As a critic and movie lover, I have sat through some pretty dreadful stuff in my time. I had never walked out of a film before it ended until I saw..."The Street Fighter". This movie is pure 1970's garbage. It stars Sonny Chiba as a kung-fu assassin so ugly that am surprised his looks did not do the killing instead of his tepid martial-arts.
He looks like a monkey as he gathers his "chi" before attacking. In fact, if I was in his way, I wouldn't be so afraid of his kung-fu as much I would be scared of his face. Thankfully, Chiba's looks have gotten better with age. If you saw him in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", you'd be surprised to learn that it was the same man who starred in these awful, awful films.
He plays Terry Tsuguri, the "hero" of the picture, whose only loyalty is to himself. We've seen these guys before in endless films, the anti-hero, usually a loner who disgusts every character in the film. Yet we, the audience, still want to see them to succeed regardless of their ways. Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken is the ultimate anti-hero badass and I can even see Vin Diesel's Richard B. Riddick being his successor. But Tsuguri is an "anti-hero" who even disgusted me.
I wanted somebody to put a bullet between his eyes halfway through the movie. When nobody did, I stopped watching it. It's not really a martial-arts flick, it's more of an exploitation "shocker" with gruesome, bloody deaths that was the norm in the 1970's drive-in theatres. Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" were some of the more popular of these films.
Those are works that can be appreciated as horror movies, even I enjoyed them. I do not know anybody who's a martial-arts fan that would actually enjoy "The Street Fighter. Any movie where the "hero" forces himself sexually on women should burned to the stake. I mean that with all my heart. This is a work of those who's brains need to be checked into a mental institution. An awful, sick, flick with no redeeming value whatsoever. NO STARS OUT OF FOUR.
He looks like a monkey as he gathers his "chi" before attacking. In fact, if I was in his way, I wouldn't be so afraid of his kung-fu as much I would be scared of his face. Thankfully, Chiba's looks have gotten better with age. If you saw him in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", you'd be surprised to learn that it was the same man who starred in these awful, awful films.
He plays Terry Tsuguri, the "hero" of the picture, whose only loyalty is to himself. We've seen these guys before in endless films, the anti-hero, usually a loner who disgusts every character in the film. Yet we, the audience, still want to see them to succeed regardless of their ways. Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken is the ultimate anti-hero badass and I can even see Vin Diesel's Richard B. Riddick being his successor. But Tsuguri is an "anti-hero" who even disgusted me.
I wanted somebody to put a bullet between his eyes halfway through the movie. When nobody did, I stopped watching it. It's not really a martial-arts flick, it's more of an exploitation "shocker" with gruesome, bloody deaths that was the norm in the 1970's drive-in theatres. Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" were some of the more popular of these films.
Those are works that can be appreciated as horror movies, even I enjoyed them. I do not know anybody who's a martial-arts fan that would actually enjoy "The Street Fighter. Any movie where the "hero" forces himself sexually on women should burned to the stake. I mean that with all my heart. This is a work of those who's brains need to be checked into a mental institution. An awful, sick, flick with no redeeming value whatsoever. NO STARS OUT OF FOUR.