The Street Fighter (1974) User Reviews

Become a number one man!

[[e-mail] · 8/10 · 2 November 2005]

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.

S10 Reviews: The Street Fighter (1974)

[suspiria10 · 7/10 · 28 August 2005]

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.

An awesome but very brutal n gory martial arts film.

[Fella_shibby · 8/10 · 18 August 2019]

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs. Revisited the 91 mins version recently.

Sonny Chiba's character castrates a rapist with his bare hands, he delivers a powerful punch to an opponent's head which is shown thru a very innovative x-ray shot of the skull being completely shattered and all this with just a mere ninja punch (fist closed n punch from ulna side). He even rips out an opponent's vocal cords by mere hands.

The film has eye horror scenes for fans of Fulci.

A man is pushed from a height n he falls down with his face down n his face getting smashed like a watermelon is downright brutal.

Coming to some comedic stuff : A fat teacher's punch in 3D comes rite at the viewer's face.

There is unnecessary isometric exercises (body parts tightened n clenched). There r unnecessary punches thrown in weird ways n there is immense obsession with the face twitching n facial expressions as if those of whistling.

In some scenes, Chiba made facial expressions as if he is trying to hold poop or as if he is whistling or as if he wants to remove phlegm/mucus from his throat. The film is a bit racist towards African American.

Watch out for Sonny Chiba's goggles n forearm armour.

How can u rip off somebody's balls by jus mere hands and later not washing the hands.

Guys during a fight duel takes too much time in twitching n contracting muscles n hand movements that one of the crime boss gets impatient n tells em to finish it off.

THE MOVIE THAT GAVE MARTIAL ARTS FLICKS THEIR REPUTATION FOR GORE AND SADISM!!! A MUST-SEE!

[EL BUNCHO · 13 March 2002]

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.

Good, Bad, He's Sonny Chiba!!

[mrbishop77 · 6/10 · 19 February 2001]

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.

Big, stupid, and very gory fun

[tomgillespie2002 · 7/10 · 21 August 2011]

Takuma Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) is a martial artist for hire, and at the start of the film, helps the soon-to-be-executed Taketi (Masashi Ishibashi) escape by giving him his 'oxygen coma punch' to the back of his head. He is rushed to hospital and is freed by some of Tsurugi's helpers. Later a group of gangsters try to hire him to kidnap the daughter of an oil tycoon, Sarai (Yutaka Nakajima), which he refuses due to them being Yakuza. Instead, he attacks the dojo where she is being held and is eventually beaten by the dojo master, who nevertheless hires Tsurugi to protect her. Soon he and Sarai are being hunted by the Yakuza, who have also hired Taketi to murder Tsurugi.

Recently this film and its two sequels were given a new lease of life by Tony Scott's True Romance, where the two leads are watching a Sonny Chiba marathon in the cinema (scriptwriter Tarantino being clearly a fan). But Chiba has been huge in Japan and amongst fans of the martial arts fans for decades, and it's not difficult to see why. Chiba is simply a force of nature on screen, with his monkey-like fighting movements and often terrifying facial expressions. His character here is a nasty piece of work. He isn't all inner peace and fighting for the greater good. He fights for money, and will quite happily rip your cock and balls off to stop a rape. Tsurugi's repulsiveness is refreshing, and Chiba is so fascinating to watch in the role that you can't help cheering for him, even when he's beating up a group of innocent karate apprentices.

The plot itself is as convoluted and confusing as a lot of the Japanse Yazuka/martial arts films are, and near to the end I'd forgotten who half the characters were and what their purpose was. But with action scenes this good, I couldn't have cared less. The first film in the US to receive an 'X' rating solely for its violence, The Streetfighter revels in its over-the-top blood letting, and is all the better for it. Mouthfuls of teeth are knocked out, a skull is shattered in X-ray vision, and the aforementioned castration scene has Chiba gleefully holding the prize possession in the air once it's been removed. Big, stupid, and very gory fun.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Isn't that mean and nasty!

