LeonLouisRicci 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. The Martial Arts Expert's Screen Persona Stamps and Stomps His Image On Screen with Facial Contortions, Grunts and Groans, and for a Man 5'10" Tall, has Lightning Quick Hands and Feet.He is No Goody-Goody either. He is a Mercenary and will Work for Anyone and Lustfully Gropes Females at will. The Plot is Inconsequential, the Girls are Brightly Attired Beauties, but it is the Gratuitous Gore that Everyone Remembers besides Our Anti-Hero. 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. Originally X-Rated for the Violence and Cut for American Release, in the Eighties the Original Version makes it way to Video and the True Aspect Restored. Beware any Lingering Censored and Full-Screen Versions that should be Avoided.

Nick Retzlaff 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.

Simon Booth I had believed that I had seen this film on a lousy cropped + dubbed DVD some years ago and found it not deserving of the affection/adoration with which it is usually discussed. However, the film seemed so wholly unfamiliar when I watched it tonight that I think I may simply not have seen it before at all - I can't believe that widescreen + original language/subtitles would make _that_ much difference. Then again, my memory is very poor! Regardless, it seems I've finally found my Sonny Chiba groove, and can completely see why this film is loved and revered. It's as ultra-violent, nasty, sleazy a piece of 70's karate-sploitation as you're ever going to see! Chiba plays Tsurugi, a merciless karate master whose moral stance is at best ambiguous - the baddest of asses, if ever an ass was bad! He is quite happy to kill for money, but his real wish seems simply to fight an opponent of equal skill and bloodthirstiness. He volunteers to protect a wealthy heiress, though whether his real motive is to steal her money is never quite resolved. Once the bad guys start sending their karate masters to kill him it's a moot point, though, as he's much more interested in maiming and mutilating them! The film was made only a year or so after Bruce Lee's death, and it's clear that Chiba was being offered as the Japanese replacement for him - but unlike many abortive attempts by the HK studios to produce a "new Bruce Lee", Toei realised from the start that imitation wasn't the right approach... Chiba is in many ways an "anti-Bruce"... rugged, mean, visceral and brutal. He's definitely not a "hero" in any traditional sense... 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. Chiba's style is distinctive, and the fights have a rawness that is quite different from the kung fu films of the day. Much of it seems to be full-contact, with Chiba hitting pretty hard. The film piles on the gore gleefully and gruesomely, though obviously the special effects look dated today.The film delivers all that fans of trashy, violent exploitation might be looking for except perhaps for nudity - conspicuously absent given the trends of the times... perhaps they didn't want to distract people's attention. It's easy to see why Chiba became an international icon, and why the film is regarded as a classic of its genre.Highly (but selectively) recommended!

lastliberal 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.