Return Of The Streetfighter (aka Satsujin ken 2) (1974)

A padded retread of the first film in many ways, Return of The Streetfighter still features all of the elements which made the first film such a bloody blast to watch. There's still the funky score and outrageous visuals, we still get copious amounts of ultraviolence, and Sonny Chiba brings bucket-loads of charisma to the party. It's a shame then that the already scant 80 minute run time is stretched by some lengthy superfluous flashbacks to the first film. Fans will find plenty to love here, but if you didn't care for the original film there's little here that will change your mind.

Filmed almost immediately after the first film, director Shigehiro Ozawa starts this one off with a bang: Hired to kill a man in police custody, Takuma Tsurugi (Chiba) decides to get himself intentionally arrested by driving his motorcycle at ridiculous speeds and beating up on a bunch of cops. Once in the police station, Tsurugi finds his target and proceeds to pierce his vocal cords with his fingers before taking on the entire station and escaping out the window, all while wearing handcuffs! He escapes with the help of his new plucky, beat-talking sidekick: Pin Boke ("Kitty" in the english dub). This sequence is one of the best of the series, so it's a minor disappointment when the plot starts cover a lot of the same territory as the first film. Takuma has been hired by Isamu Otaguro, who runs a local karate dojo but is suspected (rightfully) of working with the mafia. After refusing to kill Kendo Masaoka (who Tsurugi tangled with in the first film) who has threatened to turn Otaguro in, Tsurugi soon becomes a target of Otaguro and his hired goons.

It's at this point where the film becomes a series of impressive set pieces with Tsurugi being attacked while skiing (which leads to a completely ridiculous eye-popping scene), at a massage parlor, and by his old nemesis Junjo (featuring an electronic voice box to replace the one torn out by Tsurugi in the first film). The confrontation with Junjo ends badly, and a despondent Pin Boke has to nurse him back to health before he goes off and kicks the ass of everyone left alive. No promises this time, but another sequel (again made in 1974!) was soon on its way.

We're all here to see Chiba (Viva Chiba!), and his character here is slightly softened and sympathetic compared to his sell-women-into-slavery ways in the first film. He's still an unrepentant prick with a chip on his shoulder, but he's a little more fun and even gets to crack a smile during a ridiculous conversation with a self proclaimed karate expert (who manages to severely burn himself on some sauna rocks). Chiba is still in top form with his karate skills, and may even show off a bit more acrobatics than the first film, and the film is as vicious and violent as ever - though only the eye-popping reaches the dizzying heights of the x-ray head smash from the first film.

Shigehiro Ozawa keeps the action under control while capturing every grimace and snarl from Chiba, and there's a nice touch where titles are presented to identify Japanese weapons being used in the early scenes. While these scenes feel a bit more like padding (and i'm unsure if they are included in the original Japanese version), seeing these weapons in action are always a lot of fun (and gave me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flashbacks) - though not all actually come into play in the film.

Once again the secondary characters are a bit weak, and Kitty's jive talking must have seemed dated even when the film was related, but they get beaten senseless quite effectively. Bringing back Junjo was a nice touch, and the addition of the robotic voice-box adds a proper comic-book touch, though he doesn't get to show off his abilities like he did in the first film.

Image quality is a little rougher than for the first Streetfighter, but it's still a quite clean, apparently uncut print that is easily available because of its public domain status. The dubbing is a little rougher as well, and the habit of anglicizing names continues with Takuma once again referred to as "Terry". Sound is perfectly fine, with Toshiaki Tsushima's awesome funky soundtrack coming through loud and clear. I worried that we would be denied the awesome Streetfighter theme music, but it's saved for Tsurugi's climactic recovery and it is appropriately awesome.

While a step down from the revelation that is The Streetfighter, Return is still required viewing for fans of martial arts films, of Sonny Chiba, or for fans of scenes where characters appear astounded that their eyeballs have been punched out of their skulls. Almost all of the elements that made the original great return here, and you can watch the whole thing right here. After this film the series produced diminishing returns, but there's no excuse to not check this one out.

