The Street Fighter Trilogy — The Street Fighter Trilogy( Blu Ray)

The Street Fighter Trilogy is a Blu-Ray Boxset bringing together the three Street Fighter films from the early 70s, which very much pushed the levels of bloody & brutal violence within martial art cinema.  This three-disc boxset from Arrow Video, features new scans for each film, new commentary tracks for the first two films, and a few other archive extras.

All three films in the Street Fighter Trilogy were directed by Nagano Prefecture-born Shigehiro Ozawa.  Between the mid 50’s, and the mid 70’s he helmed an impressive ninety-three credits. These went from gang-focused crime picture Zubekô Tenshi (1960),  swordplay period drama Kengo Tengu Matsuri (1961) and samurai meets gadget-heavy spy film Killer’s Mission (1969).

 

So on the first disc, we find The Street Fighter (aka  Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken) appeared in 1974, and it most certainly showed a new level of brutality & gore within the marital art/ action genre. And while it’s far from the most plot-heavy movie, it rapidly moves from one fight/ action scene to another- with each seemingly amping up the intensity/ OTT-ness.

In the film's lead role we have Sonny Chiba as martial art master turned mercenary Terry Tsurugi. And aside from the brutality & gore- his often facially expressive & vocal hissing fighting style really makes the film stand out from the sea of marital art film mediocrity.

The main plot/ focus finds Terry protecting oil heiress Sarai(Yutaka "Doris" Nakajima). Terry is joined by his rather quirky, bantering, and chicken-cooking sidekick Ratnose (Goichi Yamada). As the film unfolds the rather morally dubious/ sleazy Terry- he sells off a woman to prostitution, and liberal grabs/ rough-ups female kind. Going from one fight after another, with some great nasty/ bright red spurting violence. We have teeth smashed out, a building fall head smashes death, bloody testicle squash/ rip, and in the film's wonderful OTT but moody rain-drenched finale we have a throat rip & tongue pulled out kill.

Chiba really does have a such great screen presence, and he doesn’t always win his fights- often gets beaten/ messed up. The film comes in at just over an hour & thirty minute, and while maybe a bit more plot substance may have helped to give the film more re-watchabilty/ depth- if you’re looking for a mean, brutal, and at times quite nasty X cert martial art action film The Street Fighter is a great ride.

The disc features a new 2k scan of the film- and this looks very crisp & bold, with the bright red blood tones being really impactful. On the extras side the only new thing on this disc is a commentary track with Asian film specialists Andrew Heskins and James Mudge of easternkicks.com. This is a very chatty affair- it’s ok with some entertaining banter, but I didn’t learn too much. They begin by talking about how this is the most-known film from both the director & lead actor.  We find out the film was called Clash- Killer Fist in the US, this was the first nonpornographic film to receive an x cert in the country, and unfortunately, the American version landed up in the public domain- so it got released in very low-quality versions. We find out when each of them first saw the film, and how it differed from the other martial art films in the early 70s. Later on, they discuss the film's violence, the lead actor's facial expressions, and the new print of the film… an ok track, but I won’t be playing it again.  Otherwise, on the archive side we get an interview with Chiba discussing his playing of the part(27.12) I’m guessing this is from the mid-2010’s. There’s Cutting Moments ( 13.04) which finds US director Jack Sholder discussing his role in creating the legend of Sonny Chiba in the states.  The disc is finished off with original Japanese and U.S. trailers, and an Image gallery.

 

Appearing the same year as the first film 1974 Return Of The Street Fighter, rather polished & cleaned up its lead character, moving it more towards almost superhero-type invincibility. With sadly less nasty spark to the fighting in general, and less brutality too.

The film starts off with a bang- with martial art master turned mercenary Terry Tsurugi, being given a case full of cash to take silence two men. The first man is locked up in the local police station- so on a motorbike, he rams the gates, gets arrested then promptly(with handcuffs still on) takes out a bunch of police officers, as well as putting his fingers through the throat of the first mark, ripping out his vocal cords.

