6/10
Blood Soaked Martial Arts film starred by Sonny Chiba as an invincible badass fighter
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¨.
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