Return of the Street Fighter

Sonny Chiba is back with those funny faces. I am still never sure if he is a good guy or a bad guy. He seems to switch sides at will. One thing is certain; he does not have the honor of Bruce Lee - he's in it for the money.

I really don't see the point in the karate lessons or the weapons naming (sai, nunchuka, kon, etc) , or all that brick breaking.

This time, he has a new sidekick - a girl with some fantastic outfits.

The fighting in the film appears to be pretty realistic. Chiba seems to bleed as much as his opponents. He has a really cool step there that has some cool sounds when he is on your ribs.

The crushing-blood-on-the-face blow is a real gore-fest. The eye popping scene is going to make you laugh. No rapists in this film; so we don't see any more castration, but we do have a Bond girl of sorts who has evil on her mind.

If you like the action, then there is plenty for all.

Sonny Chiba returns as Tsurugi, slightly more well-mannered here as befits a film that is neither as gory or as good as the original. The plot is straightforward - Tsurugi upsets the mafia, they send hordes of goons to kill him, he kicks their asses. The film has plenty of fight scenes that are still intense and brutal, but tones down the level of animal rawness... it does offer us a bit of nudity in exchange, but frankly it's no substitute for a guy getting his genitalia ripped off in a fight.

Still, it is pretty entertaining and the fight scenes are still impressive.

Return of the Street Fighter (1974) is a movie in my DVD collection that I recently rewatched on Tubi. The storyline follows the American mafia and a corrupt dojo master working together in Japan. Master Tsurugi will work to bring down both, the American mafia and the dojo master...

This movie is directed by Shigehiro Ozawa (Gambler) and stars Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill), Claude Gagnon (Rashamen), Yôko Ichiji (Three Pretty Devils), Masashi Ishibashi (I Want To) and Katsuya Yamashita.

The storyline for this picture isn't as compelling as the first film; however, it does still have the legendary soundtrack, one-liners and throat sequences. The training scenes are entertaining and the fights are very good, but the premise felt like an excuse to make a sequel.

Overall this is an absolute must see Chiba picture that is a huge step down from the first film. I would score this a 6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

(1975) The Return Of Street Fighter DUBBED MARTIAL ARTS ACTION

The second of three Street Fighter movies from Japan starring karate actor Sonnny Chiba, as he plays Terry paid to kill some people just in case they leaked any information about the syndicate's illegal practices, which has something to do with harassing clients for the construction of buildings. As soon as they ask Terry to kill one of his respected masters, he declines and the syndicate then try to kill him next. Although, this set up has been done many times before, it is only the backdrop to showcase the gory violence Terry and foes inflict on each other. This movie also includes characters from the first movie as well as old enemies.

Well, against the ostensible general tide of opinion I must say that I wasn't a particularly huge fan of the original film that this follows. In fact, for me at least, the only saving grace it boasted was in its violent excesses – the majority of which were saved until the final third of its running time. From reading many of the other reviews on this site, it furthermore seems indicative that the exact said graphic violence is the principle reason that most other reviewers have awarded the flick such lofty marks.

Interestingly and conversely, this sequel actually tones down the blood letting somewhat and apparently as a result didn't hold quite as much appeal it would seem. Well, that's what I'm assuming at least.

From my own perspective however, whilst this sequel is indeed bereft of much of the old red stuff a flying, I would say that it actually surpasses the original in pure entertainment value by far. The martial arts sequences are far superior this time around including some rather nifty Kobudo weapons displays throughout. Also Sonny Chiba is on much better form here to – just check out the awesome sequence near the start of the film in which our protagonist allows himself to be taken to a police station in order to silence a witness. He makes his escape by kicking the bars out through the wall and leaping through the subsequent hole from a few stories up!

Another scene of amazing note involves our hero punching some poor chap so hard in the back of the head that his eyeballs literally pop out!!! (some great utilisation of ping-pong balls there!) It's also great to see the return of a supposedly deceased character from the first flick who returns here with the intention of exacting his revenge upon our hero.

To be quite honest, there's only one negative I can think of in this flick and that is the ill advised inclusion of Chiba's 'side-kick' (the first film also suffered the indignity of including one to!) who in this instance is a veritably annoying chick boasting ridiculous looking pig tails and who furthermore, has a rather unfortunate propensity for warbling along to crappy music (badly at that!)

Aside from this minor gripe though, overall, this proves to be a tremendously entertaining affair throughout and is well worth tracking down!