[mister_pig · 10/10 · 12 June 2003]

Great movie! Sonny Chiba is the ultimate martial arts star. Everything about this movie is great... well, not everything. For instance... Ratnose? If you were the sidekick of a martial arts maniac like Terry, would you call yourself Ratnose? Oh well, as annoying as Ratnose is, you can live with it because The Street fighter is what it's all about. You will become tired of hearing Ratnose whine "Terry, Terry, Terrrrrryyyyy!" but at least it's good for a couple of laughs.

If you like this one, you just about have to see Return of The Street Fighter, which completes the story. However, The Street Fighters Last Revenge is the best of the series in my book.

All in all, this one will remain a classic for all time.

10 out of 10

Sonny Chiba plays Sonny Chiba in "Sonny Chi... I mean, "The Streetfighter"!

[sc8031 · 7/10 · 18 July 2008]

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.

VIVA CHIBA

[malcolm-is-mean · 10/10 · 23 January 2004]

I have to say, Sonny Chiba is really amazing. He rises above the conventional status of actors in contemporary kung fu films. His characters always are very dark and he generates a deeper persona than is usually seen in the genre. I have been a fan of his for quite some time (I even was given a tshirt with a picture of him that says: Badazz Mofo). His films are unique because they play off as film noir pieces set to a kung fu sub genre rather than merely conform (or at least some of his movies). Now, in his cameo in Tarantino's "Kill Bill," he steals the show. He never really got the recognition he deserves. He is the Fred WIllimason or Clint Eastwood of his kind.

If you've got to fight...fight dirty!

[lastliberal · 7/10 · 30 June 2007]

Sonny Chiba shows up early giving the last rights to a guy on death row – the 'last Okinawa karate master' actually. He gives him the means to escape. Maybe he's a good guy. but I doubt it. Chiba just looks mean and ugly. He certainly isn't the Jet Li type.

But, we soon find he is a thug-for-hire as the brother and sister show up and they are light in the cash they owe him. brother goes out the window and sister gets sold as a sex slave.

This guy is so bad that he can walk out on the Yakusa. He will join any side that pays him more. What a sweetheart! The film gets gorier and gorier from here. This is the first film in the US to get a X or violence, so expect to seem lots of blood.

There are a lot of interesting characters, and lots of fighting, and lots of ...well, I guess you can expect that from a street fighter.

Way too outdated as a martial arts flick for my tastes

[Ertzi · 5/10 · 7 August 2009]

Sonny Chiba is a legend in his own right I guess, but for some reason, to this day I had not seen any of his movies. It was time to remedy that situation, in the same vein uncle Argyle remedied the not-speaking-Latin conundrum of William Wallace.

If I had seen this movie in the seventies, I would have probably thought it was one of the best movies ever. Sadly, I have seen the future of martial arts films, and Tony Jaa is my guide to the promised land. I'm sorry to say that my taste is more refined nowadays. The action here is way too... intermittent. I don't like how the movements end abruptly, I fancy a more flowing style. The quirky codes of the fighters seem very outdated as well. "Your karate is inferior, I will kill you. But I will fight honorably using only my fists, even though several of my henchmen surround you with pistols. Let us begin." Funny stuff.

It feels like these Japanese movies were counter-programming for the Chinese kung fu cinema, or it could be that Japan was making these before China (useful sentence, right?). Whatever the case, they now have their own cult hero... Who makes lots of stupid faces. Seriously, he could be Jerry Lewis for all I know. And why on earth does this one dude call Chiba Darling throughout the film?! It is not his name. There is one awesome scene though, when Chiba does to a rapist-wannabe the exact thing I would do to them all. Satisfying much? Oh yes.

I will always extend more leniency to martial arts movies as far as my ratings go, so I will give this five stars, even though it makes absolutely no sense. There are lots of fights, but they are mostly mediocre. Definite bonus points for brutality, awesome theme song and a badass ending.

"If you've got to fight, fight dirty!!!"

