“Meet the meanest and most lethal karate master ever to rule the streets. He’s Sonny Chiba, one of the greatest martial arts actors to ignite the screen. In The Street Fighter, Chiba stars as Terry Tsurugi, a mercenary who has been hired by both the yakuza and the mafia to kidnap a wealthy heiress, but when he isn’t paid, a violent clash will ensue. Chiba is back in Return Of The Street Fighter. This time Tsurugi is hired by the mob to kill two informants, but when he realizes one is an old friend, he refuses, and now he is the one being hunted. When Tsurugi is double crossed by the Ôwada clan, he takes off with something they want in The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge. Soon he is being chased by a group of deadly assassins.”

The Street Fighter Collection highlights one of Sonny Chiba’s best roles as Terry Tsurugi, definitely not your typical protagonist, in a trilogy that features some of the best films of the genre. As someone new to the 70’s Kung Fu scene with very little exposure to the genre save for a few Shô Kosugi films, this set is an excellent introduction into these films that inspired all kinds of filmmakers, including Quentin Tarantino, and are just plain fun as hell to watch.

The Street Fighter

The first film in the trilogy introduces Takuma (Terry) Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba), a hired gun of sorts who does jobs for anyone who pays him. This time, he’s been paid to sneak into prison and break out Tateki Shikenbaru, who was renamed Junjo in the English dub. Dressed as a monk offering a last confession before his execution, he uses an ancient technique that causes Junjo’s body to become paralyzed within ten minutes, simulating a heart attack. Tsurugi uses the opportunity to break him out of prison and take him back to his brother and sister who hired him. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have the money and need more time to pay. Infuriated, Tsurugi attacks them, and in the ensuing fight the brother flying kicks out the window to his death and the sister sold to sex traffickers by the Yakuza, who attempts to hire Tsurugi for his next job: to kidnap the daughter of an oil tycoon. Once Tsurugi discovers the fact that they are Yakuza, he rushes out unwilling to take the job. The Yakuza send men to kill Tsurugi, but after quickly defeating them, he vows to find the girl himself and protect her.

Terry Tsurugi grows kinder as the trilogy progresses, but in the first film you really aren’t even sure if you should be rooting for him. As the anti-hero, he attacks defenseless people using the most deadly techniques known to him, with that insane look in his eyes, forcing himself on women. In the grand scheme of things, he’s the lesser of two evils, as the Yakuza do several deplorable things but thankfully all get what’s coming to them when Tsurugi makes them his enemy. The Street Fighter is incredibly violent, with Tsurugi doing some impossible things with his bare hands. Despite the graphic nature, these sequences are highly entertaining and a staple of the genre.

Video

The Street Fighter is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1 featuring a new 2k scan of the original film elements of the uncut version of the film. Despite the new scan, the print is in rough condition in certain parts with noticeable scratches and blemishes. Grain is kept at a manageable level, though some parts of the film suffer from some softness of the picture. This all being said, given the age of the film and condition of the print, the film does look good in high definition, with the imperfections adding to the character of the film which seems like a grindhouse type thrill ride.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono with English dubs, or choose Japanese audio with subtitles. The sound itself sounds just fine, and I absolutely love the theme song that instills the heart of the genre. The choice is yours when it comes to how you watch the film, and although I normally prefer to listen natively and use subtitles, there’s just something about the English dub that makes it more entertaining.

Special Features

Great list of extras on this first disc, including a great interview with Sonny Chiba in which he talks about his memories of the film, working with Quentin Tarantino and his career in general.

• NEW2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Of The Uncut Version
• Uncut Version Of The Film (91 Minutes) With English And Japanese Audio
• Two English Dubs – The Theatrical Dub And The New Line Home Video Dub
• NEW Street Fighting Man– An Interview With Star Sonny China
• NEW Cutting Moments – THE STREET FIGHTER Trailer– An Interview With Filmmaker Jack Sholder
• S. Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

Return of the Street Fighter

The second film opens with Tsurugi accepting a job to kill two men, one that requires him to get into police headquarters where a prisoner is being interrogated. Letting himself become arrested after beating up a bunch of cops, he’s led down a hall in handcuffs, passing the room with the target. Still restrained, Tsurugi subdues everyone and thrusts his fingers into the prisoner’s throat, ripping out his vocal chords to ensure he won’t talk. Tsuguri makes quick work of the second man, stealing his briefcase in the process, evading the police again. The case contains a solid gold statue, which the head of one of the karate centers, the same man who hired Tsuguri, is using to scam people into donating money to a state of the art karate studio that will never be built. Finding out that this man has mob ties, Tsuguri again goes on a rampage against the mob, vowing to take down those involved. However, a figure from his past he thought dead has reemerged, and is his biggest threat yet.