The Streetfighter (aka Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken) (1974)

To see the impact that the arrival of Sonny Chiba had upon American audiences in the 1970s, you need only watch the trailer for his 1976 film The Bodyguard. A rising chant of "Viva Chiba!" accompanies images of Sonny doing various bad-ass things until the chorus raises into a frenzy. At the time Chiba was (along with many, many others) being touted as the spiritual successor to Bruce Lee - despite being Japanese - but his films showed off a very different kind of appeal. Chiba was later deified by Quentin Tarantino in his script for True Romance, as well as casting him in Kill Bill, but it's the bloody, brutal The Streetfighter where most had their first taste of the genre legend.

Chiba is Takuma (Terry) Tsurugi, a Karate expert and mercenary who we first meet busting a criminal out of prison, before killing the prisoner's brother and selling his sister into slavery when they are unable to pay their bill. It's about at this point where viewers will realize that Tsurugi is an unconventional hero, and it speaks to Chiba's brooding charisma that it's diffcult to not root for him even when he's being dispicable. Anyway, after refusing to do a kidnapping job for the.. uh.. Chinese Yakuza (Tsurugi has an issue with the Chinese) they agree to kill him off, so he decides to protect the potential kidnapping victim (Sarai, an oil heiress) as revenge. He does this by killing everyone who comes near him in increasingly brutal ways - including eye plucking, spine snapping, and the requisite testical ripping. Things wrap up surprisingly neatly at the end with a promise of more Street Fighter action to come.

"If you've got to fight.. fight dirty!" bellowed the posters for The Streetfighter upon its initial U.S. release, but audiences used to the comparitively tame martial arts flicks of the time must have been shocked at the levels of violence and nastiness on display. Originally hit with an X rating, the film sticks closer to the Yakuza flicks of the 60s or the exploitation Samurai films of the 70s with a morally questionable protagonist that lives by a specific code of honor that allows the audience (and often characters in the film) to give them grudging respect. That Tsurugi can back up his eqo with his karate ability, while showing little affection or respect for anyone or anything besides his comical man-servant Rakuda/Ratnose, makes him a perfect antihero for the time it was released.

And Chiba fills this role with gusto, grimacing constantly while conveniently dispatching anyone who looks at him sideways. Totally believable as an ass-kicker, it's no wonder that audiences were drawn to him. Director Shigehiro Ozawa (who also helmed the sequels) obviously knew he had something special, and effectively structures the film to get maximum use out of this over-the-top character. Ozawa keeps the colorfuls action moving and uses little stylistic touches - particularly the infamous x-ray punch - which add to the comic book atmosphere.

Credit must be given to Koji Takada & Motohiro Torii's tight script, which neatly balances Terry's dickishness with flashes of humanity, while briefly touching on his past and his instilled sense of honor, to make him slightly more sympathetic. By the time we get to the final confrontation, both characters involved have a right to seek revenge which makes the final result slightly bittersweet.

The supporting cast are all game, but this is Chiba's show and he brings bright red blood with every swing. Veteran composer Toshiaki Tsushima (The Green Slime, The Yakuza Papers) provides an energetic score, which includes the awesome Streetfighter theme music which will stick in your brain for days after hearing it.

If you haven't seen The Streetfighter.. well, why not? A terrific uncut & widescreen print of the film is, for some reason, in the public domain and has become widely available on DVD and online from a variety of distributors. Though this is a dubbed version the translation, aside from some difficulty with a few of the Japanese names, is pretty servicable. A subtitled version is also available from the UK, but try the free version first.

The version in the Millcreek 50 Movie Pack is, indeed, the widescreen print and I would be surprised if any other films in the collection match up to it in terms of image and sound quality. This (and its sequel, also available in the public domain) is a welcome respite from the general sketchy quality in the collection as a whole.

Some viewers may have difficulty rooting for such a heel, but if you give in to the magnetism of Sonny Chiba it's near impossible to not enjoy The Streetfighter. It moves at a lightning pace, and is packed with enough violence and exploitation to placate the most rabid film fan. Everyone should see this one. Viva Chiba!