[dee.reid · 10/10 · 6 February 2006]

Sonny Chiba has been described by some as an anti-Bruce Lee and I agree, but to a certain extent. You see, it's not really fair considering that Lee is dead, they both hail from separate nationalities, represent different martial arts ideals (Lee founded Jeet Kune Do, Chiba was a mean karate machine), and Chiba has demonstrated he can more than hold his own against the disposable bad guys sent in his direction. Like Christian Slater's character described in "True Romance" (1993) regarding Chiba's "The Street Fighter" (1974), "he's just a bad motherf**ker, he gets paid by people to f**k guys up." Directed by Shigehiro Ozawa, Sonny Chiba's Terry Tsurugi is that lethal, that ruthless, that dirty a fighter. He's a one-man hit-squad, paid by gangsters to spring a condemned fighter from prison but when his price gets too high on his next assignment - a kidnapping - he's forced to make his hands and feet do the talking. The action in "The Street Fighter" is fairly gruesome, allowing it to become the first film to be rated "X" for violence in the United States. He pokes eyes, kicks feet, slaps around women, rips out tonsils (and other choice body parts), targets the solar plexus, and throws dudes out of top-floor windows. I loved it from start to finish, and it's easy to why it's so beloved to Quentin Tarantino.

10/10

The Streetfighter (in Japanese "Clash, Killer Fist!")

[seveb-25179 · 7/10 · 18 December 2017]

The film that made Sonny Chiba an international martial arts star, with its legendary distinction of having received the first ever X certificate for violence in American cinematic history. There is a strong streak of sadism in Japanese culture that viewers of Takeshi's Castle and other Japanese game shows will be familiar with. Along with wreaking general mayhem on almost everyone he encounters, Sonny also manages to punch one opponent in the face, producing a cascade of tumbling teeth and blood! He pokes another bad guys eyes into a bloody pulp and afterwards examines his fingers before wiping them off on his assistant's shirt!! Rips another's adversaries balls off and for dessert tears out the throat of the second to last man standing!!! 'Nuff said. However not for the last time in a Sonny Chiba movie the audience is also confronted with a troubling moral dilemma. It appears that the Japanese ideal of honour is very different from the European version, and I don't claim to understand it. In this case "Kickass for hire" Sonny rescues a martial arts multiple killer from prison at the behest of his sister and her boyfriend. Afterwards it turns out they don't have the money to pay the balance of his fee, so Sonny proposes to sell the girl into sexual slavery. The boyfriend naturally trys to prevent this and although Sonny trys to go easy on him, he ends up going out the window to his death while trying to take Sonny out with one of those trademark flying kicks that Bruce Lee was so good at. Sonny then proceeds as planned, and sells the girl into sexual slavery! We see her being held down to be raped and injected with drugs to pacify her. Is Sonny's behaviour considered acceptable and honourable in traditional Japanese culture? I have no idea, but some may have difficulty accepting Sonny's bona fides as a heroic or even anti-heroic figure after this! Later in the movie, the same large dark skinned gentleman who was the principle rapist, attempts to repeat the treatment on another girl, but this time Sonny climbs in the window in time to relieve him of his genetalia. Does this serve to mitigate Sonny's earlier behaviour? I think not. Then during the finale, the sister who was sold into sexual slavery and her kickass brother get their chance to avenge themselves on Sonny and almost succeed. But instead she ends up stabbed to death and the brother is deprived of his throat, after Sonny rallies from the brink of defeat. (Yay?) It would be interesting to conduct a poll of which side the audience were supporting during this final struggle. As for the plot, its decent enough, the villains want to hire Sonny to help kidnap a rich heiress, but he turns them down, so instead they try to kill him, after which he decides to get involved and protect the girl instead. However at one stage he admonishes his assistant that he only hopes to make money from the girl too, just in case we were thinking the leopard had changed his spots!

PS - Did Sonny Chiba really appear in 4 The Street fighter and 2 The Executioner movies in the space of a single year? Busy boy!

Rock bottom garbage

[Glurrk · 1/10 · 27 December 2003]

If you have no standards for martial arts movies, this might be for you. If you don't mind the camerawork missing some of the moves, you'll enjoy this movie. If you also don't care that some scenes are too dark for you to see anything, you'll have a good time with this film. If you casually dismiss the "hero" (using that term EXTREMELY loosely) shrugging off injuries that would kill a mortal (getting tossed off a cliff) due to his "training", you'll like this flick. If your concept of "martial arts" is guys flailing their arms around sloppily, you won't be disappointed. If you enjoy watching damage being done to human beings that can best be described as "pornographic", run right out & rent this.

