THE STREET FIGHTER COLLECTION (1974)
Label: Shout Select
Region Code: A
Duration: 91/83/95 Minutes
Rating: Unrated/Unrated/R
Audio: English and Japanese DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Teruo Ishii
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shihomi, Masashi Ishibashi, Claude Gannyon, Yôko Ichiji, Frankie Black
STREET FIGHTER (1974)
In the first film Sonny Chiba plays Takuma "Terry" Tsurugi, an assassin for hire who at the start is tasked with freeing a deathrow inmate. To that end he infiltrates a death row prison disguised as a religious monk, putting the criminal into a kung fu-induced coma that makes him appear dead, allowing for Terry and his comic-relief sidekick Ratnose (Goichi Yamada) to free him when he is transported to the hospital for medical treatment. Terry's dealing with the criminal's family concerning a lack of proper payment results in the accidental death of the criminal's younger sibling, who misses Terry during flying kick, crashing through a window, falling several stories to his bloody death. Terry is then hired by the Yakuza to kidnap the heiress to an oil fortune, but when he refuses the job he becomes a target of the Yakuza, with Terry taking it upon himself to save the heiress from the gangsters, leaving a trail of bloodies corpses in his wake along the way.
The first film is one bad-ass kung-fu film, Chiba is a freight train of flying-fist punishment, delivering a ton of bloody action in a film that is said to be the first film to receive the x-rating solely for the sake of violence, and damn it that might just be true based on what I saw. The film has a lot of cool, kinetic kung-fu trauma, including a blow to the head that never fails to gob smacks me, with Chiba's character hitting an opponent so hard on the top of the head the screen flashes to an x-ray of his fist making contact with the skull, before showing the man spewing copious amounts of blood from his his mouth - it's fucking awesome! This movie also features a nasty castration scene of Terry ripping the junk right off a would-be rapist with his bare hands, and later tearing out the throat of his nemesis during an exquisite brawl set during a down pour on the deck of a tanker ship.
Sonny Chiba is a powerful presence in the film, his strength pops right off the screen in just about every scene, but I always found his contorted facial expressions and dramatic breathing techniques throughout the film sort of humorous in a way, which for me is all part of his charm of these films. The story here is very simplistic, you have bad-ass Chiba as an assassin, he's not a good guy, he's a bad guy who's not the worst guy in the film, tearing his way through the criminal underworld,making this a tasty and hyper-violent slice of exploitation that keeps fans of gritty kung-fu action coming back for more.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K 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 (27 min)
- NEW Cutting Moments – THE STREET FIGHTER Trailer – An Interview With Filmmaker Jack Sholder (13 min)
- U.S. Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- Japanese Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD
- Still Gallery (6 min) HD
THE RETURN OF STREET FIGHTER (1974)
In the sequel we have Sonny Chiba returning as assassin for hire Takuma "Terry" Tsurugi, the film opens with him taking an assignment from Yakuza to murder an accountant who is currently in police custody, it seems the number cruncher has some dirt that could prove harmful to the organization. To that end Takuma starts a brawl on the streets with the cops and gets himself thrown in jail, which is where he finds the target and rips out his throat before escaping the jail. However, when Takuma discovers that the Yakuza are using a karate school as a front to extort money from the community he winds up taking them on yet again!
