Comparison between the edited BBFC15 version and the uncut original version (both included in the Arrow Video Blu-ray set, depending on the player’s region code setting)

- 7 cuts
- Total duration of cuts: 60.4 sec (= 1:00 min)

Before Tomisaburo Wakayama achieved immortality in the West in 1972 through the Lone Wolf & Cub series, he had already appeared in countless films for Toei, particularly in the 1960s. While he may not have been as well-known in Japan at that time as his older brother Shintarô Zatoichi Katsu, he had undoubtedly risen to stardom as well. From 1968 to 1971, he starred in the Wicked Priest series, leading yet another small franchise centered on a priest primarily involved in gambling and prostitution - and constantly getting caught up in bloody conflicts. The films serve as a nice bridge from the studio’s still relatively traditional yakuza/Ninkyō productions to its 1970s output, which was characterized by exploitation, heavy sexual content, and increasingly graphic scenes of violence.

In Wicked Priest 2: Ballad of Murder, Ryutatsu, who serves as the archrival throughout the series, reappears as the mastermind behind a gang seeking to control the lucrative cockfighting business in the city. Anyone familiar with the British BBFC’s rating guidelines knows that these acts of animal cruelty, which were frequently included as “spectacle” in countless films, especially around the 1970s, must still be rigorously censored there even today. This was indeed the case with the Blu-ray box set released by Arrow Video on September 14, 2026, which also marks the home video debut of the series, previously available outside Japan only through bootlegs.

Just as Arrow Video had done, for example, with The Grand Duel, the solution here was once again to produce a single disc for both the American and British markets, but to play either the censored or uncensored version depending on the region code setting. Probably also because cockfights are a key element of the plot (dialogue addressing this remained untouched anyway), the decision was made to simply replace the relevant scenes featuring fighting animals with shots of black screen at equal duration. Sound can still be heard untouched. Eureka handled three movies in the Karl May at CCC box set, also released in 2026, in the same way. A text overlay clearly points out this measure before the film begins. All other films in the box set passed the BBFC’s rating board uncensored.