Otherwise, go to the video store, find the martial arts section, and grab ANYTHING that doesn't have Sonny Chiba in it.

Become a NUMBER ONE MAN!

[konover · 12 March 2004]

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.

Curl up yer face and dive on in!

[ZombiJam · 7/10 · 4 October 1998]

Once in a while you've got to see a movie where one Japanese guy just kicks the hell out of everyone in sight. Look no further. Terry Tsurugi is the meanest, fightin-est, sweatiest action anti-hero of all time. You beat a man, they call you tough. You beat an army, they call you... THE STREET FIGHTER!

Over-the-top martial art gore fest

[Bogey Man · 7/10 · 14 August 2002]

Shigehiro Ozawa directed this Sonny Chiba classic The Street Fighter (Japan, 1974) which was the film that introduced Chiba to the US audiences. The film was cut roughly to get the R rating, but in 1996 New Line released the fully uncut X version on video and I have now seen this original uncut version two times, having just watched the film today again. This film is more violent and brutal than most of the subsequent efforts, so I can just imagine what kind of an experience this was for the audiences in the 1970. Chiba (really bad) plays Terry, a martial arts sensation, who gets dirty jobs done with the help of his martial arts, and after he becomes double crossed and begins to have more and more enemies, he starts his own war towards the mafia and the Japanese yakuza, and neither of those can give something that would beat Terry, the most dangerous and incredible iron fist alongside the Hong Kong Ricky, of course!

Street Fighter is 90 minutes of pure Karate terror and action without any efforts to hide the results of the violence. This film may appeal only to fans of this kind of "attitude cinema" which has gratuitous violence and plenty of it. The plot (very confusing and with some holes) is only there to lead Terry to the next fight, but I think that's okay as far as the viewer enjoys this kind of film. I enjoy this due to its great fight scenes (there were four action directors for this film!) and some great photography, which makes this a no-nonsense film, if extremely hard to like for the (most) casual viewers.

There are some nice camera angles and movements which prove the talent of director Ozawa and his crew. The fight scenes are almost as unbelievable in their choreography as the greatest scenes by Bruce Lee, which has been said to be the Chinese equivalent for Chiba. Perhaps the most famous detail in Street Fighter is the x-ray close up of a man, whose head Terry bashes in with bloody results. That detail is pretty stylish and used also in Story of Ricky, another over-the-top martial arts mayhem film from Hong Kong.

The brutal fights are very graphic and exploitative as people are stabbed, sliced, diced, punched, kicked, torn, ripped and so on, and what differs Street Fighter from the other martial art films of that time, is its high level bloodletting. If this film lacked this element, it would look just like some Bruce Lee film made in Japan with different actors. Some of the violent scenes are almost unbearably brutal to watch (like the "vomit" punch and the groin bit) but it was perhaps the film maker's intention to make as violent action film as possible, and on that level, he definitely succeeded. If this all had even some point other than just to shock, this film would be more noteworthy and easy to appreciate. Now this film remains perhaps among the most violent action films ever, and due to its cinematic skill, I give this 7/10. Still, I like Story of Ricky much more due to its madness and even more fierce over-the-top mayhem.

ouch!

[PIST-OFF · 9/10 · 4 July 1999]

I first heard about this through Christian Slater's character in True Romance, so I bought it. It's a great martial arts film, Sonny Chiba does better then anyone else could in trying to fill Buce Lee's shoes. This is probably one of the best non Bruce Lee martial arts films ever. Sonny Chiba sets himself up as an eternal movie bad-ass. He is paid by people to go around kicking the hell out of other people. Good action sequence and good directing over shadow the not so great acting. This movie originally had an X rating in the United States because of a scene where Chiba castrates a man with his bare hand. It remains the only movie ever rated X not to have any sex in it. My favorite scene is the X-Ray vision skull cracker scene which later went on to be used in the ultra ultra violent Story Of Ricky.

