Japan's answer to the Bruce Lee craze is revealed in this one-of-a-kind movie; the guy they called Sonny Chiba. Chiba's reputation as an invincible tough guy in the west rests solely on this ultra-violent movie which is remembered by all those fortunate to have seen it for the sheer violence alone. Every other factor in the film pales in comparison. Looking at it from a distance, this takes a leaf from the popular Japanese samurai cinema by making the central character an honourable but unlikable one. He's even more misogynistic than Hanzo the Razor (who interrogates female suspects using his penis!) and casually sells off one of his female employees to a prostitution racket at the beginning of the movie. His character may not be likable, but he commands our respect at the sheer efficiency in killing all the bad guys this movie has to offer.The plot is slightly convoluted and contrived, but no more so than most martial arts films. Let's just say it isn't the strong point here. After helping a man escape from prison, Chiba is employed to kidnap a girl recently come into a fortune. However he turns on his employers, who attempt to have him killed as he knows their secrets. Later, Chiba finds himself employed by the girl's uncle to protect her, and he finds himself up again an army of the Yakuza come the finale. The dubbing is pretty poor, it has to be said, and the acting isn't particularly fantastic either. Chiba is impressively fast in the various fight scenes, but his relentless posturing is more amusing than intimidating. The supporting cast is adequate at best, although Chiba's buddy Ratnose is fairly likable in an irritating way.Back to the action, and this film contains more gore than most horror flicks from the period. This is the reason it was rated X back in America on release. The violence comes thick and fast. Chiba busts a guy's teeth out, breaks a dozen limbs and stamps on people's chests until the bones break. Later he castrates a would-be rapist and tears out a man's entire throat. The most well-remember moment is when he whacks a guy on the head and an X-ray shows us the skull breaking. Gallons of blood are spilt during the course of the film and I loved every minute of it. The violence is so in-your-face that you can't help but be amused by it. Things hot up for the excellent finale, set on board a boat, where Chiba fights off countless thugs and bad guys in a taut and exceptionally adrenaline-packed sequence. A great conclusion to a great movie all round. Incredibly, two sequels followed – THE RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER and THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE as well as the spin-off movie SISTER STREET FIGHTER which itself spawned numerous sequels. However, none of them could match the sheer visceral appeal of this movie.

"The Streetfighter" is a film about treachery and intrigue in a martial arts setting. Basically, "Takuma 'Terry' Tsurugi" (Sonny Chiba) is a mercenary who is willing to do just about anything for money. So, when he helps free a criminal, "Tateki Shikenbaru" (Masashi Ishibashi) from death row and isn't paid as promised he kills Tateki's brother "Gijun Shikenbaru" (Jiro Chiba) and sells his sister "Nachi Shikenbaru" (Etsuko Shihomi) into prostitution. This infuriates Tateki who swears revenge. Meanwhile, the Yakuza contact Terry and offer him money to kidnap an oil heiress named "Sarai Chuayut" (Yutaka Nakajima). Unfortunately, they don't offer enough and he refuses the assignment. Fearing that he knows too much the Yakuza and Hong Kong syndicate decide to assassinate him and kidnap Sarai on their own. At this point he decides to offer his services to protect Sarai. Anyway, like all martial arts movies this film has plenty of fast-paced action. Likewise, it consists of very bad dialogue and several scenes which require a person to suspend all logic. For example, when Sarai is kidnapped Terry manages to follow her rather effortlessly without any explanation of how he knows where they are going. At any rate, while I don't consider this to be as polished as those featuring Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, it still managed to keep me entertained for the most part.

Sonny Chiba shows up early giving the last rights to a guy on death row – the 'last Okinawa karate master' actually. He gives him the means to escape. Maybe he's a good guy. but I doubt it. Chiba just looks mean and ugly. He certainly isn't the Jet Li type.But, we soon find he is a thug-for-hire as the brother and sister show up and they are light in the cash they owe him. brother goes out the window and sister gets sold as a sex slave.This guy is so bad that he can walk out on the Yakusa. He will join any side that pays him more. What a sweetheart! The film gets gorier and gorier from here. This is the first film in the US to get a X or violence, so expect to seem lots of blood.There are a lot of interesting characters, and lots of fighting, and lots of ...well, I guess you can expect that from a street fighter.

I must confess that upon initially sitting and viewing this, it struck me to be one of those films that you hear lots of praise for but upon watching it yourself, cannot for the life of you understand what all the fuss and hype is about.Certainly, the film starts off in a decidedly disjointed manner and to be honest is a somewhat less than spectacular affair until a good way into its total running time. However, keep watching because matters do pick up and indeed pick up admirably towards the end….You see what really saves and indeed makes this film so memorable is its incredible scenes of graphic ultra-violence which even today still pack quite a wallop. In fact, this film was ostensibly the first non-horror film to be awarded an 'X' certificate back upon its initial release.Amongst the choice sights on offer include our protagonist gouging various cronies eyeballs, ripping off a would be rapists genitals with his bare hands(!), tearing out a mans throat and punching one poor chap so hard in the gut that he pukes! (probably the nastiest scene of all in fact!) Also of note include some nice gory head smashings such as when one poor wretch takes a fall over a railing and the infamous sequence in which our man cracks another chaps skull; the fatal blow being shown in 'x-ray' form!For fans of a bit of screen violence, you can't go wrong with this classic!