Return of the Street Fighter

1974 "The incredible Sonny Chiba is back! And he's meaner than ever!"
6.3| 1h23m| en| More Info
Released: 27 April 1974 Released
Producted By: Toei Company
Country: Japan
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

Martial artist Takuma Tsurugi returns to take on a Yakuza family that may be embezzling money from charities to finance their own operations. Both the police and the Yakuza find themselves battling Tsurugi, but Tsurugi's fight ultimately is with the mob, and he concentrates on them.

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Reviews

Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
HaemovoreRex Well, against the ostensible general tide of opinion I must say that I wasn't a particularly huge fan of the original film that this follows. In fact, for me at least, the only saving grace it boasted was in its violent excesses – the majority of which were saved until the final third of its running time. From reading many of the other reviews on this site, it furthermore seems indicative that the exact said graphic violence is the principle reason that most other reviewers have awarded the flick such lofty marks.Interestingly and conversely, this sequel actually tones down the blood letting somewhat and apparently as a result didn't hold quite as much appeal it would seem. Well, that's what I'm assuming at least.From my own perspective however, whilst this sequel is indeed bereft of much of the old red stuff a flying, I would say that it actually surpasses the original in pure entertainment value by far. The martial arts sequences are far superior this time around including some rather nifty Kobudo weapons displays throughout. Also Sonny Chiba is on much better form here to – just check out the awesome sequence near the start of the film in which our protagonist allows himself to be taken to a police station in order to silence a witness. He makes his escape by kicking the bars out through the wall and leaping through the subsequent hole from a few stories up! Another scene of amazing note involves our hero punching some poor chap so hard in the back of the head that his eyeballs literally pop out!!! (some great utilisation of ping-pong balls there!) It's also great to see the return of a supposedly deceased character from the first flick who returns here with the intention of exacting his revenge upon our hero.To be quite honest, there's only one negative I can think of in this flick and that is the ill advised inclusion of Chiba's 'side-kick' (the first film also suffered the indignity of including one to!) who in this instance is a veritably annoying chick boasting ridiculous looking pig tails and who furthermore, has a rather unfortunate propensity for warbling along to crappy music (badly at that!)Aside from this minor gripe though, overall, this proves to be a tremendously entertaining affair throughout and is well worth tracking down!
MartinHafer Because this film is pretty much a rehash of the last STREET FIGHTER film--with a very, very similar plot and an assistant that is destined to be dead meat by the end of the film. About the only real improvement I noticed was that leading man Sonny Chiba had a decent haircut for once! Like the last film in the series, the Yakuza orders a hit on Chiba because he won't do business with them. About the only difference is that apparently the American mafia is also involved--though oddly the guy they got to play the Don looked more like John Lennon in his big hair and beard days and nothing like Vito Corleone! This was pretty poor casting, as the guy just looked like a young hippie.Also like the first Street Fighter movie, Chiba uses a combination of martial arts techniques (including more judo this time) to kick the butts of dozens of bad guys. I did notice, though, that Chiba's athleticism showed off more in this film as he did some incredibly leaps and spins and tumbles. But once again, Chiba is a very pragmatic man. Instead of just beating up the bad guys like the usual martial arts hero, his anti-hero takes the effort to then kill almost all the attackers as well--in very brutal fashion--with tons of blood and fingers through the throat, etc. This makes for a much more realistic sort of martial arts film than those of Jackie Chan or even Bruce Lee (who did kill some of those he fought in his movies, but not nearly as many as Chiba), but they also make the films a BAD choice for kids (though it is a bit less bloody than its predecessor)!! Plus, this film does have a bit of nudity--so take note.By the way, I am not saying that Chiba was better than Bruce Lee--but he fought to win and to destroy his opponents even more than Lee did in his films. Both were super-realistic and talented, but Chiba's style was even more brutal, whereas Lee took on more men simultaneously and fought in a quicker manner.Overall, for lovers of martial arts films, you won't be disappointed. However, understand that there isn't anything all that new here--it is in many ways just a rehash of STREET FIGHTER.Finally,...what's up with Sonny's lady friend?!!? She looked for all the world like a Japanese version of Pippi Longstockings!!! And that terribly dubbed voice! Ugh! The rest of the dubbing was excellent, but she sounded almost like a cartoon character!
suspiria10 Terry Sugury (Sonny Chiba) returns as the merc for hire in this sequel to the classic original. This time around Terry is hired by a business man (in other words gangster) who is building a super martial arts academy by soliciting "donations" for the school by falsely using the name of Terry's teacher. But when the teacher catches wind of the plot and nearly assassinated the street fighter quickly shows the baddies who really is boss.Thoughts: This highly energetic (and I feel better) sequel is a nonstop blast. The action is more abundant this time around with some lovely gore too (the eyeball scene was so cool). Yeah the dubbing still stinks and we have yet another suspect henchman but hey run with it you'll be glad you did. S10 gives the film an 8 out of 10.
Bogey Man Director Shigehiro Ozawa and Sonny Chiba did this sequel immediately after their first Street Fighter (1974) in 1974-5. The plot is almost identical (what there is) as Sonny is again Terry who does dirty jobs for the mob and never has any morality in his mind bothering him. He just kills and kicks people's asses if the job requires that. Well so much for any "deeper" elements this film would have had; these are just ultra violent action films which are there only to offer the audience more savage action than those of HK film makers' of the same period.Return of the Street Fighter has many flashbacks from the first film and never seems too original or interesting, but still it is never boring or hard to watch without falling asleep. The action is plentiful and Sonny tries again to be ultra cool and tough guy with some misogynistic habits, too. The violence is laughably over the top but still shocking and extreme enough to secure the highest X rating (or NC-17) for this kind of film, and so a film this savage would never come from Hollywood nowadays.If one likes mindless action and memorable music score with strong imagery of gratuitous violence, then Return of the Street Fighter is worth a watch, but still I prefer the original first Fighter film (not that it is any remarkable masterpiece either). These films are Japan's answer to Hong Kong's Bruce Lee and Jimmy Wang Yu, but ten times more vicious, mindless and cinematically not so ambitious. 4/10

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