Treachery and Intrigue in a Martial Arts Setting

[Uriah43 · 6/10 · 17 March 2013]

"The Streetfighter" is a film about treachery and intrigue in a martial arts setting. Basically, "Takuma 'Terry' Tsurugi" (Sonny Chiba) is a mercenary who is willing to do just about anything for money. So, when he helps free a criminal, "Tateki Shikenbaru" (Masashi Ishibashi) from death row and isn't paid as promised he kills Tateki's brother "Gijun Shikenbaru" (Jiro Chiba) and sells his sister "Nachi Shikenbaru" (Etsuko Shihomi) into prostitution. This infuriates Tateki who swears revenge. Meanwhile, the Yakuza contact Terry and offer him money to kidnap an oil heiress named "Sarai Chuayut" (Yutaka Nakajima). Unfortunately, they don't offer enough and he refuses the assignment. Fearing that he knows too much the Yakuza and Hong Kong syndicate decide to assassinate him and kidnap Sarai on their own. At this point he decides to offer his services to protect Sarai. Anyway, like all martial arts movies this film has plenty of fast-paced action. Likewise, it consists of very bad dialogue and several scenes which require a person to suspend all logic. For example, when Sarai is kidnapped Terry manages to follow her rather effortlessly without any explanation of how he knows where they are going. At any rate, while I don't consider this to be as polished as those featuring Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, it still managed to keep me entertained for the most part.

One of the most brutal martial arts films ever made

[kluseba · 8/10 · 22 June 2019]

The Street Fighter is a Japanese martial arts film that stands out with its rough fights and graphic brutality. Main character Tsurugi Takuma is a tough guy with quite a temper who is able to rip out his opponent's eyes, testicles and vocal chords. The film also features a few interesting side characters with Tsurugi Takuma's clumsy but resilient partner Zhang Rakuda, charming and determined heiress Sarai Chuayut-Hammett and condemned murderer Shikenbaru Tateki who desperately desires to kill the protagonist.

The story of the movie is vivid but shallow. Tsurugi Takumi is asked to kidnap the daughter of a recently assassinated oil tycoon but refuses when he realizes that the gangsters involved are Yakuza since he wants to remain an independent hitman. The Yakuza don't accept his decision and try to assassinate him since he knows too much about them. Along with his easily scared but remarkably loyal partner Zhang Rakuda, the protagonist now attempts to save the heiress and fight the Japanese Yakuza and their Hong Kong allies.

The film has numerous memorable scenes that have stood the test of time. The first one is already the gloomy opening sequence in a prison when Tsurugi Takuma disguises as a monk in order to free a convicted murder with a clever scheme. The dynamic fight scene between the main character and two siblings in his apartment is also intense. The adventurous plan to free the kidnapped heiress is also quite gripping. The most emotional scene follows a short time after when Zhang Rakuda desperately tries to prove his loyalty to his partner. The highlight however are the last fifteen minutes of the film when Tsurugi Takumi faces off dozens of Yakuza on a ship at night.

There are only two minor flaws for me. First of all, the main character is somewhat unbalanced. He is introduced as pitiless, relentless and selfish character who acts a little bit like an evil version of Bruce Lee. Later on however, the same character deeply cares about his partner, risks his life to save a heiress he barely knows on multiple occasions and is shown to have a troubled past through a flashback. These two sides of the character clash on several occasions and make him look somewhat bipolar. Tsurugi Takumi is as cold as ice in one moment and almost heartbroken in the next sequence. One more thing that bothered me was the ending of the film. Even though the final fifteen minutes are the highlight of the film, it somewhat ends on a cliffhanger with several questions left unanswered. The second and third feature in the series wouldn't resolve these questions either. One gets the impression that the production was running on a low budget and that the final five minutes that should have been there are missing. This movie doesn't have a proper conclusion which is slightly frustrating.

Still, The Street Fighter is a dynamic, entertaining and vicious martial arts film that still entertains almost five decades later. Watch the original Japanese version with subtitles in order to avoid conservative censorship and ridiculous translations in the English version.

