Reviews & Ratings for
The Streetfighter More at IMDbPro »Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken (original title)

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49 reviews in total

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16 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
THE MOVIE THAT GAVE MARTIAL ARTS FLICKS THEIR REPUTATION FOR GORE AND SADISM!!! A MUST-SEE!, 13 March 2002
Author: EL BUNCHO from USA

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? Well, most films in the genre didn't live up to the hype at all. 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. Bruce Lee's characters had the common decency to simply kill you and move on, whereas Tsurugi would make his punishment of an opponent extremely personal, down to the point of tearing off pieces of their bodies. His fighting style is graceless but effective, and a lot easier for any of us who strove to match the grace of Bruce to appreciate. If you want to see ass-whuppin' administered with balletic grace and artistry, do not see this film. If you want to see a guy mercilessly whip truckloads of ass, then this is the movie for you!

In a nutshell: Terry tsurugi is a badass-for-hire who will take on any job if his price is met. Plotline #1 has Terry rescuing convicted karate murderer Junjo from his date with the hangman. When Terry relocates Junjo to Hong Kong so the Japanese police won't find him, Junjo's brother and sister show up and tell Terry that they can't afford to pay him the rest of the money they owe for their brother's escape. Tragedy results that will make Junjo Terry's bitterest enemy and will eventually see them in a final showdown where only one will survive.Plotline #2 sees Terry volunteering to bodyguard the heiress to an oil fortune who is being pressured by the Yakuza. Her uncle happens to be a Karate master who is the only man alive that Tsurugi respects, and by working for him, Terry makes an attempt at redeeming himself as a human being (well, sort of...). Terry tries to stay one step ahead of the Yakuza, and his efforts culminate in a literal bloodbath where he takes on about thirty goons and puts much foot to ass.

The two plotlines overlap wildly and the ass-whuppin' set-pieces are loads of violent fun. Chiba's intense performance is unlike any other character in the history of the genre. Mean, violent and downright reprehensible, THE STREETFIGHTER is a unique milestone in the martial arts movie genre. HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Become a number one man!, 2 November 2005

Author: Johann from United States

Streetfighter is a show case for the karate talents of Sonny Chiba. Chiba plays Terry Tsurugi, a man who was orphaned when his Japanese father was executed in China during World War II. Terry is now back in Japan and kicking ass for a living. He's the best of the best in Japan and is hired to help get a criminal on death row out of prison. He manages to do this using an ancient technique (yeah, I know, they all use some ancient technique). Sonny then ends up killing the guy's brother due to an argument over payment and getting his sister sold into prostitution.

After this Sonny is propositioned by the Yakuza to kidnap a girl who is an oil heiress. Sonny jumps sides and starts working for her protectors after a show down with her uncle, the leader of a karate school. This flick is packed with violence galore. Sonny does some pretty cool stuff, and amazingly, the whole plot manages to come together at the end. There are also a few one liners that are pretty cool.

This is the flick that made me a Sonny Chiba fan.

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Blood Stained Action, 26 May 2000
Author: marquis de cinema from Boston, MA

Gekitotsu Satsujin Ken/The Streetfighter(1974) is a movie that relies more on pure action and violence then on plot. The main character is an interesting one because he's a very complex person when it comes to understanding his reasons for his job. It doesn't have the grace and polish of a Bruce Lee film but then not many Kung Fu or Karate flicks are on the level of Bruce Lee's movies. Romeo Must Die(2000) must have been influenced by this especially with the scene where a man is killed while the film is using X-rays to display this sequence. The Streetfighter(1974) is to Martial Art films as the Lone Wolf & Cub films are to the samurai genre. The best way to watch this movie is in its uncut and letterbox version.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
"If you've got to fight, fight dirty!!!", 6 February 2006

Author: dee.reid from United States

Sonny Chiba has been described by some as an anti-Bruce Lee and I agree, but to a certain extent. 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. He's a one-man hit-squad, paid by gangsters to spring a condemned fighter from prison but when his price gets too high on his next assignment - a kidnapping - he's forced to make his hands and feet do the talking. 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. He pokes eyes, kicks feet, slaps around women, rips out tonsils (and other choice body parts), targets the solar plexus, and throws dudes out of top-floor windows. I loved it from start to finish, and it's easy to why it's so beloved to Quentin Tarantino.

10/10

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Become a NUMBER ONE MAN!, 12 March 2004
Author: EnriqueH from Miami, Fl.

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. The one thing that I thought was strange was the throaty, phlegm-sounding war-cry that Chiba and other karate masters use throughout the film, but even that grows on you.

