The Street Fighter
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Shigehiro Ozawa
Written by	Kôji Takada Motohiro Torii
Starring	Sonny Chiba Goichi Yamada Tony Cetera
Music by	Toshiaki Tsushima
Cinematography	Ken Tsukakoshi
Distributed by	New Line Cinema (USA) Toei Company (Japan)
Release date(s)	February 2, 1974 (Japan) November 1974 (USA)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Followed by	Return of The Street Fighter (1974)

The Street Fighter (激突！殺人拳, Gekitotsu! Satsujin Ken^?), literally Clash, Killer Fist!, is a Japanese martial arts film released in 1974 and produced by Toei Company Ltd. The copyright for the film failed to be renewed and it lapsed into public domain.[1][2]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Cast 3 History 4 External links 5 Reviews 6 See also 7 References

[edit] Plot summary

Takuma Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) is a martial arts master for hire who comes to the rescue of a kidnapped heiress.

The film begins with Tsurugi meeting the condemned murderer Tateki Shikenbaru while disguised as a Buddhist monk. Tsuguri applies his "oxygen coma punch" to Tateki, causing him to collapse just before he can be executed. As Tateki is rushed to a hospital, Tsurugi and his sidekick Rakuda ambush the ambulance and free him. Later, Tateki's brother Gijun and sister Nachi arrive and plead for more time to pay for Tsurugi's help. Outraged, Tsurugi refuses and attacks the siblings. Gijun falls to his death and Nachi is sold into sexual slavery.

A group of gangsters attempt to hire Tsurugi to kidnap Sarai, the daughter of a recently deceased oil tycoon. Tsurugi refuses after discovering that the gangsters are Yakuza. He escapes, but the Yakuza gangsters resolve to kill Tsurugi as well as kidnap Sarai. Tsurugi immediately seeks out Sarai, who is being protected at the Seibukan Karate dojo by her uncle, Kendō Masaoka, a Karate master. Tsurugi captures Sarai and challenges the entire dojo to a fight. He brutalizes the rank-and-file students before Masaoka bests him. Ultimately, Tsurugi offers to protect Sarai, and Masaoka agrees, against Sarai's protests. Meanwhile, the Yakuza's allies in Hong Kong recruit Tateki Shikenbaru to avenge his siblings by killing Tsurugi.

The gangsters make several attempts to kill Tsurugi before they successfully kidnap Sarai. Tsurugi manages to rescue her, but gets captured himself. Rakuda gives up Sarai's location to save Tsurugi, causing the honorable Tsurugi to forsake him. When Tsurugi faces a blind swordsman working for the Hong Kong gangsters, Rakuda dies in a reckless attempt at redemption. Tsurugi finally tracks the gangsters down to a shipyard and fights his way through their guards. In the end, the Hong Kong crime lord permits Tsurugi to duel Tateki. Nachi sacrifices herself to give her brother a free shot with a sai, but Tsurugi survives and kills Tateki. Critically wounded, Tsurugi stumbles to his feet and the film ends abruptly in freeze frame.

[edit] Cast

• Takuma Tsurugi: Sonny Chiba (in the U.S., Tsurugi is dubbed as Terry Tsurugi or Terry Tsuguri)
• Sarai Hammett: Yutaka Nakajima
• Rakuda Zhang: Goichi Yamada
• Tateki Shikenbaru: Masashi Ishibashi
• Gijun Shikenbaru: Jirō Chiba
• Nachi Shikenbaru: Etsuko Shihomi
• Kendō Masaoka: Masafumi Suzuki
• Tetsunosuke Tsuchida: Nobuo Kawai
• Senkaku Kan: Ken Kazama
• Onaga: Yūshiro Sumi
• Abdul Jadot: Tony Cetera
• Kingstone: Ousmane Yusef
• Bondo: Chico Roland
• Bayan: Tatsuo Endō
• Yáng Jì-Chūn: Chiyoko Kazama
• Liáng Dōng-Yī: Akira Shion
• Kowloon Dinsau: Rinichi Yamamoto
• Muskari: Hitoshi Ōmae
• Blind Láng Gōng (Mōrōkō): Bin Amatsu
• Renzō Mutaguchi: Fumio Watanabe
• Ōshima: Takuzō Kawatani
• Hanada: Ryūji Katagiri
• Yokoyama: Takashi Noguchi
• Inspector Chen: Kōjirō Shirakawa

[edit] History

Inspired by the worldwide success of Enter the Dragon, Toei decided to release its own martial arts action films and cast Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba who had been well known in Japan for a while, having starred in many successful action, comedy and drama films, as well as numerous television shows.

The film is well known for its extreme and graphic violent content. The Street Fighter was the first film to receive an X rating solely for violence. The film was especially controversial because of a scene in which Tsurugi castrates a rapist with his bare hands; it is this scene (among others) that reputedly gained the film its 'X' rating. 16 minutes were later edited from the film in order to get an R-rating.

The Street Fighter inspired two sequels, Return of The Street Fighter and The Street Fighter's Last Revenge. Additionally, the film Sister Street Fighter is a spin-off of the film. There was another spinoff entitled Kozure Satsujin Ken, but was brought to the US by a different company under the title Karate Warriors.

In the English dubbed versions of The Street Fighter and Return of The Street Fighter, Chiba's character is identified as "Terry Sugury" in the credits but dubbed by the voice actors as "Terry Tsurugi". In The Street Fighter's Last Revenge, however, the voice actors call him "Terry Tsuguri." Rakuda is named "Ratnose"; The villain Tateki's name is also mistranslated as Junjō.

In 1993, the film (and its sequels) received mainstream exposure in North America when they were featured in Tony Scott's True Romance (written by Quentin Tarantino), which had the two lead characters spending time at a Sonny Chiba Street Fighter marathon.

Currently, the only way to get the subtitled version of the movie is the Region 2 PAL DVD by Optimum Releasing.

[edit] External links

• The_Street_Fighter_-_1974_Toei_Company_Ltd._film at the Internet Movie Database (Dubbed, letterboxed version)
• The Street Fighter available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• The Street Fighter at Allmovie
• The Street Fighter at Google Video (requires Adobe Flash)
• Kung Fu Cinema review
• a review of the entire Street Fighter saga

[edit] Reviews

• Internal Bleeding

[edit] See also

• List of films in the public domain

[edit] References

• Goo Movies