Blood Soaked Martial Arts film starred by Sonny Chiba as an invincible badass fighter

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 25 July 2022]

Thrilling and gory Chop-Socky in which wild combat scenes provide an overwhelming view of Sonny Chiba's top billing skills . Fast-paced and savage martial arts action finds freelance fighter Terry hired to a risked assignment .When a wealthy owner dies leaving billions to his daughter, the Mafia and Yakuza try to hire Terry to kidnap her , but things go awry. Terry is a tough, fisted mercenary, master of martial arts who after failing to reach a deal with her enemies, the karate master decides to protect the daughter from the evil conglomerate that's after her inheritance. As he confronts it head on with his mastery of martial arts while investigating the whereabout of the kidnapped girl . Along the way , dispatching numerous thugs and hundreds of Karate experts at violent combats, and , he , finally , takes on the villainy of the big boss. Much ultra-violent martial-arts fighting action, as expected, ensues . The First X Rated Fight Scenes in Screen History!.If you've got to fight...fight dirty! The incredible Sonny Chiba is back! . And he's meaner than ever!

This violent Chop-Socky displays action-packed , thrills , fast-paced , zooms , wild fighting images and lots of gore , guts and blood . In fact , this is one of the 70s Kung-Fu films to be censored in its original country and other foreign nations due to its graphic violence . ¨Satsujin Ken¨ or ¨Streetfighter¨ is a nail-biting story about a brave assassin for hire to take on a whole bunch of ominous villains, but he subsequently and promptly offers his services to protect an unfortunate girl.¨Streetfighter¨ (1974) follows the adventures of Martial Arts master, Takuma Tsurug that seeks revenge against his former employers when they refuse to deal with his exorbitant price, then attempt to murder him to conceal their secret plans . The good guys and bad guys make this first film of the series an enjoyable story to watch and to enjoy . Streetfighter (1974) is best viewed in its full uncut glory . It never seems too original or interesting , but still it is never tiring or hard to watch without falling asleep . The action is plentiful and Sonny Chiba attempts again to be ultra cool and a two-fisted guy who puts strange faces , rare looks , weird gestures and with some misogynistic habits , too. The violence is laughably over the top but still shocking and extreme enough to secure the highest X rating (or NC-17) for this kind of film, and so a film as brutal and savage would never come from Hollywood nowadays . Nice Sonny Chiba as killer fighter while he plot is straightforward - Tsurugi upsets the mafia, they renege on their payment , big mistake , then the gangsters send hordes of goons to kill him, and he kicks their asses. The film has plenty of fight scenes that are still intense and cruel , with elevated level of animal rawness and high body-count . With his proficiency in karate, judo & kenpo, Sonny took advantage of the early 1970s martial arts boom sparked by Bruce Lee . He starred this The street fighter (1974), playing a mercenary style street thug who would do anything for a price & take on anyone, even the yakuza. The approach of the film was quite different from the Bruce Lee films in that Lee only took down his enemies when he was defending his friends or his honor. Instead, he was only aiming for a fistful of dollars for his deadly services & would engage in mortal combat for the highest bidder , although this often clouded his judgement to his own detriment . The only person the Street Fighter respects is his martial arts teacher, karate master Masaoko who manages to easily out smart & out fight him. Upon its release, the film was criticized for its excessive violence . The X-ray Punch featured in this Japanese cult-film "The Street Fighter" (1974) and the Hong Kong martial arts film "The Storm Riders" (1998). Outside of Japan, the Street Fighter film series has achieved enduring popularity through many midnight cult screenings . Their style heavily influenced Quentin Tarantino. He has used strong references & imagery from the ¨Street Fighter¨ movies in several of his films including ¨True Romance¨ (1993) and ¨Pulp Fiction¨ (1994). The he came around to casting for the successful Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003).

The motion picture was regular but professionally directed Shigehiro Ozawa . Followed by ¨Satsujin ken 2¨ , it's neither as gory or as good as the original and in which mercenary karate master Tsurugi gets mixed up in a plot by the American mafia to take over the karate dojos in Asia, aided by a corrupt dojo master , while the arch enemy from the first film returns to continue his quest for vengeance against Tsurugi . It was then followed by a third Street Fighter movie starring Etsuko Shihomi in the gritty ¨Onna hissatsu ken¨ (1974). There was a fourth & final film in the series Gyakushu Satsujin ken. These three sequels have the American titles : ¨Return of the Street Fighter¨, ¨The Street Fighter's last revenge¨and ¨Sister Street Fighter¨.

