Posted in: Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 2nd, 2019
As one might guess from my film reviewing resume, I watch a lot of Asian movies. Unfortunately, judging by the same resume, it would appear that most of that is anime and drama. But in my spare time, I do watch a lot of popular Asian cinema, especially with the likes of Donnie Yen or Jing Wu. In addition to contemporary favorites, I certainly have not forgotten the roots of martial art cinema in the likes of Bruce Lee and others. Well, today I received a box set featuring one of the legends of Asian cinema: Shin'ichi Chiba, better known to most American audiences as the one and only Sonny Chiba. That set of films would be of course, The Street Fighter Collection. Let us take a look.
The Street Fighter begins with Tateki Shikenbaru (played by Masashi Ishibashi) in a jail cell, a murderer about to be executed for his crimes. He is visited by a Buddhist monk who is presumably there to give him his last rites. That's no monk, but he might be there to give him his last rites. His name is Takuma Tsurugi (played by Sonny Chiba), karate man for hire, and he takes out Shikenbaru with a special punch that throws him into a coma. As the convict is rushed to the hospital, Tsurugi and his faithful sidekick Rakuda (played by Goichi Yamada) free him and send him off to Hong Kong.
