The Street Fighter DVD Review from Pop Flix!
The Street Fighter is one of those movies that kind of sums up the Grindhouse/Deuce/42nd Street experience for people who weren’t there. In fact, for the folks that were there and speak about it or write about it, this one (like Cannibal Ferox a.k.a. Make Them Die Slowly, etcetera) gets brought up frequently.
It’s that right balance of martial arts which was a huge genre at the time for the crowds, and it’s got a brutal amount of gore, plus an anti-hero who is quite difficult to like, which makes it so refreshing. Sonny Chiba (Shinichi Chiba) seemed to be tailor-made for the thrill seeking audience flaked out on the dirty and torn seats, ignoring the air which stank of piss, alcohol, and general odours of nasty, to spark up a spliff and sink into.
Without further ado then, ladies and gentlemen, have a regular glance around you, make sure no one is too close, unless you wish to buy something they’re selling, and get ready for, The Street Fighter.
“He’s a mean bastard,” says a prison guard of convict, Junjo, who is due to be executed. The guards lead a Buddhist monk into the cell. “He must think he’s Bruce Lee.” states another guard upon hearing the man has killed seven men with his Karate skills. He refuses a priest at first, but then recognises the eyes of a fighter so agrees to speak to him alone. They fight briefly and the monk applies a sharp effective blow that is called the “oxygen coma punch.” Basically, as he tells Junjo, in ten minutes it will basically make him fall unconscious, he needs to hold on ‘til then. He also says they must have a death match one day. Perfectly timed, moments before the execution, Junjo falls. Transpires it was a plot, unbeknown to Junjo, but it might have been far simpler to tell him beforehand. On the way to the hospital in a tacky vehicle with lapse guard duties on board, the monk and a pal busts him out.
The Buddhist is in fact, Terry Tsurgi, a mercenary who is helped now and then by his friend, Ratnose. Whilst watching TV and the report on the incident, Terry hears about a tycoon who has died leaving his fortune to his daughter. Aha, plot clues and pointers. The doorbell rings. “Oh,” says Terry, letting a worried young couple in, “What do you want? I did what I was supposed to do.” The man asks where his brother is. They are Junjo’s brother and sister. They want to see him. “That won’t be easy,” says Terry whilst eating the world’s biggest apple, “In this country you can’t hide an escaped convict.” He’s sent him to Hong Kong. “He’s well and safe, pay me the rest what you owe me.” Terry demands which kind of screws up the dubbed line when he asks, “What do you want?” I mean, if he’s owed cash, why ask? Never mind, turns out they don’t have any more money. The brother constantly tries his luck, Terry puts him to the floor, then they say they’ll get the rest. He wants the girl to work the streets for him, which is a bit of a bad guy move, even kissing her sloppily. “We had a deal. I don’t like promises that aren’t kept.” says Terry bizarrely. All three begin scrapping until the brother falls to his death from the window. You’d think the shattering loss of her bro would be enough, and Terry would let her off, but no, he heads to a crime boss, Renzo, and sells her. She’s thrown into a room with four guys, including a stereotypical black guy (the only black guy in the film) who says, “I’ll show her a good time!” Like when she fought Terry, she shows utter spirit as she battles the four men, choking the black fella, and kicking another in the head, but finally they get her down and drug her.
Instead of routing for him, I truly by this point wanted to see someone hand his ass to him and leave him bloody. We briefly meet our central girl, heir to the money, Sarai. Her uncle, who is a powerhouse karate teacher, wants to arrange her safe passage because as he tells her, “You will be surrounded by vultures.”
Renzo and a HK crime family wish to hire Terry and his skills for 6 million yen. They want him to kidnap, Sarai, who of course is well protected by her uncle’s mob of fighters. They groom Terry verbally, telling him how good he is, but he’ll only do it for 60 million yen. They reluctantly agree but will only pay when he brings Sarai. Terry has an issue with people not trusting so he decides to leave. None too pleased with telling him their plans, they try to stop him. In the struggle he uncovers a tattoo. Yakusa! He leaves but they decide he must die.
Thus, a huge mob break into his apartment whilst he’s on his home gym. He takes them all down. It’s one of those funny scraps where he hits each man one by one while the others all pose and wave their arms but don’t go near until it’s their turn to be knocked out. As Terry preps himself, a huge different between Japanese and Hong Kong martial artists becomes exposed. Whilst HK will whoop and make noises, Japanese will gurgle and sound like their choking to death on a mouth full of glue. I noticed this at the start when Junjo prepped. “So, I am to die because I know who controls the Yakusa here.” Terry realises he needs to get paid somehow, so heads to see Sarai’s uncle. Meanwhile, the baddies call Hong Kong requesting a few of their “top operators” because Terry needs to be stopped.
