The Street Fighter (1974)
Watching this, it took me a while to figure out why Sonny Chiba has such a huge following among kung-fu cinema enthusiasts. He's not overly charismatic, he's thoroughly ungraceful and the faces he makes are downright ridiculous. But then it struck me -- he does have one thing over all other Bruce Lee wannabes: He genuinely seems to enjoy hurting people. Often angry to the point where he appears in danger of bursting several blood vessels, he (or at least his character) never hesitates to lay on a smackdown far more severe than what is rightly deserved -- a towering, lumbering sadist in anti-hero garb. This film, his starmaking vehicle, is thusly tailored towards these tendencies. The carnage here is over-the-top, overdone.... and pretty spectacular as well. (Two words: Kung-fu castration. Ouch.) Brutality only goes so far before you actually have to have a movie to build around it, though, and this film's pretty insufferable when Chiba's not bringing the pain. It's not very good, and it (mostly) doesn't deserve its reputation... but hey, if you like to see people getting hurt (and who doesn't?) this movie's okay.
Grade: C+
Watching this, it took me a while to figure out why Sonny Chiba has such a huge following among kung-fu cinema enthusiasts. He's not overly charismatic, he's thoroughly ungraceful and the faces he makes are downright ridiculous. But then it struck me -- he does have one thing over all other Bruce Lee wannabes: He genuinely seems to enjoy hurting people. Often angry to the point where he appears in danger of bursting several blood vessels, he (or at least his character) never hesitates to lay on a smackdown far more severe than what is rightly deserved -- a towering, lumbering sadist in anti-hero garb. This film, his starmaking vehicle, is thusly tailored towards these tendencies. The carnage here is over-the-top, overdone.... and pretty spectacular as well. (Two words: Kung-fu castration. Ouch.) Brutality only goes so far before you actually have to have a movie to build around it, though, and this film's pretty insufferable when Chiba's not bringing the pain. It's not very good, and it (mostly) doesn't deserve its reputation... but hey, if you like to see people getting hurt (and who doesn't?) this movie's okay.
Grade: C+
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