The sequel still has plenty of Chiba action and cool moments but the sequel suffers a bit, there's a bit too many flashbacks to the first film for a barely 80-minute movie, and Chiba doesn't have enough screen time this time around either. The comedy is also ramped-up a bit this time around, but there is also some nudity which was lacking from the first film, so it's a a bit of mixed bag. Highlights this time around are the police station fight sequences, Chiba fighting his way through the station is kinetic and fast-paced, plus we get a snow-set fight in the mountains which is also very cool. There's another rain-drenched fight recalling the end of the first film, but it's just not as cool in my opinion, with some of the fight choreography lacking visceral energy, even being a bit cartoonish, like when Chiba's character literally knocks the eyeballs of his opponent right out of their sockets, it's a bit too silly for it;s own good, but it's still an entertaining slice of kick-ass karate cinema.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K Scan Of The Original Film Elements Of The Uncut Version
- Uncut Version Of The Film (83 Minutes) With English And Japanese Audio
- U.S. Teaser Trailer (1 min) HD
- U.S. Theatrical Trailer (2 min) HD
- Japanese Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD
- Still Gallery
THE STREET FIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE (1974)
The third and final film to star Sonny Chiba as assassin for hire Takuma "Terry" Tsurugi is a bit of a departure, the action packed violence of the first pair of films is toned down in favor of a 007/Fletch spy-thriller, with Chiba expanding on the opening of the first film where he's disguised as a monk, donning masks and secret identities. This time out Terry is again double-crossed by a crime family who are after the secret recipe for a synthetic form of heroin which can be produced on the cheap. The film's spy-thriller leanings lend it a bit more color and style than the the previous sequel but lacks the violence I loved about the first film, really dragging in places, making this the worst of the bunch for me, but not to the point of hating it, just not exactly loving it.
Special Features:
- NEW 2K 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)
- U.S. Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD
- Japanese Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD
- Still Gallery
Audio/Video: The Street Fighter Collection arrives on Blu-ray from Shout Select with new 2K scans of archival color reversal internegatives done by Warner Bros., with the first two films incorporating footage from an older existing HD Master of the Japanese version of the film to get it to it's proper uncut run time. The third also offers the option to view both the U.S. and the longer running Japanese cut of the film, the longer versions includes standard-definition inserts, and it looks the worst of the trio, but still looks pretty good all things considered. All three film generally look solid in HD, the 2.35:1 cinematography is intact, there are some minor blemishes by way of white speckling, dirt, scratches and vertical lines, along with some very minor fading fading throughout. That said, the grain is present and unmolested, the black levels are decent, and colors are surprisingly rich throughout, with reds and blues really popping.
All three film have both the original Japanese audio in addition to English dubs in DTS-HD MA Mono, with the first film having the original English dub as well as the New Line Cinema home video dub from the 90's. The mono track is solid but unremarkable, thin and treble-y in places, the music can be a bit on the shrill side without much bottom end, optional English subtitles are provided.
Extras on disc one begin with a new 27-min interview with star Sonny Chiba who reflects on how he came upon acting when his Olympic athlete aspirations were dashed. He's very candid about his experience making the films, pointing out some things he doesn't care for about them, going into the film's new found popularity after The Street Fighter trilogy was featured in the Quentin Tarantino scripted True Romance, and being cast in Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2, also touching on Bruce Lee and how they had planned on appearing in a film together, but the legend passed away before it could come to fruition.
There's also a very cool interview with director Jack Sholder (The Hidden) who edited the film for New Line Cinema, speaking about how he came to be a trailer editor for the distributor, editing films for content to get a proper rating from the MPAA, and how editing all those films and trailers prepared him for his own directorial career. Disc one is finished up with both U.S. and Japanese trailers and an image gallery of stills, promotional shots, newspaper ads, home video releases and posters for the film.
Extras for the sequels include a handful of trailers for the film plus a gallery of stills, lobby cards, poster artwork and various home video releases.
The three-disc release comes housed in a standard sized Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring a new illustration by artist Robert O'Brien. The reverse side of the wrap featuring three original movie posters for the trilogy. This release also comes with a slipcase featuring the same artwork, both the spine of the sleeve and the wrap are numbered, this being number 65 in the Shout Select line-up.
While I don't consider my self a huge martial art/kung-fu cinema fan by any means the first film in this set is a stone-cold kung fu classic, it's hyper violent and bloody as hell, I loved it a bunch! The other films I'm not as enthusiastic, but regardless this is an attractive set from Shout Select, fans of the film (and series) should be very pleased by what they find here.