We fairly soon meet Terry’s new sidekick Kitty (Yōko Ichiji )- a fast-talking, pig-tailed, knitted hat, and flared dungaree-wearing woman in her early twenties. In the first quarter of the film, we get a taut rooftop chase, and a snow-top mountain fight-out with Terry facing off against a host of weapon-welding fighters.  But unfortunately pacing issues/less-than-inspired elements start to kick in fairly soon- as we get a rather bland karate dojo set martial art presentation, as well as a fair few office-bound meetings/ interactions.

Sadly, as we go on the office-based scenes increase- and this makes the middle of the film really drag. In its last quarter or so, things get more action bound- with a restaurant shoot-out come fight, a sauna and swimming pool battle. With us moving towards a series of fairly lengthy, if rather clean/ polished fight-offs.

We have a bit more plot/subplot elements compared with the first film- these take in dodge dojo deals, the mafia, and a cop who quits his job. Though I’m afraid none of the plot threads really pulled me in, and to be honest rather slowed the flow/ pace of the film.

The version we have here runs at one hour and twenty-two minutes, though IMDB lists a one hour & twenty-eight-minute cut. So, if this is correct then that explains the lack of more nasty violence. Sure we do still get some- a rather ridiculous eyeball squeezed-out attack, a bloody head attack, and a few bloody mouths- but nothing as memorable kill-wise as the first film.

Return Of The Street Fighter is a just-ok sequel. It just lacks the nasty edge of the first film, has too many office-based scenes, and ultimately feels a little too polished & sleek for its own good.

On this disc, we get another new 2k scan- and once again this looks very good & clean. On the new extras side of this disc, we get commentary track Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of the Martial Arts- and this is a very well-researched & well-observed track.  He begins by talking about the films James Bound like the pre-credits set up. We find out the literal English translation from the original title Fist Of The Assassin, and in the film, Chiba uses a mix of karate and Shaolin Kung Fu. We get interesting bios of bit part actors, and find out the lead actor was the age of thirty-three when he appeared in these films- which is fairly old for martial artists. We get a detail about the different weapons used in the martial art presentations. We get a brief history of the Karate form- which is one of the more recent martial arts, but has gone on to become one of the most popular of them all.  Later on, he talks about the film's use of flashbacks, the film's soundtrack/its composer, and much more. All in all, an excellent track. The only other extras of this disc are the Japanese theatrical trailer and U.S. teaser/theatrical trailer, and image gallery

 

Finally, we have The Streetfighter’s Last Revenge- and once again it’s from the year 1974.  Plot-wise this time around mercenary Terry Tsurugi is tracking down three separate cassettes- which together detail how to prepare a perfect heroin mix.

I’d say this is a tonally halfway house between the first & second film- with Tsurugi back to his misogynistic/ sleazed ways from the first film. He has a wardrobe full of latex face masks in his apartment/ gym- and he uses these on a few occasions, and at one point he wears a face that also features vampire teeth!.

We as we expected get a fair few fights, and these are all well chronograph- and at times quite tense. This time around Tsurugi is more mortal, and at points loses/ gets badly beaten up. We have a few memorable characters- like a man dressed as a black-suited Mexican, who can cut through steel, bend & warp chains. 

The whole thing runs on this version for around one hour & nineteen minutes- though seemingly there is a version that runs five or so minutes more. The brutal kills/ attacks are really paired back here- yes there are a few moments of bloodiness, but these are fleeting/ brief.

The Streetfighter’s Last Revenge is a better film than the first sequel- been more wholly watchable/ entertaining- I just wish there had been a bit bloodier brutality in place.

On this final disc, we just get the film, US & Japanese trailers. The print here is an HD 1080p- and again it looks good and well-defined….just a little sad there is nothing else.

 

The finished release comes with a double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork. As well as an illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the films by Mark Schilling and Chris Poggiali and a Sonny Chiba filmography.

It is certainly great to have all three Street Fighter in one place, and all three new prints look very good. It’s just a pity there couldn’t have been a few more new extras on display, but I guess this isn’t always possible/ feasible. If you enjoy the more extreme/grindhouse side of martial arts/ and or are a fan of Sonny Chiba's work- this will be something, you’ll be wanting to give a look.