Disappointing

[sarastro7 · 5/10 · 25 April 2005]

I saw Street Fighter on an old video tape (only 74 min. long) which was reformatted for TV, and terribly dubbed (hard to understand the voices). The reformatting might have been the worst thing, because many scenes were ridiculously close-up and in-your-face, which made it impossible to see where or if people were being hit, and whether their constipated expressions were due to injury, hara kiri, or supposed to be some bad imitation of Bruce Lee's coolness (I'm banking on the latter).

Despite this I was pretty excited about the first half of the movie, which was half-way effective entertainment. From then on, however, I got more and more bored, esp. with the "miserable crawling cockroach" of a sentimental relief sidekick which I thought didn't work at all.

The fight scenes were relatively few, and most of them were cut terribly. Often, a scene would skip a few seconds, so it wasn't apparent what had actually been done, martial arts-wise. I wasn't very impressed at all, and these flaws were particularly evident in the climactic scene, where I practically just went "huh?".

Possibly, if I saw this in the 90 min. letterbox (DVD?) version, I'd have a higher opinion of it, but as it is, I thought it was pretty crappy. Still, I'll be generous and award it a 5 rating out of 10.

The Street Fighter Review

[thescholar22 · 8/10 · 9 June 2015]

This time I'll talk about a film in the public domain, at least I think it is, called The Street Fighter. It's not that movie based on the video game but a series of grindhouse action films by Sonny Chiba. Before being in Kill Bill he was doing action movies in the 1970's and is considered the Steven Segal of Japan at the time. In The Street Fighter Sonny Chiba plays a mercenary named "Terry" for the yakuza.

After doing a favor for the yakuza by saving a death row prisoner. When a rich guy dies and leaves all of his fortune to his daughter in Japan the yakuza order Terry to kidnap her. Terry refuses because he wanted more money and then the yakuza end up ordering to kill him. There's also a fight scene where Terry fights a martial arts master at a dojo and has a change of heart at the end of the fight. He ends up protecting her at his service free of charge. There's even a subplot where there's these people out to get him for being half Chinese.

This was also Quentin Tarantino's inspiration to do films when he saw this in theaters back in the 1970's.

Way too Overlooked!

[noah-65732 · 7/10 · 28 October 2023]

The Street Fighter is honestly not an easy film to review because it's so good yet so bad at the same time. It's the first movie to ever be rated X in the United States based solely on its violent content. The overall plot is terrible but as with most martial arts films, plot is simply filler between each fight scene. The effects are cheap, the dubbing is bad and any copy you can find on DVD is likely to be low quality. But hey! This is Grindhouse Exploitation from 1974, one can only expect so much. The lead actor Sonny Chiba is often overlooked when it comes to martial arts films. Chiba holds black belts in Ninjutsu, Kendo, Judo and 3 different styles of Karate and more recently he played Hittori Hanzo in Kill Bill. His onscreen fighting style is ruthless in The Street Fighter and his character Terry is neither a good guy nor a bad guy but just a mean SOB. Rather than punching or kicking people to knock them out, he takes things a step further by gouging out eyes, punching out teeth or even ripping off body parts. After watching this film, one can't help but think that Sonny Chiba would have given Bruce Lee a run for his money. While Bruce Lee's style was definitely more polished, I think Chiba's style was dirty and vicious enough to make it a great match. It's too bad that Bruce Lee died a year before this movie was released because an onscreen match up would have been amazing. If you like Bruce Lee films and you haven't seen Sonny Chiba in action I recommend watching The Street Fighter for a more violent, brutal, and anti-hero perspective of the martial arts genre.

Blood Stained Action

[eibon09 · 26 May 2000]

Gekitotsu Satsujin Ken/The Streetfighter(1974) is a movie that relies more on pure action and violence then on plot. The main character is an interesting one because he's a very complex person when it comes to understanding his reasons for his job. It doesn't have the grace and polish of a Bruce Lee film but then not many Kung Fu or Karate flicks are on the level of Bruce Lee's movies. Romeo Must Die(2000) must have been influenced by this especially with the scene where a man is killed while the film is using X-rays to display this sequence. The Streetfighter(1974) is to Martial Art films as the Lone Wolf & Cub films are to the samurai genre. The best way to watch this movie is in its uncut and letterbox version.