I was inspired to watch this film when I saw short clips in "True Romance". The fight scene looked original, so I gave it a shot. 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. How many times do you get to see an obviously overweight character show that being overweight doesn't prevent you from kicking ass?

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.

"Become...a number one man!" and rent this movie. Pure 70s martial-arts cheese and ass kicking.

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6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Isn't that mean and nasty!, 12 June 2003

Author: mister_pig from Cincinnati, Ohio

Great movie! Sonny Chiba is the ultimate martial arts star. Everything about this movie is great... well, not everything. For instance... Ratnose? If you were the sidekick of a martial arts maniac like Terry, would you call yourself Ratnose? Oh well, as annoying as Ratnose is, you can live with it because The Street fighter is what it's all about. You will become tired of hearing Ratnose whine "Terry, Terry, Terrrrrryyyyy!" but at least it's good for a couple of laughs.

If you like this one, you just about have to see Return of The Street Fighter, which completes the story. However, The Street Fighters Last Revenge is the best of the series in my book.

All in all, this one will remain a classic for all time.

10 out of 10

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8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
S10 Reviews: The Street Fighter (1974), 28 August 2005

Author: suspiria10 from The Void

Synopsis: Terry Tsurugi (the great Sonny Chiba) is a martial arts master who uses his abundant talents as a mercenary gun-for-hire. Terry is brought in by the Yakuza to kidnap the daughter and sole heir of a recently deceased uber-rich oil tycoon. But when the mafia can't meet the monetary composition that Terry asks for they attempt to keep their plot secret by offing Terry. What a momentous mistake on their part.

Thoughts: Sonny Chiba's "The Street Fighter" is considered a classic in the martial arts genre. I certainly won't disagree with that since the film is a solid action flick with serious energy. The English dubbing is awful (as always) but does lend itself to the entertainment. The action scenes are shot and staged masterfully and Chiba kicks the baddies from one side of the screen to the next. There are a few tired clichés (the smart-alec sidekick who becomes more of a hindrance than anything) but the overall end result is very entertaining.

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9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
VIVA CHIBA, 23 January 2004

Author: malcolm-is-mean from Fairfax, Virginia

I have to say, Sonny Chiba is really amazing. He rises above the conventional status of actors in contemporary kung fu films. His characters always are very dark and he generates a deeper persona than is usually seen in the genre. I have been a fan of his for quite some time (I even was given a tshirt with a picture of him that says: Badazz Mofo). His films are unique because they play off as film noir pieces set to a kung fu sub genre rather than merely conform (or at least some of his movies). Now, in his cameo in Tarantino's "Kill Bill," he steals the show. He never really got the recognition he deserves. He is the Fred WIllimason or Clint Eastwood of his kind.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
ouch!, 4 July 1999

Author: Doug Galecawitz (dougg@evilnet.net) from Lisle, IL

I first heard about this through Christian Slater's character in True Romance, so I bought it. 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. He is paid by people to go around kicking the hell out of other people. Good action sequence and good directing over shadow the not so great acting. This movie originally had an X rating in the United States because of a scene where Chiba castrates a man with his bare hand. It remains the only movie ever rated X not to have any sex in it. My favorite scene is the X-Ray vision skull cracker scene which later went on to be used in the ultra ultra violent Story Of Ricky.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Moral of the Story: Don't do a flying kick at a guy standing in front of a window., 23 October 2005

Author: wierzbowskisteedman from England

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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. Set in twentieth century Japan, the film quickly sets Sonny's character up as one of, if not the toughest, most brutal antihero in the history of cinema. After going to great lengths to rescue a guy from being executed, Sonny meets the brother and sister who hired him for the assignment, and then kills the guy and sells the girl into prostitution just because they didn't keep their word regarding his payment details! As the film deals with Sonny's moral - free monster of a character, there is no time in between the awesome fight sequences for emotion or fortune cookie wisdom spouting. Only once, when we learn about the fate of Sonny's father, is there any emotion directed towards his character. The rest of the time the film is reliant on Sonny's charisma to give it any depth past the fight scenes. Thankfully, Sonny has bucket loads of it but as this is a martial arts film it wouldn't really matter if he didn't. He is without a doubt one of the coolest Asian actors ever.

Overall this is essential for any fans of Japanese chop socky cinema or martial arts in general. It has everything; an impossibly cool and tough lead, huge body count, swords, axes, guns, OTT blood spewing, people falling to their deaths, cars being tipped of bridges, a revenge subplot, people spitting out their teeth, gorgeous Japanese women and a guy being hit in the stomach so hard his last meal comes out his mouth! Oh and one of the coolest theme tunes in history.

A ten out of ten film if there ever was one.

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