NOTE: I'm going to go by the characters names in the english dub for this review because that is what I watched. If you want the Japanese character names read the cast list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Street_Fighter
There were two aspects of this movie I loved. The use of slow-motion was great because it helped me see what was going on during the fight scenes. While I enjoy movies where the moves look more fast and real I also like seeing them cinematically. This did that. I'm not sure what martial arts are being used at times but I enjoyed what I saw. Few movies show the devastation stuff like this can do to the body and this movie never shies away from that. Breaking teeth, breaking skulls, vomiting from being punched, bloody kills. This would satisfy a horror fan with the amount of blood, gore, and bodily injuries. I also enjoyed that there were no heroes in this movie. Some characters like Sarai are innocent and Terry protecting her makes him seem more heroic but no one is full hero. Terry is arrogant and greedy but does one heroic thing by protecting Sarai. Some of the character rivalries between Terry, the mob, and the Shikenbaru family reminded me of something out of western. That is only increased by Terry and Junjo wanting to have a duel at the end of the movie. Even some of the other characters like Dingsau have three dimensional character moments that elevate this to more than just a great and violent martial arts movie. It has substance.
The movie starts with Terry Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) going to a prison disguised as a monk in order to break out Junjo Shikenbaru (Masashi Ishibashi). Junjo wants to duel Tsurugi in a fight and they start fighting in the cell. He uses a punch that lowers Junjo's heart rate enough to put him into a coma in order that he will have to be taken to the hospital, as this is the prison policy if someone is ill. While en route to the hospital Terry and his sidekick, Ratnose (Goichi Yamada) ambush the ambulance and break Junjo out. While Terry and Ratnose watch the news about the breakout, Junjo's sister, Nachi (Etsuko Shihomi) and his brother Gijun (Jiro Chiba) come to ask for more time to pay. They had said they would pay 3 million yen for Terry to breakout Junjo. Terry is not okay with this and fights them. He dodges a flying kick by Gijun who falls out of the window. He then beats Nachi and sells her into sex slavery, under the control of Mutaguchi (Fumio Watanabe). Mutaguchi then attempts to hire Terry to kidnap Sarai Hammett (Yutaka Nakajima). Sarai is the daughter of a recently deceased oil tycoon. Terry refuses when he learns that Mutaguchi is influenced by the mafia.
Meanwhile Sarai is being protected by her Uncle Masaoka (Masfumi Suzuki) who runs a karate school. Terry goes to the school and kidnaps Sarai but he is soon surrounded by Masaoka and other members of the school. He quickly dispatches several of the students but fights Masoaka to a standstill. Soon after this two blind henchman are hired by the mob to capture Sarai and Masaoka tasks Terry with protecting her. Junjo is also found as well as Nachi. They are hired by the yakuza's ally in Hong Kong, Dingsau to avenge their brother's death and kill Terry. Terry and Ratnose are eventually ambushed by men using a bulldozer and manage to kill them. One of Sarai's allies betrays her and eventually the two blind men help kill her bodyguards and she is captured. Terry rescues her, but then is also captured and Ratnose gives away Sarai's location in order to spare Terry's life and that causes Terry to forsake him.
The blood and gore in the fight scenes is incredible in this movie. There are many scenes where Terry karate chops or punches someone's head and force makes blood come out. One of the coolest scenes is when he hits someone in the head and you see this animated X-ray of the guy's skull fracturing. There are also many gory splat scenes where people fall from high distances and the movie doesn't hide the result. There is one great scene where Terry holds onto a balcony on the freighter and trips a guy to fall by grabbing his feet. There are many fights where he stomps on arms and pokes at people's eyes and even rips people's throats out. As I said in the thesis the action is filmed in a way where the fighting never looks too fast, nor too slow. This is one of my favorites as far as editing the fight scenes goes.
This movie wouldn't be as interesting if the characters weren't interesting. Sarai is the only innocent character in this and Masaoka is the only one I would consider a "good guy." Even the Shikenbaru family does not seem totally innocent. This movie reminded me of a western in that way, specifically spaghetti westerns where it seems like the hero of the story is just a hero by circumstance in some cases. I always think of A Fistful of Dollars where the hero is responsible for every death in the movie, yet he does something heroic by compromising himself to save a family. Terry only does one noble thing in this and that is save and protect Sarai. Apart from that you see him be sexually aggressive, basically trying to force himself on any woman he meets. He kills Gijun, or is at least responsible for his death, and has Nachi sold into sex slavery because they wanted more time to pay. Terry is a selfish character and when he gets mad at Ratnose you think he is a hypocrite. Even other characters like Dingsau are interesting. During the duel at the end he kills men that are trying to interfere, showing he has some moral compass as well. Everyone has something more to them than you would expect. There are also some funny scenes. The workout scene with Terry and Ratnose comes to mind.
Spoiler Section
Terry fights with one of the blind samurais and Ratnose sacrifices himself to help Terry. Terry eventually finds everyone on board a freighter and fights his way through the guards to rescue Sarai. Dingsau eventually lets Junjo duel him. Nachi puts Terry in a hold and has Junjo stab both him and her. Terry rips out Junjo's vocal chords to win the duel. The movie ends with Sarai and Dingsau helping him to stand up.
I can't wait to watch this movie again as I think I will remember even more imagery from some of the fights and I want to be with some of these characters again as immoral as some of them are.
Rating: 10/10
Trivia: First film in the United States to get an X rating solely for violence.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl_zkOruS5I
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