Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken (1974)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Shigehiro Ozawa

Writers:

Kôji Takada (writer)
Motohiro Torii (writer)

Release Date:

November 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

If you've got to fight...fight dirty!

Plot:

Terry is a tough, mercenary, master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter...

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Yakuza | Fight | Tragic Hero | Anti Hero

Cast

Sonny Chiba	...	Takuma Tsurugi (Terry)
Goichi Yamada	...	Rakuda Zhang
Yutaka Nakajima	...	Sarai Hammett
Tony Cetera	...	Abdul Jadot
Masafumi Suzuki	...	Kendo Masaoka
Masashi Ishibashi	...	Tateki Shikenbaru
Akira Shion	...	Liang Dong-Yi
Osman Yusuf	...	Kingstone
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bin Amatsu	...	Môrôkô
Jirô Chiba	...	Gijun Shikenbaru
Tatsuo Endo	...	Bayan
Ryuji Katagiri	...	Hanada
Nobuo Kawai	...	Tetsunosuke Tsuchida
Takuzo Kawatani	...	Ôshima
Chiyoko Kazama	...	Yang Ji-Chun
Ken Kazama	...	Senkaku Kan
Takashi Noguchi	...	Yokoyama
Hitoshi Omae	...	Musukari
Chico Roland	...	Bondo
Etsuko Shihomi	...	Nachi Shikenbaru
Kojiro Shirakawa	...	Inspector Chen
Fumio Watanabe	...	Renzo Mutaguchi
Rinichi Yamamoto	...	Kowloon Dinsau

Also Known As:

Clash! Killer Fist (International: English title) (literal title)
Sudden Attack: The Killing Fist (literal English title)
The Street Fighter
The Streetfighter (International: English title)

Runtime:

Australia:91 min | UK:87 min (cut version) | USA:75 min (R-rated version) | USA:91 min (unrated version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | UK:18 | West Germany:18 (cut) | Finland:K-18 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:M (VHS rating) (cut) | France:-16 | New Zealand:R13 (DVD rating) | Norway:18 (video premiere) | USA:R | USA:X (original rating) | Canada:18+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Toei Company

Trivia:

First film to ever get an X rating for violence.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Near the end of the movie, on the ocean liner, Terry is fighting three men in a hallway and some equipment is visible at the bottom of the screen.

Quotes:

Terry Tsurugi: Tell that bitch who sent you how sorry I am I can no longer be her friend

Movie Connections:

Referenced in True Romance (1993)

S10 Reviews: The Street Fighter (1974)

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.