Customer Reviews

Sonny Chiba - Masutatsu Oyama Trilogy

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great set for Chiba fans. You can tell they put some love into it with great picture and sound. All are in widescreen and subtitled with an option for simulated 5.1 sound. For those who haven't seen these movies before it's sort of a Karate action drama based on Chiba's mentor. They're the original uncut versions so there shouldn't be anything missing. Extras are limited to trailers. I'm no expert on widescreen, color saturation or sound so purists may have another opinion. I personally love this set.

I am a practitoner of Grand Master Mas Oyama's Kyokushin Karate for over 30 years now. Kyokushin is Japan's strongest and No. 1 style of Karate, very different from the other styles. I remember when the first movie in this triology "Kenka Karate Kyokushin Ken" was released to U.S. movie theaters under the title "Champion Of Death". Starring Japan action star Sonny Chiba, it was a big hit, particularly in drive-in movie theaters in the late 70's. I remember writing a movie review of this film when it played in my own hometown so many years ago. Later, this movie was shown on THE MOVIE CHANNEL and I had it recorded, being the only one around who had a dubbed English language copy of this movie. Eventually, "Champion Of Death" was released on video by a second rate video distribution company. My copy from TV was superior in quality to what was released, even clearer than the dvd that was later released. Now, we have the "Sonny Chiba - Masutatsu Oyama Trilogy" officially released, remastered, in wide screen format, containing all three movies in this series uncut in the original Japanese language with removable English subtitles. A dream come true and so affordable for a 3 disk boxset. I'm sure this movie trilogy was done justice because of the recent interest in action star Sonny Chiba since his appearance in the movie hit "Kill Bill Vol. One". But, whatever the reason, all Kyokushin students should grab this set while it's still available. True, it may be loosely based on Mas Oyama's life story, but it still worth owning as part of your martial arts movie collection. The third movie "Karate For Life" contains the best on screen Karate action in Sonny Chiba's entire career. I highly recommend this exciting dvd boxset. OSU!

This boxset of films chronicling Oyama's trials and tribulations has more in common with the The Sister Street Fighter Collection set (also released by BCI) in that the packaging is well thought out-three discs in slim plastic cases with original poster art on the inlay on their interiors. However, the first two films-Karate Bull Fighter and Karate Bear Fighter are so identical that it becomes tedious; Oyama challenges a school, get's banished, flees to the country-side, kills an animal, and returns to kill his enemies. Karate Bull Fighter outshines Karate Bear Fighter in that the bull is real versus the hilarious man in bear suit featured in the later. The jewel in the crown is Karate For Life in which Oyama finds himself in occupied Okinawa fighting American wrestlers and takes up shelter with a rag tag lot of Okinawan youth. All three films are not as action-packed as The Street Fighter series; all involve some melodramatic love and death side stories, the same villain appears in all three films, and kids in particular spew repetitive line such a "Ojiisan" over and over (as seen in Karate For Life). All in all, this set is better than the Sonny Chiba Collectionand the The Executioner/The Executioner II: Karate Inferno double pack.

Chiba is great...there is something 'factor x-ish' about his on screen portrayals of martial arts...although never in danger of an Oscar, he made a few flix that should be on the shelf of every 'chop sockey' film fan....although the historical accuracy is questionable, this is top of that list...

This is some classic chiba name taken. Chiba doesn't really change his attitude that much from his other movies that I've seen, except for now, he's Oyama on a journey of self-discovery and of course name taking. I would doubt if anyone could openly kill this many people in modern times and not once be tracked by the police, but I loved the series none the less.

These are all old movies for people to keep mostly as collector's items. The translations are not 100% accurate (notably, in the first movie Mas Oyama's name is translated as 'Baitatsu Oyama' - which in any case is a common error even Japanese people make when reading his name). The product is exactly what it says it is in the seller's description; don't expect cool special effects or HD image. Good buy after all.

I paid all of 9 dollars for this 3 movie set.Man it was worth every penny and alot more! All 3 were very cool Karate flicks from the 70's era.Great picture and sound,nice simple package! A must have for Chiba fans! I think Adness is great!

This "Trilogy" is actually a rather loosely-connected series of films that happen to have the same leading character (Mas Oyama).I really believe they are not particularly well done. I didn't get any sense of an attempt to explore the character of Oyama Sensei. The Karate sequences were nothing special and I was not made aware of what, if anything but raw strength, distinguished his style from that of any of the other characters represented in the film. If someone were a true Sonny Chiba fan then the films should be in their collection. Otherwise, see if you can rent them or borrow them from a fellow fan.