<

The Executioner (1974)

I've always been a fan of the grindhouse and the more outlandish the film the better. Some of my fondest memories of childhood were going to the Bluebird Theater in downtown Petersburg, VA with my dad to go and watch the latest martial arts epic.

In the seventies, Toei Films seemed to pioneer the "anything you can do we can do better" spirit that the Japanese have pretty much honed to razor sharpness, and that spirit trancends all aspects of Japanese society.

If you build a great car, the Japanese will make it more fuel efficient.

If you start a great trend, the Japanese will find a way to drag your fad out five years longer than it should probably last.

If you make a great exploitation film. The Japanese will find a way to make it more violent than you could have ever imagined.

Legit badass Sonny Chiba was a busy man in the seventies and Toei Films was a busy studio. The now famous Street Fighter trilogy arguably began as a Japanese effort not only to break into the Asian martial arts movie market, but also as a serious effort to find inroads to the American b-movie market. B-movies don't win Oscars but they do tend to make enough money to keep studio books in the black until something else comes along. When in doubt, make an action movie.

My journey with Teruo Ishii's karate schlock classic, The Executioner, has been bittersweet. I've always lived with the assumption that movies such as The Executioner were a lot of fun to make for cast and crew alike. With such hilarious dialogue and outrageous action, how could anyone ever have a horrible time on that set?

However my follow-up research on Ishii revealed that Ishii actually despised working on karate movies. Ishii is best known in Japan for his film adoptations of the mystery novels of author, Edogawa Rampo. However the ironclad contract that Toei had with Ishii had the poor bastard directing everything from space operas to yakuza movies.

Subsequently, The Executioner represents Teruo Ishii's best effort to get himself reassigned by creating the most insane martial arts film of the age. However as Yogi Berra once said, "Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes," and it is Ishii's blatant contempt for every frame of this movie that makes it so fun to watch.

The Executioner tells a pretty simple story. In an effort to combat a vicious heroin smuggling ring, former Tokyo Metro Police commissioner, Arashiyama (Ryo Ikebe), and his smoking hot niece, Emi (Yutaka Nakajima.. did I mention that she was smoking hot back in the day?) secretly recruit a trio of criminals to whoop ass and take names. The unit consists of Ichiro Sakura (Eiji Go), a karate expert and all-around pervert, Takeshi Hayabusa (Makoto Satô), a disgrased police detective now working as an assassin specializing in smashing the skulls of crime lords, and Ryuichi Koga (Sonny Chiba), a ninja enforcer that will pretty much do anything if the price is right.

And if you're wondering, "Hey.. I wonder if the 'Koga' they're referring to are..."

Yep, it's those Koga.

This is by far the most violent movie I've ever seen Chiba involved in, and possibly the most enjoyable. The Executioner is definitely one of Ishii's more coherant martial arts epics. Ishii's professional shame is your boon as there is enough blood, boobs, and camp to satisfy even the most jaded exploitation movie junkie.

If there is a failing in this movie, it is the collective persona of our trio of karate vigilantes.

There is an almost tragic yet endearing quality about Chiba's iconic Street Fighter, Takuma Tsurugi. Tsurugi is honorable to a fault and his honor, coupled with the everyman desire to see that the rent is paid on time by any means necessary, often leads Takuma down the wrong path. By contrast, Etsuko Shiomi's Koryo Lee, aka the Sister Street Fighter, is as virginal beyond belief as a girl that kicks people to death can reasonably be.

However in The Executioner, Koga and company are not the criminals with hearts of gold as you'd come to expect in such scenarios. Arashiyama definitely picked the right crew since his goal is to fight fire with fire, but if it weren't for their superior striking skills it really wouldn't bother me if these guys died in the attempt to keep narcotics off of the mean streets of Tokyo.

Part of Ishii's master plan to get himself back to directing mystery movies must've been to sabotage this movie by making Koga, Sakura, and Hayabusa as unlikeable as possible in addition to being completely irredeemable.

This is a pretty minor fault and is cleanly overshadowed by the outstanding amount of kick-ass brutality found in this eighty-six minute gem of a Japanese exploitation movie.

Go, rent, be amazed.