Customer Reviews

Street Fighter [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I won't go into too much detail about The Street Fighter as a film. I enjoyed it and feel that any fan of the martial arts should add this title to their collection. The fight scenes are -- in a word -- BRUTAL.

But instead of going on about the merits of the film, I will instead review The Street Fighter as a DVD. The picture quality is amazingly clear considering the film is so cheaply priced. There's even a Japanese language track in addition to the competent English dub. However, the DVD Audio Set-up menu incorrectly refers to it as Chinese. Also, the Japanese voices do not sync with the mouth movements and there are no subtitles, so watching the film in its original language is a chore even for those who do understand Japanese. There are some other extras on the DVD which seem out of place and irrelevant, but they do add to the "value" of such a budget priced disc. All in all, I recommend this particular DVD edition of The Street Fighter

Often confused with the 1994 martial arts video game movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, this martial arts cult classic was one of the first movies in cinematic history to earn an "X" rating because of violence. Chiba is kung-fu assassin, Terry Sugury, who is hired by the Yakuza for an extortion plot. Using a series of excessively graphic moves, Terry takes out all comers. If you enjoyed the early films of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, you will probably want to check out Chiba, who many consider to be their Japanese equivilent. This film was followed by three other sequels though none quite live up to the action in this one. This one is right up there with "Enter The Dragon" as one of the very best martial arts films of all-time.

I first became interested in this film years ago when I saw a clip from it in True Romance. And the praise given to Sonny Chiba in Quentin Tarantino's script is right on. Sonny China is a bad mother!

The plot of this film is typical to the martial arts genre. Basically Chiba, who plays Terry, is caught up in a Mafia situation that allows him to do a lot of fighting. What makes this film so much fun is how charismatic Chiba is. His character is very dark and very much the antihero. Director Shigehiro Ozawa does a fantanstic job conveying the action which makes the film that much more enjoyable.

When The Street Fighter was originally released in the United States it was given a "X" rating because of the graphic violent content. Today some of the bloody deaths are still hard to watch. This is a martial arts classic and anyone who is interested in the genre should see this movie. Sonny makes it worth it.

'The Street Fighter' isn't one of the classier or more elegant martial arts films, but it's a lotta fun. The fight choreography obviously isn't as complicated or polished as you'd see in more modern films, or even some of the better films of the time, but it's still pretty cool. That, and Chiba's gots real charisma and presence, and is a very solid (...)hero. That's about all you need as far as character is concerned, in this sorta film. This film was infamously violent at it's release, and while this is gonna fade a lot over 30 years, some of the violence here is pretty amusing and impressive. I can imagine people falling out of there chairs while watching the (...) scene 30 years ago. In fact, I could imagine that happening to me now, if I hadn't known about it before hand. The vomit-punch is pretty nasty, too. That, and it just generally has a level of intensity and brutality lacking from most kung-fu films. (Note the scene where Terry breaks one dude's arm three times, right in a row. Painful stuff) The film does take a while to get going, as there is relatively little fighting in the first half of the film, but whaddya expect. It can't all be fighting. (And, some movies try to have too much fighting, which occasionally becomes more tedious and repetitious than just having everyone sit around.) And if avoids the common pitfall of having the neverending 1 on 1 duel. If two characters fight for more than 4 minutes, it's almost guaranteed to get boring. Fortunately, Terrry usually has to fight groups of opponents, which is the real way to go.

Yeah, I'm done. Very entertaining movie.

Grade: B-

I agree with the previous reviewer. Terry Tsurugi is one of the most memorable and enjoyable martial arts characters ever. He's an anti-hero, not a smiling do-gooder. He helps break a guy out of jail, and when the man's brother and sister can't pay up, he throws the brother out the window and sells the sister into Hong Kong prostitution! Chiba's fighting style is unique. Whereas Bruce Lee fought with his trademark high pitched battle cry, Chiba does a strange deep breathing as a prelude to the painful punishment he's about unleash. Chiba uses a strange karate technique with some kung fu influences. It's not nearly as fluid and elegant and Bruce's, in fact a lot of his hand motions are kinda weird and awkward, but he gets the job done. And how! Oh, the plot? The Yakuza and the Chinese Mafia have teamed up with Western gangster's in order to force a deceased millionaire magnate's daughter to sign operations over to them. Terry switches sides and there is plenty of pain to be felt. Arm-breakings, eyeball-pokings, sword-snappings, throat-rippings and vomit-inducing punches, etc. The sequel, Street Fighter's Last Revenge, is also recommened. Fans seem to like it less than this one, but I found the action scenes to be superior.

When I first heard of the Street Fighter I was skeptical. I saw this DVD and it was cool. It had Soony Chiba as a hired help named Terry Tsurugi. When Terry finds out that he was used by the Yakuza(Japanese Mafia), they try to stop him at all costs. Easier said than done, Terry kicks the living daylightrs out of every body that gets in his way even knoking out one guy's teeth,ripping out a guy's viocebox, and tearing off another guy's balls. To put it plainly Chiba is a more vicious Bruce Lee. The visions of him ripping his enemy's limbs off are cool. He teaches the Yakuza a lesson they won't sure forget. No gang can take on Terry and survive. Beat him if you can, survive if he lets you, which he rarely does. This is not for the weak of heart. Fans of Bruce Lee will surely become fans of Sonny Chiba. I highly recomend this movie. The origional Street Fighter was rated X when it was first realesed in the U.S.

As far as I know, this was the first kung fu movie whose main character was a jerk, a far far FAR from admirable guy who used his martial arts to help out crime synidcates and other thugs. Terry Tsurugi is most loyal to whoever has the biggest bank account. The movie opens with him helping a guy break out of prison because he was hired by the guy's brother and sister. When Terry kills the brother and sells the sister into a prostution ring, the convict comes after him for revenge. There are lots of other plots twists as this crazy movie throws in basically everything but the kitchen sink. Some of the fight scenes are really dumb and cheesy, but what do you expect??? REALISM??? GO SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!! This is a fun ride of a flick.

Sonny Chiba is great. As the title suggests the fighting is direct and to the point. Parts of it are dark and hard to see - the showdown on the ship at night - but the fight scenes on the whole are very well done and realistic. A friend told me he saw parts of the Go-Ju form Sae Um Chun on it, I need to see it again to look for that. This is one of the early classics of its genre.

This movie is a true classic in the martial arts genre. Sonny Chiba is a great fighter and his character is the baddest hero you could ever imagine. To give you a glimpse into his brutality, in one scene he sells a girl to the mafia because she couldn't pay him for rescuing her brother from prison. She is then drugged and raped! Over the top violence and excellent fight scenes are what make this movie one of the greatest fight flicks ever.

You are a chump if you haven't seen this movie. Filed in Action-Scope, Sonny Chiba kills lots of people in terrible ways. Ever seen a man tear off another man's privates? Look no further. Also a neat X-ray shot of someone getting his head caved-in.