Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken

Plot synopsis:
The film begins as Takuma (Terry) Tsurugi meets the condemned murderer Tateki (Junjo) Shikenbaru while disguised as a Buddhist monk. Tsuguri applies his "oxygen coma punch" to Junjo, causing him to collapse just before he can be executed. As Junjo is rushed to a hospital, Tsurugi and his sidekick Rakuda (Ratnose) ambush the ambulance and free him. As Tsurugi and Ratnose watch the incident on the news, Junjo's brother Gijun and sister Nachi arrive and plead for more time to pay for Tsurugi's help. Outraged, Tsurugi refuses and attacks the siblings. Gijun accidentally kills himself when Tsurugi dodges his flying kick, causing him to go out of a window, and Nachi is sold into sexual slavery through Renzo Mutaguchi.
Mutaguchi and his associates attempt to hire Tsurugi to kidnap Sarai, the daughter of a recently deceased oil tycoon. Tsurugi refuses after discovering that the gangsters are Yakuza. He escapes, but the Yakuza gangsters resolve to kill Tsurugi as well as kidnap Sarai. Tsurugi immediately seeks out Sarai, who is being protected at the Nippon Seibukan dojo by her uncle, Kendō Masaoka, a Karate master. Tsurugi captures Sarai and challenges the entire dojo to a fight. He brutalizes the rank-and-file students before Masaoka fights him to a standstill--then recognizes him as the half-Chinese son of a karate master he knew long ago. Ultimately, Tsurugi offers to protect Sarai, and Masaoka agrees, against Sarai's protests. Meanwhile, the Yakuza's allies in Hong Kong, led by Kowloon boss Dinsau, recruit Junjo Shikenbaru to avenge his siblings by killing Tsurugi.
The gangsters make several attempts to kill Tsurugi before they successfully kidnap Sarai. Tsurugi manages to rescue her, but gets captured himself. Ratnose gives up Sarai's location to save Tsurugi, causing Tsurugi to forsake him. When Tsurugi faces a blind swordsman working for the Hong Kong gangsters, Ratnose dies in a reckless attempt at redemption. Tsurugi finally tracks the gangsters down to a shipyard and fights his way through their guards. In the end, Dinsau permits Tsurugi to duel Junjo. Nachi sacrifices herself to give her brother a free shot with a sai, but Tsurugi survives and rips out Junjo's vocal cords. Critically wounded, Tsurugi is helped to his feet by Sarai and Dinsau in the final shot of the film.

Tags: revenge, cult, violence, flashback

Review:
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?
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.
Mean, violent and downright reprehensible, THE STREETFIGHTER is a unique milestone in the martial arts movie genre.
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.
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.
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.
Sonny Chiba is the ultimate martial arts star.
Synopsis: Terry Tsurugi (the great Sonny Chiba) is a martial arts master who uses his abundant talents as a mercenary gun-for-hire.
What a momentous mistake on their part.Thoughts: Sonny Chiba's "The Street Fighter" is considered a classic in the martial arts genre.
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.
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.
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.
This movie originally had an X rating in the United States because of a scene where Chiba castrates a man with his bare hand.
Playing the most morally ambiguous hero ever, Sonny Chiba is Terry Tsuguri the rough and dirty mercenary called 'The Street Fighter'.
Chiba plays Takuma Tsurugi (called Terry in the English dubbing), a martial arts master who has to come to the rescue of a kidnapped heiress.
Instead he beats up the convicts brother and sells the sister into prostitution, and this is the hero of the movie.What lies ahead of this are a number of increasingly violent action scenes culminating in an excellent fight on board a giant tanker fighting the main villains henchman until he comes face to face once again with the convict that he freed at the beginning of the film.Direction in the movie is basic, other than a use of an x-ray shot that shows broken bones, which was utilised to better effect years later in the Jet Li movie "Romeo Must Die".
he even warns the heiress' family that he may be worse than the people he's going to protect her from.The film is action packed pretty much from the beginning to the end, with a small army of goons apparently willing to throw themselves on Chiba's lack of mercy - which he rewards with a whole lot of bone cracking, eye gouging and body part ripping violence.
