The Street Fighter

Remember during the height of the martial arts movie boom (roughly 1973-1976) the reputation that chopsocky films had for being replete with misery, violence, gore and degradation of the human spirit? Well, most films in the genre didn't live up to the hype at all. THE STREETFIGHTER, however, set the standard for onscreen insanity, was originally rated X for violence, and has yet to be equalled (well...maybe THE STORY OF RIKI) for sheer, nasty entertainment value.

Sonny Chiba stars as Terry Tsurugi, an utterly amoral b**tard who is absolutely the last guy you would ever want to face in combat. Bruce Lee's characters had the common decency to simply kill you and move on, whereas Tsurugi would make his punishment of an opponent extremely personal, down to the point of tearing off pieces of their bodies. His fighting style is graceless but effective, and a lot easier for any of us who strove to match the grace of Bruce to appreciate. If you want to see ass-whuppin' administered with balletic grace and artistry, do not see this film. If you want to see a guy mercilessly whip truckloads of ass, then this is the movie for you!

In a nutshell: Terry tsurugi is a badass-for-hire who will take on any job if his price is met. Plotline #1 has Terry rescuing convicted karate murderer Junjo from his date with the hangman. When Terry relocates Junjo to Hong Kong so the Japanese police won't find him, Junjo's brother and sister show up and tell Terry that they can't afford to pay him the rest of the money they owe for their brother's escape. Tragedy results that will make Junjo Terry's bitterest enemy and will eventually see them in a final showdown where only one will survive.Plotline #2 sees Terry volunteering to bodyguard the heiress to an oil fortune who is being pressured by the Yakuza. Her uncle happens to be a Karate master who is the only man alive that Tsurugi respects, and by working for him, Terry makes an attempt at redeeming himself as a human being (well, sort of...). Terry tries to stay one step ahead of the Yakuza, and his efforts culminate in a literal bloodbath where he takes on about thirty goons and puts much foot to ass.

The two plotlines overlap wildly and the ass-whuppin' set-pieces are loads of violent fun. Chiba's intense performance is unlike any other character in the history of the genre. Mean, violent and downright reprehensible, THE STREETFIGHTER is a unique milestone in the martial arts movie genre. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

Playing the most morally ambiguous hero ever, Sonny Chiba is Terry Tsuguri the rough and dirty mercenary called 'The Street Fighter'. His fighting style resembles that of an injured ape with respiratory problems, he can crack peoples skulls with a single smack, and most of all there is no way in hell he wants you to like him. Too Bad his fight scenes are a joke. Every opponent he goes up against looks like Bruce Lee compared to him. This movie is for those that like a good laugh and cheap exploitation flicks. Not for serious kung fu fanatics. I would compare this more to Dolemite than anything you might see otherwise in the genre. Check out the Return of the Street Fighter for better action scenes and less of the BS story.

Streetfighter is a show case for the karate talents of Sonny Chiba. Chiba plays Terry Tsurugi, a man who was orphaned when his Japanese father was executed in China during World War II. Terry is now back in Japan and kicking ass for a living. He's the best of the best in Japan and is hired to help get a criminal on death row out of prison. He manages to do this using an ancient technique (yeah, I know, they all use some ancient technique). Sonny then ends up killing the guy's brother due to an argument over payment and getting his sister sold into prostitution.

After this Sonny is propositioned by the Yakuza to kidnap a girl who is an oil heiress. Sonny jumps sides and starts working for her protectors after a show down with her uncle, the leader of a karate school. This flick is packed with violence galore. Sonny does some pretty cool stuff, and amazingly, the whole plot manages to come together at the end. There are also a few one liners that are pretty cool.

This is the flick that made me a Sonny Chiba fan.

God, this film is so cool. From the opening scene where Chiba tells his most recent adversary "You'll be unconscious soon through lack of oxygen- its an ancient technique", to the infamous final battle on a stormy night- this is a movie and a half. Classic 70s waow waow music, horribly wonderful dialogue and about 20 rewind moments, this deserves Tarantino's praise. A great time. Return Of The Street Fighter is less sucessful though, so only for the hardcore fans.

Sonny Chiba is one of the very few martial-arts stars that has escaped Bruce Lee's shadow and this film shows you why. Though he wears dark clothes and is shirtless, (just like Lee), during some of the fight scenes, he still comes across as an original.

He's got screen presence to spare and his deadpan approach to the exaggerated violence and fight scenes makes this funny and a totally awesome guy movie with lots of blood, gore and fighting. The one thing that I thought was strange was the throaty, phlegm-sounding war-cry that Chiba and other karate masters use throughout the film, but even that grows on you.

I was inspired to watch this film when I saw short clips in "True Romance". The fight scene looked original, so I gave it a shot. Loved it.

How can you go wrong when the star of the films utters lines like, "Maybe some day we can hold a death match." and, after punching a guy in the back, "You'll be unconscious through lack of oxygen; it's an ancient technique."

And I really dig the roly-poly karate master who goes on to teach Chiba's character a few new things about fighting. How many times do you get to see an obviously overweight character show that being overweight doesn't prevent you from kicking ass?

The character of Ratnose does get overbearing after a while, but it's a small price to pay to watch Chiba play one of the coolest anti-heroes of all time.

"Become...a number one man!" and rent this movie. Pure 70s martial-arts cheese and ass kicking.