The Street Fighter

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.

The Streetfighter remains one of the defining films of the Japanese martial arts, "grindhouse", "chop-socky" era from the 1970s. It's one of the titles that made Sonny Chiba famous and features really impressive high-level karate.

But the film isn't light-hearted, nor is it made humorous by its dub (as is the case with the contemporary Shaw Bros. films of the time). It is violent, gritty, misogynistic, and a bit racist. It explores gritty underworld elements: drug trafficking, sex slavery, contract killing, etc.

The plot revolves around Terry, an underground mercenary in modern Japan, who is forced into a life of crime (presumably) for being half-Chinese in a racist, conservative society. He is offered a job to rescue a wealthy oil baron's daughter-heiress after she is kidnapped by Yakuza. The way the events transpire and the plot develops is actually pretty solid for a "B" movie, and here Street Fighter stands far above its sequels or genre contemporaries.

Terry as a character is complex and depressing. He is angry and violent and completely unsympathetic to others, but he is the one we are supposed to connect with. Many people who cross his path are perhaps more upstanding people but are killed either because they are in the way of his contract jobs or because they are not as equally driven by hatred.

Sure, maybe it's a character study or a commentary on Japanese society in post-World War II. But that's only in hind-sight and even if so, it's just icing. The premise of the movie is to create a situation for Sonny Chiba to kill a bunch of violent criminals while on commission. But this is okay, because the acting is good, the martial arts are real good, the music is catchy funk-inspired rock and enka from the '70s, and the plot maintains your attention throughout.

Synopsis: Terry Tsurugi (the great Sonny Chiba) is a martial arts master who uses his abundant talents as a mercenary gun-for-hire. Terry is brought in by the Yakuza to kidnap the daughter and sole heir of a recently deceased uber-rich oil tycoon. But when the mafia can't meet the monetary composition that Terry asks for they attempt to keep their plot secret by offing Terry. What a momentous mistake on their part.

Thoughts: Sonny Chiba's "The Street Fighter" is considered a classic in the martial arts genre. I certainly won't disagree with that since the film is a solid action flick with serious energy. The English dubbing is awful (as always) but does lend itself to the entertainment. The action scenes are shot and staged masterfully and Chiba kicks the baddies from one side of the screen to the next. There are a few tired clichés (the smart-alec sidekick who becomes more of a hindrance than anything) but the overall end result is very entertaining.

In a typical action flick, the hero's loved one is murdered, causing the hero to exact his revenge on those responsible. Same boring stuff. Now what if the roles were reversed; what if the hero is the one killing loved ones and the villain is looking for revenge? That's just the start of how The Street Fighter differs from every other martial arts film. The hero is the most evil son of a b*tch in the whole movie, it's great. He breaks every rule in the hero handbook and you still root for him. Sonny Chiba is the title character and he doesn't take sh*t from anyone. Chiba fights everyone, an entire dojo of martial arts students, trained bodyguards, and hired assassins, he even takes on the Yakuza. The characters are superb, mainly the villains. Junjo, the Boss, and even the big, bald wrestler are all great. I absolutely love the blind swordsman. The violence is eye popping, literally. From teeth spittin' to throat rippin', even x-ray bone breaking (which Romeo Must Die would later steal) and a scene that will make every male cringe. And lets not forget the martial arts. Some of the best fighting ever. Chiba is an extraordinary artist. Chiba would play the Street Fighter three more times but this is him at his best. The sequels aren't as good, but still recommended viewing.

It's not the best martial arts film ever made, (that title, in my opinion, belongs to Enter The Dragon) but it definitely holds its own, especially when you compare it to the millions of crappy, overdubbed Kung Fu movies out there. What I liked best about the film was Tsurugi's in-it-for-the-money attitude. Aside from maybe Ratnose (did anyone else detect the slightest hint of sexual tension between Rat & Terry, or am I crazy?), Tsurugi cares about no one. He is, after all, "a number one man!" I know this bad anti-hero thing has been done to death, but Sonny Chiba is the best at what he does: whuppin' ass & lookin' cool.

The thing I didn't care too much for was Tsurugi's seeming ability to teleport wherever he needed to go. (Hong Kong! Tokyo! Jupiter!) Other than that minor inconsistency (remember, inconsistency is what makes a movie good, sometimes) I enjoyed this movie.