Shame on me: I've been reviewing cult Japanese movies for years now but this is the first Sonny Chiba film I've tackled.
And I call myself a martial arts fan...Sonny is, of course, a legend of Japanese action cinema, and The Street Fighter is his undisputed masterpiece, an incredibly violent showcase for the star's remarkable Karate skills (and his reasonable impression of Bruce Lee).
As seemingly indestructible mercenary anti-hero Terry Tsurugi, Sonny kicks, punches and tears through a veritable army of opponents, leaving them either dead, or writhing on the floor in agony, blood pouring from one or more orifices.
The brutality reaches a climax in a stunning finale set aboard a rain-lashed oil tanker which must rank as one of the most intense fight scenes ever committed to film.But it's not just about the violence: the stylish execution also makes this a cut above many martial arts movies of the day, with great cinematography, innovative direction from Shigehiro Ozawa (including the legendary 'X-Ray' punch shot mimicked in Jet Li's Romeo Must Die), great editing and a funky 70s soundtrack.
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.
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).
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.
The martial arts was outstanding throughout the entire picture and Sonny Chiba put his entire heart and soul into this great 1974 film.
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.
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.
The premise of the movie is to create a situation for Sonny Chiba to kill a bunch of violent criminals while on commission.
Lines like "Tell that **** who sent you how sorry I am I can no longer be her friend" heard while looking into the face of the most convincing hard man in film history.Terry Tsurugi is the man, Sonny Chiba can say more with his contorted face than any one else I've seen in films.
But it's not just the look on his face that makes him convincing, there's something very nasty and practical about the way he deals with his enemies and the long cuts make the whole thing more real.There is also immense complexity in the character, a man who lives by the code taught to him by his farther moments before he was executed, a fine speech punctuated by the line "Become the Number One Man!" Not you're typical hero or your typical anti hero, a man who killed an innocent man before selling his grieving sister into slavery and yet somehow you're still routing for him all the way.If you do have the chance to see this film, try not to dismiss it before you give Terry a chance..
The movie is slightly humorous with the sound effects given by Sonny Chiba during his fights scenes.
Sonny Chiba plays the "In it for the cash anti-hero with a strict personal code of conduct" to the hilt, and while his actual acting talent is somewhat lacking, this isn't the kind of movie where it matters.
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.
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.
That's just the start of how The Street Fighter differs from every other martial arts film.
Chiba fights everyone, an entire dojo of martial arts students, trained bodyguards, and hired assassins, he even takes on the Yakuza.
Chiba would play the Street Fighter three more times but this is him at his best.
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..
I give you Sonny Chiba!When you think of Kung-Fu movies there's the protagonist and the antagonist thrown against each other in a good vs.
You just can't decide whether to cheer for him or just feel repulsed by the brutal actions against his instant enemies, from really evil characters to your ordinary good guy from a straight movie.The jail-house sequence at the beginning (the framing, the cheesy dubbing, the fight in slow motion with exaggerated sound effects to the abrupt movie title) is just brilliant.
Ultra-Violent and Seminal Sonny Chiba FilmA Cult Classic.
Notoriously Famous, or Infamous, Sonny Chiba Movie, along with Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon" (1973), Solidified the Kung-Fu Craze in America.
Bad-Ass, as He and the Movie are often Called, is an Accurate Description.Chiba made a lot of Films, this one is part of a Trilogy, but "Street Fighter" Stands Alone in its Audacious Violence, Non-Stop Action, and Unrestrained Bloody Battles.
And Gory it is with Buckets of Blood and a Few Scenes that are Legendary that won't be Spoiled here.If You are merely Curious, this Film Alone will Prove why All the Fuss about Sonny Chiba.
Sonny Chiba stars as the "hero" of the movie, Terry Sugury, a mercenary with a moral code as strict as Amsterdam.
I recommend the film, but the guy in no way could be called the successor to Bruce Lee..
Shigehiro Ozawa directed this Sonny Chiba classic The Street Fighter (Japan, 1974) which was the film that introduced Chiba to the US audiences.
