2018), and confronts the newly released gangster Uebayashi Shigehiro, played by Ryohei Suzuki¹. The film was produced by the "Korou no Chi LEVEL2" Production Committee, distributed by Toei, and released in Japanese theaters on August 20, 2021, with a running time of 139 minutes and an R15+ rating².

Key fact	Detail
Release	August 20, 2021 (Japan); 139 minutes; R15+; distributed by Toei²
Director and writer	Directed by Kazuya Shiraishi; screenplay by Junya Ikegami; based on Yuko Yuzuki's novel series¹
Story status	Set three years after the first film and developed as an original story not depicted in the novels³
Lead cast	Tori Matsuzaka (Hioka Shuichi), Ryohei Suzuki (Uebayashi Shigehiro), Nijiro Murakami (Chikada Kota), Nanase Nishino (Chikada Mao)¹
Japan Academy Prize	45th ceremony (2022): Ryohei Suzuki won Best Supporting Actor and Nanase Nishino won the Newcomer Award; the film received the Excellence Award for Picture and numerous excellence prizes⁴
Festivals	2021 Udine Far East Film Festival, 2021 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, 2021 Sitges-Catalonia International Film Festival⁵
Setting	The fictional city of Kurehara in Hiroshima, three years after the events of the first film²

Spoilers

Story and setting

The film is set in Kurehara, a fictional city in Hiroshima Prefecture that also served the first film's depiction of the contest between police and yakuza². Three years before the story begins, the legendary violent-crimes detective Ogami was killed after being caught up in a gang feud. Hioka Shuichi, the young detective who appeared as a rookie in the first film, has taken over Ogami's role and governs Hiroshima's underworld using his authority over the criminal organizations⁶.

The destabilizing return. The fragile order collapses when Uebayashi Shigehiro, the boss of the Uebayashi gang, is released from prison. The official synopsis describes him as an overwhelming "devil" whose existence drives Hioka into a desperate predicament, as gang warfare, police corruption, media leaks, and threats from within all converge on him³. In the sequel Hioka also keeps the two largest yakuza clans in check, until a gangster just released from prison begins planning a murderous vendetta⁷.

The source material is Yuzuki's Korou no Chi series, a trilogy of novels, but this installment's plot was written for the film rather than adapted from any volume³. Shiraishi described his ambition for the character in an interview context quoted by the production, asking that Uebayashi be made "a villain that will remain in Japanese film history"³.

Production

Shiraishi returned as director from the first film². Junya Ikegami, who wrote The Blood of the Wolves and won the Excellence Award for Screenplay at the 42nd Japan Academy Prize for it, wrote the sequel's screenplay as well³. The creative team again included cinematographer Kohei Kato, editor Hitomi Kato, composer Goro Yasukawa, lighting designer Minoru Kawai, and production designer Tsukasa Imamura, all of whom had received Japan Academy Prize recognition for the first film⁴^•³.

According to a Matsuzaka interview published by Cinema Today, Toei informed him of the sequel's production on the opening day of the first film, May 12, 2018⁸. The production committee combined Toei with the Kinoshita Group, TV Tokyo, KADOKAWA, Toei Video, Dentsu, Asahi Shimbun, and other partners, with KADOKAWA credited for planning cooperation⁹.

Cast

Matsuzaka Tori plays the detective Hioka Shuichi, and Ryohei Suzuki plays the gang boss Uebayashi Shigehiro¹. Nijiro Murakami plays Chikada Kota and Nanase Nishino plays his sister Chikada Mao¹. The supporting cast includes Goro Yoshida, Takuma Otoo, Umenosuke Nakamura, Kenichi Takito, Shido Nakamura, and Tsuyoshi Saito, among others². Reviewers at Cinema Today highlighted the central confrontation between Matsuzaka's wilder version of Hioka and Suzuki's psychopathic Uebayashi, while noting the absence of Koji Yakusho's character from the first film as a loss for the film's rawness¹⁰.

Reception and awards

At the 45th Japan Academy Prize, held in 2022, the film was among the five nominees for the Excellence Award for Picture, alongside Drive My Car, which took the top prize¹¹. Its haul of recognitions covered the major creative departments: Excellence Awards for Direction (Shiraishi), Screenplay (Ikegami), Lead Actor (Matsuzaka), Supporting Actor (Murakami), Supporting Actress (Nishino), Cinematography (Kato), Lighting (Kawai), Music (Yasukawa), Art Direction (Imamura), Sound Recording (Kazuji Urata), and Editing (Kato)⁴. Suzuki took the Outstanding Supporting Actor category outright, and Nishino received the Newcomer of the Year Award⁴.

Internationally the film screened at three genre and Asian-cinema festivals in 2021: the Udine Far East Film Festival, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and the Sitges-Catalonia International Film Festival⁵. On the review aggregator eiga.com, reader reviews average 3.7 out of 5 across 566 reviews⁴, and Kinenote users give it 77.4 points from 867 voters⁹.

Home viewing

The film streams on subscription services in Japan, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and U-NEXT, with rental options on Amazon Video, the Apple TV Store, and FOD⁶. It has also aired on Japanese television, including the Nihon Eiga Senmon Channel¹².

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026