Plenty Of Brutal Action, Good Photography and Great Music
Disadvantages:
Cut Version Has Nonsensical Plot & Is Too Short !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
'Return Of The Street Fighter' - Japan- 1974
Fun sequel to Sonny Chiba's groundbreaking 'Streetfighter' film. Takuma Tsurgi returns (as you would expect) to punch kick and stamp his way through his enemies in this 70s brutalist karate film.
Chiba for the uninitiated was an Olympic standard karate master who starred in loads of films in Japan over the seventies and eighties. Chiba is awesome as usual, in the 'Streetfighter' films he plays Takuma Tsurgi a mean merciless assassin who is out for himself and fights dirty when he can.
Although not a patch on the original, it's full on and gory (although toned down slightly from the first film), it features tonnes of action, funky music, stylish cinematography and some great 70s kitsch.
It has a lighter tone than the original with a plot about the mafia blackmailing karate schools to justify the relentless and brutal fight scenes. However most people won't be watching this for it's great plot, instead they'll be watching to witness beautifully staged and brutal fight scenes.
This is a Japanese martial arts film so don't expect long extended balletic duelling Instead Chiba dispatches dozens of foes quickly and brutally. There are some interesting scenes where we see displays of different weapons nunchukas and swords etc. There is a great duel on top of a building and a fight on a ski slope where Chiba punches a guy so hard that his eyeballs pop out.
If you enjoyed Kill bill you may well want to check this out, not only does sonny Chiba appear in Kill Bill as the sword master but the final fight, where Chiba kills dozens of bodyguards in an array of styles, was partly the inspiration for Tarantino's sword fight massacre (the set is similar as well, if a little smaller). Fans of the original 'Streetfighter' film will also enjoy this film.
This film is the 'cut' version, but in this case the violence is still intact, instead 11 minutes of plot were removed to speed the film up. Many people claim the film actually benefits from these cuts but it makes the plot seem totally ridiculous as it jumps from incident to incident. It would be nice to to see the uncut version. This of course makes the film only 79 minutes long, this includes several long flash backs to the first film. It's not very good value for money considering the paltry features on offer.
There are no audio options just standard stereo soundtrack and Japanese language dialogue with good English & Dutch Subtitles.
However this is a great wide screen remaster from the original print.
There are minimal features: some Sonny Chiba trailers, a hard to read two-page biography, a few badly reproduced stills (some of which are from 'Streetfighter's Last Revenge'!).
It's good to see this film but the DVD would get higher marks were it were better value for money and uncut.
More details
Soundtrack
Outstanding
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Good
Value for Money
Very Poor
What format are you reviewing?
DVD
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