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.
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.
Street Fighter boasts some of the best martial arts action.
STREET FIGHTER boasts some of the best martial arts action since Bruce Lee's ENTER THE DRAGON.
STREET FIGHTER boasts a formula mixing martial arts movies, Sam Spade style detective stories and hitman genre tough guy pictures.
The film series revolves around Chiba who has the ability to take care of himself and wade into a corrupt martial arts school and beat up a 100 man force.
It stars Sonny Chiba as a kung-fu assassin so ugly that am surprised his looks did not do the killing instead of his tepid martial-arts.He looks like a monkey as he gathers his "chi" before attacking.
If you saw him in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", you'd be surprised to learn that it was the same man who starred in these awful, awful films.He plays Terry Tsuguri, the "hero" of the picture, whose only loyalty is to himself.
I do not know anybody who's a martial-arts fan that would actually enjoy "The Street Fighter.
Martial arts legend Shin'ichi "Sonny" Chiba ratchets up the intensity in this classic of the genre, playing tough as nails mercenary Terry Tsurugi.
They decide to try to kill him to keep the plan a secret, and he switches sides, taking on all comers as he does his best to keep the young lady from harm.Chiba is great fun to watch in this vivid and fast paced actioner.
Sonny Chiba shows up early giving the last rights to a guy on death row  the 'last Okinawa karate master' actually.
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..
Plot Summary: Sonny Chiba takes it upon himself to protect the heiress of an oil company, resulting in him beating up a load of guys and spilling much blood.'Streetfighter', aka The One Christian Slater Is Watching In True Romance, is without a doubt one of the greatest, most enjoyable martial arts films ever made.
Thankfully, Sonny has bucket loads of it but as this is a martial arts film it wouldn't really matter if he didn't.
It's not that movie based on the video game but a series of grindhouse action films by Sonny Chiba.
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.
This stylish and truly brutal flick is positively one of the most ultra-violent martial-arts films ever brought to screen, and it's easily one of the coolest, too.Sonny Chiba shines as the ferocious antihero Tamuka Tsurugi, a hired assassin capable of taking out entire armies with his fists of death.
Ball-tearing action from Shigehiro Ozawa and Sonny Chiba that features a great scene in which a man's testicles are, literally and graphically, ripped gleefully from his body and shown to him.
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.
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?
Japan's answer to the Bruce Lee craze is revealed in this one-of-a-kind movie; the guy they called Sonny Chiba.
Chiba's reputation as an invincible tough guy in the west rests solely on this ultra-violent movie which is remembered by all those fortunate to have seen it for the sheer violence alone.
His character may not be likable, but he commands our respect at the sheer efficiency in killing all the bad guys this movie has to offer.The plot is slightly convoluted and contrived, but no more so than most martial arts films.
Basically, "Takuma 'Terry' Tsurugi" (Sonny Chiba) is a mercenary who is willing to do just about anything for money.
Anyway, like all martial arts movies this film has plenty of fast-paced action.
I guess I am not the only one to rank THE STREET FIGHTER with the best action movies ever.
However, for the genre, it is an exceptional film as way too many of these martial arts films of the 1970s were so cheaply made and featured the dumbest gimmicks and the most ridiculous fighting that STREET FIGHTER is a welcome relief--even being better than most of the Bruce Lee movies.Originally, this was an X-rated film due to its graphic violence, though today it probably would be rated PG-13 or R--I guess this says a lot about our culture and the type films we are making these days!
This is some of the most brutal and skilled martial arts I have seen and it is very realistic due to the blood and because he remembers to kill just about all those who attack him--making Chiba a rare thing in martial arts films--a very smart and pragmatic leading man!!!
While not quite as fast as Bruce Lee or artistic as Jackie Chan, Chiba's brutal combination of styles of martial arts is very impressive and hard to dismiss.
Sonny Chiba is the ultimate ferocious martial arts animal!.
Compared to the extremely primal and lethal untamed martial arts animal that is Sonny Chiba, Bruce Lee seems like a very sweet, harmless and mild-mannered creampuff..
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.
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.