In Return of the Street Fighter, Tsuguri makes the shift toward more of a likeable character that the audience can identify and root for. As much as he hates the mob and organized crime, they seem to always be the ones hiring him, and then always try to take him out when he discovers their identities, ending the same way. A lesson not learned and a repeat of a basic plot doesn’t bother me in the least as long as it’s Sonny Chiba kicking ass, and don’t worry, there’s plenty of that in this film. Although he’s kinder in the sense we don’t see him attack innocents and seem to have a more honorable sense of justice, he’s still absolutely brutal with his enemies, giving us some very gruesome sequences like eyeballs coming out of sockets and locking an entire troop of bad guys in a sauna and turning the steam full blast. I enjoyed this film a bit more than the first, mainly because of the character changes, with Tsurugi still maintaining that smirk as he knows he’s about to dominate the bad guys.

Video

Return of the Street Fighter is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1 featuring a new 2k scan of the original film elements of the uncut version. This transfer looks similar to the first film, with noticeable scratches and blemishes, but still enjoyable with what they were able to do.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono, with the same options as before, English dub or Japanese audio and subtitles. The score is just about the same as well, also containing that amazing theme song that I absolutely love, and plays every time he’s down for the count and needs inspiration to get up to fight.

Special Features

• NEW2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Of The Uncut Version
• Uncut Version Of The Film (83 Minutes) With English And Japanese Audio
• S. Teaser Trailer
• S. Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge

Things really change in the third film, as instead of a mercenary for hire, Tsurugi seems to have morphed into a character from Mission: Impossible, adorning loads of fake faces to fool adversaries and secret rooms in his home full of costumes. In this last installment, Tsurugi is hired to infiltrate a police crisis in which gunman hold a tape containing a secret formula to produce a synthetic heroin for only $200.00 a pound. When Tsurugi delivers as promised, he’s double crossed, sending him on a mission to retrieve the tapes from the mob and corrupt police officials who want it for themselves.

The third film of the trilogy changes Tsurugi into something almost unrecognizable to those who loved his character in the first two. Instead of the hard, powerful and domineering karate master, he’s now more like a spy in a bad James Bond film. The film has two cuts, the U.S. and the Japanese cut, with the latter having a few minutes of extra footage that was deemed too excessive to show over here or receive an X-rating. The absolute worst thing about this third installment is the English dubbing. If you’re curious about the Japanese cut, go with your instincts and watch this version. In comparing several sequences from the two, the films are virtually indistinguishable from each other in terms of dialogue. I honestly believe some random person who doesn’t speak Japanese watched this and pretended to know what was being said based on mouth movements and facial expressions. Go ahead and compare a chapter or two to see what I mean. In one of the last scenes, a character on the dubbed version screams “I never loved you”, but the subtitles translate it as: “I’m going to run away because I don’t want to die”. Also, the contents of the tape that the English dub claims is a formula for making heroin, is a list of people who were paid off in the Japanese version. Totally different films. Why? If nothing else, on the bright side it basically gives you two versions of the film with entirely different meanings to it. This is one I highly recommend the Japanese version simply because the dubbing seems so outrageous that this can’t be how the film was actually intended to be seen. Another thing I’ll always be confused about: in the first two films the English dubs refer to him as Tsurugi, but in this film it’s Sugury, switching the ‘r’ for a ‘g’. Did someone just mispronounce this and they went with it? Another thing to chalk up to horrible dubs and lazy Americans who couldn’t pronounce Shin’ichi Chiba and forcefully gave him the name Sonny.

There are some great scenes with Tsurugi doing his thing and kicking ass like old times, but unfortunately this is the weakest one of the trilogy and seems a shameful way for this character to go out. Still, the scenes with him at his best are worth the price of the set, which round out some great stories from the genre and will surely entertain fans.

Video

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1 featuring both a new 2k scan of the original film elements from the U.S. cut and the Japanese cut with a couple standard definition inserts. As with the others in this set, the transfer looks pretty good considering the age and budget of the film. There seems to be a little less in terms of scratches and blemishes, with manageable grain and decent clarity and detail.

Audio

The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Mono in English Dub and Japanese. As I mentioned before, I HIGHLY recommend watching the Japanese version of the film and not some fabricated nonsense.

Special Features

• NEW2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Of The U.S. Cut (80 Minutes)
• NEW 2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Of The U.S. Cut With Standard Definition Inserts From The Original Japanese Cut (84 Minutes)
• S. Theatrical Trailer
• Japanese Theatrical Trailer
• Still Gallery

The Street Fighter Collection is a perfect introduction to the Kung Fu genre that was made so popular in the 70’s and 80’s. I applaud Shout Select for giving these films a great treatment with options on how to watch the film. For me, this introduction into film I hadn’t originally been subjected to has inspired me to continue to search for similar films. For those like me just getting into the genre, I highly recommend this set, as well as checking out Arrow’s recent release of the Sister Street Fighter films, spinoffs from this series.