A Sonny Chiba Doubleheader

The Streetfighter (Gekitotsu Satsujin Ken) (1974)

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Shigehiro Ozawa

Starring: The great Sonny Chiba, Goichi Yamada, Yutaka Nakajima, Tony Cetera, Masafumi Suzuki

From: Toei

Return of the Streetfighter (Satsujin Ken 2) (1974)

Runtime: 85 minutes

Directed by: Shigehiro Ozawa

Starring: The great Sonny Chiba, Yoko Ichiji, Masashi Ishibashi, Claude Gagnon, Hiroshi Tanaka

From: Toei

Yes, I saw both these movies as they were both on Turner Classic Movies late last night. First, my review of the original:

I had a late night last night; on TCM Underground they showed this then Return of the Streetfighter; as I hadn't seen the sequel before and only saw the first movie once a long time ago, it was a perfect double bill for me.

The movie is about “Terry” (TCM had the dubbed version; I guess that added to the grindhouse feel; the great Sonny Chiba) protecting a rich heiress from what the dub says is “the Mafia and the Yakuza”, but it's actually a collection of over the top scenes where things get very violent & bloody and Chiba's martial arts is far from elegant-in fact, it's rather brutal-but it is effective in every way. W/ a bumbling sidekick known in the dub as RATNOSE, Terry tries to protect that young lady while dealing with such things as a family feud popping up at an inopportune time, a blind swordsman who wasn't Zatoichi, and racism because Terry is half Japanese and half Chinese.

The film's ridiculous and Terry forcing himself upon women looks rather bad in this day & age, but otherwise this rough and tough character (who does have a few poignant moments) is quite entertaining as he lays waste to many different people yet isn't invulnerable and at times takes a beating himself. It should be no surprise that the one thing I remembered about the movie from the one viewing many years ago was when he, ahem, castrated someone. With all the graphic violence and Chiba making all sorts of exaggerated faces it's no surprise this became a cult classic.

Now, the first sequel (not sounding the Sister Streetfighter spinoff):

Right after TCM Underground showed The Streetfighter, they played this film, which I had never seen before; I had to stay up real late to check it out. While it's a little lesser than the original, it is something I am still glad I saw.

Things aren't too different from the first movie: he once again deals with the Mafia and the Yakuza; as someone else here said, the leader of the Mafia looks like a young bearded hippie. He also deals with the cops, but that's a sideplot. Unfortunately, there's plenty of padding to make this feature length; there are some ancillary characters we follow for stretches at a time and several minutes is at an academy where we see people being trained in the martial arts and the English dub version nicely tells us what the particular breathing exercise is and says what all the weapons are, even for the obvious ones like 'samurai sword” and “nunchaku”; still, it's the thought that counts.

That said, it is a fun movie to watch as you get more of what you expect: over the top moments throughout, wacky facial expressions from Chiba, and graphic violence; oh, are there ever memorable moments that you can't possibly forget. “Terry” even gets a romantic scene of sorts, although that turns sour. It was a perfectly fine wacky martial arts picture, in other words.