The Street Fighter

(1974, Japan, Toei Company)

Dir. Shigehiro Ozawa; Scr. Koji Takada; Action Dir. Ken Kazama, T. Harada, Reggy Jones; Cast Sonny Chiba, Goichi Yamada, Yutaka Nakajima, Tony Cetera, Masafumi Suzuki.

91 min.

Sonny Chiba is practically rabid in this iconic fight fest, an attempt to create a Japanese Bruce Lee with an exploitation film so blood thirsty the plot barely gets going before another attack of the red stuff. Yet there is a perverted poetry to the film, despite Sonny’s penchant for targeting the body’s most delicate parts (he tears out eyes, throats and, yes, that part), and follows a code of conduct not too dissimilar from Japan’s classic chambara films and the subsequent spaghetti westerns popular at the time.

Chiba’s character, Terry Sugury, isn’t really a street fighter. He’s more of a contract killer and badass-for-hire recruited by unsavoury sorts to handle their dirty business. When Terry refuses to kidnap the Chinese daughter of a deceased oil tycoon, the Yakuza go crazy and, rather brazenly, try desperately to kill him. It’s quite a half arsed attempt, though, as Terry’s karate moves lay waste to a barrage of thugs in both Tokyo and Hong Kong, before finishing on an oil rig fighting organized crime syndicates singlehandedly.

But look beyond Terry’s eye-gouging and head-kicking and therein lies a complicated character. Terry’s a mixed-raced loner carrying the burden of a murdered father and battling a double-pronged brother and sister karate attack due to a botched job at the start of the movie. Plus his sidekick is bloody useless.

That’s too much for any man to bare. Luckily Chiba tackles everything head on with all the gusto of a bat to the face. Such intensity can only be applauded. The film manages to carry some genuine clout beyond its B movie shackles, transforming instantly into a great franchise with a hot follow-up called Return of the Street Fighter.

Chiba’s most cherished adventure and deservedly so.

AKA: Sudden Attack: The Killing Fist

My Lucky Stars

(1985, HK, Golden Harvest)

Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Pro. Leonard Ho Koon-cheung; Scr. Barry Wong Ping-yiu; Action Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Cast Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung Kam-bo, Sibelle Hu Hui-chung, Richard Ng Yiu-hon, Eric Tsang Chi-wai, Charlie Chin Chiang-lin, Stanley Fung Shui-fan, Michiko Nishiwaki, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-ying, Dick Wei, Lau Kar-wing, Bolo Yeung.

92 min.

Jackie Chan loses his cop partner Yuen Biao to some shady thugs in a Japanese amusement park and calls upon a few close friends to help him out. Enter Sammo and his crooked friends, causing a frenzied slapstick pile-up which continues until the brainless crew reach Japan. This is fundamentally a comedy, and not a bad one, but when Jackie appears (albeit infrequently) the action takes over. He dons a bigheaded baby mascot uniform and sword-slices some Samurai bad guys, before battling Dick Wei in an extended final showdown where all involved get to strut their stuff. Niponese nutcracker Nishiwaki certainly stands out in a skimpy black swimsuit, until Sammo floors the girl after throwing long time colleague Lau Kar-wing through a coffee table. When Yuen Biao is finally unleashed, he gives Lam Ching-ying a right good seeing to with a little help from our man Chan. For lighthearted nonsense with a hefty punch, nothing quite beats My Lucky Stars.

AKA: Winners & Sinners 2

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

(2003, US, Miramax Films)

Dir. Quentin Tarantino; Pro. Lawrence Bender; Scr. Quentin Tarantino; Action Dir. Yuen Woo-ping; Cast Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Sonny Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Julie Dreyfus, Daryl Hannah, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, David Carradine.

111 min.

The initial reaction to Kill Bill was harsh. Tarantino’s fourth film after a six year hiatus was bound to face scrutiny, especially one which shows such an extravagant disregard for what many of his fans were expecting. Kill Bill is a strange hybrid of gangster film, black comedy, Samurai-slasher and kung fu revenge – a big, bloody epic spread over two volumes. The Times labelled it a “geek’s wet dream” proclaiming it to be his most “adolescent” film.

True, much of the film’s content has been lifted from hours spent in grindhouse theatres with obvious references to Game of Death, Lone Wolf & Cub, the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Lady Snowblood, Shaw Brothers and even his own repertoire. And true, much of the free-flowing dialogue that made Pulp Fiction such a gem is left wanting: the film is mostly in Japanese with English subtitles.

But, ultimately, who cares. If Kill Bill is a geek’s wet dream then prepare for a clean pair of underpants.

This is a riotous homage to the B movie, the size and scale of which is quite unsurpassed. Again, Tarantino manages to redefine action movie conventions by adding depth of character to exploitative themes. The blinding, no-holds-barred fight sequences are equaled only by the film’s flawless performances – particularly the excellent Thurman, who plays the vengeful ‘Bride’ seeking retribution on the Deadly Venoms Assassination Squad responsible for the massacring of the entire congregation on her wedding day and leaving her comatose for four years.

The motive for such brutal annihilation is unclear. Tarantino’s non-linear narrative jumps back and forth and ultimately becomes clearer in Vol. 2. Nevertheless, there is just so much to talk about here: like the bit where the Crazy 88 – a sword-wielding Yakuza mob – duel our unbridled heroine (wearing Bruce Lee’s legendary yellow jumpsuit) in an extended battle so bloody it had to be shown in black and white; and the background story to O-Ren Ishii (Liu), a lethal Japanese/American assassin, told via a raucous anime excerpt which makes even the most vehemently graphic manga look like Dumbo. The hardened kung fu fans (OK, “geeks”) will just love the Shaw Brothers references plus the casting of cult icons like David Carradine, Gordon Liu and Sonny Chiba, not to mention Woo-ping’s excellent fight choreography.

With enough energy to power a nuclear reactor, and a stonking great soundtrack to match, Kill Bill is the coolest damn thing on the planet.