Terry, aside from having issues with trust, also has issues with people using karate and thrives to prove he is the better man all round. Arriving at Sarai’s uncles place, he beats down a few students then grabs her, kissing her roughly cause he’s such a dude. Her uncle, Kendo, agrees to fight Terry. Ironically, and much to my delight, Terry gets his head kicked in by Kendo until he has a flashback to his father and words of wisdom plus the reveal that he is a “half-breed”, Terry manages to draw with Kendo. Kendo, it turns out knew Terry’s father. They agree that he will protect Sarai on her journey out of Tokyo. She isn’t too pleased at first though. “Look at him, he’s an animal, he couldn’t protect any of us.” I guess Terry’s snogging skills don’t win the ladies over.
In Hong Kong, crime boss, Dinsau, hears about Terry’s antics. He agrees to send some of his best, including a knife thrower and a blind man, over to Japan. As an afterthought, he wants to see Terry die so he decides he should go there as well. As a meaty addition to the plot, Junjo, who is still hiding out in HK turns up and finds his sister as a sex slave. As good as he is, he cannot take on the mighty Dinsau, so it’s agreed as a matter of personal vengeance that he will take her to Japan and destroy Terry. Only if he succeeds will they be okay to leave the crime establishment together.
Anyhow, there’s people close to Sarai who are ready to betray her to the gangsters. There are betrayals, and Terry must go to war against the Yakusa as well as the specialist killers until the inevitable showdown with Junjo.
Much of The Street Fighter is predictable and likely was at the time of release, but story isn’t why it exists. It lives to show a level of absolute violence seldom seen in martial arts films. The violence that shows masses of blood. There are also some truly inventive killings for the era. The famous x-ray shot of a blow to the cranium, graphic indented head shots, eye ball gouging, the black guy gets castrated as he tries to rape Sarai – Terry holding the removed testicles in his hand, it’s a crimson shower. In this film, the people scream in agony, some for quite a while unless they’re dead of course.
What is remarkable and obviously very bankable in the ‘70s is the fact near enough every five minutes there’s some gritty and extremely physical action sequence. The music is so cool, totally reflective of the era and captures the feel of every scene. I like the fact that many of the characters are solid. Dinsau, one of the central villains, is actually a man of honour under everything, and Junjo is perhaps the best of all. He is a mass of rage and desperation, focussed on Terry.
Jesus, some of the dubbing though!! For instance: “Put that thing away, someone will get hurt!” begs Ratnose as a gun is held to Terry’s head. Honestly, someone must have had a giggle. Regardless of that, Sonny Chiba was on the map. Terry is a great creation. Merciless, cold, and has two metal plates around his lower arms which aids his battle with the sword wielding ‘Blind Wolf’.
Director, Shigehiro Ozawa helmed all three in the trilogy along with many others. He has an eye for catching angles and chooses sweet locations to plant some of the fighting moments. And the fights are extreme, body counts are large. It’s that whole John Woo scenario we all love. Platoons of men, in the story world they’ll probably have families, or many friends who care for them. They have parents and reasons why they joined up. Bugger all that, they exist to be stomped upon like insects!
The flick was a massive hit, spawning many sequels and offshoots. It also earned the first ‘X’ rating for violence ever given to a movie in the USA. Speaking about the sequels, etcetera, this review is off a neat set released by a label called, Pop Flix. All three The Street Fighter films, and the first Sister Street Fighter are on this one. Plus, a bonus called, The Bodyguard. For new starters this is a quality set (the final chapter of the trilogy is awesome). Saying that the series has been released by other labels and are all worth getting (especially Shout! Factory). After these, seek out the classic, Shogun’s Shadow with Sonny Chiba. Your eyes will pop.
AKA: Japanese Streetfighter, Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken, Den sorte drage, Chiba ti-mal’la, Autant en emporte mon nunchaku, Sudden Attack: The Killing Fist, Kung Fu Streetfighter, Clash! Killer Fist
Directed by: Shigehiro Ozawa | Written by: Motohiro Torii, Koji Takada | Produced by: Toshiaki Tsushima | Cinematography by: Kenji Tsukagoshi | Editing by: Kozo Horiike | Music by: Toshiaki Tsushima | Cast: Sonny Chiba, Milton Ishibashi, Doris Nakajimi, Gerald Yamada, Masafumi Suzuki, Sue Shiomi, Akira Shioji, Bin Amatsu | Year: 1974 | Country: Japan | Language: English (Dubbed) | Colour: Colour | Runtime: 1hr 31mins
Studio: Toei Company
Distributor: Pop Flix
DVD SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Region: NTSC R1
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
(Not including other films) None