Gyakushû! Satsujin ken (1974)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Shigehiro Ozawa

Writers:

Kôji Takada (screenplay)
Masahiro Shimura (screenplay)

Release Date:

February 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Who can stop Sonny Chiba's fist of fury?

Plot:

Terry Sugury is hired to recover one of two tapes containing a formula for making heroin for a price of 200 dollars a pound...

Plot Keywords:

Tragic Hero | Sequel | Anti Hero | Warrior | Grindhouse

Cast

Sonny Chiba	...	Takuma Tsurugi
Reiko Ike	...	Aya Ôwada
Koji Wada	...	Takera Kunigami
Tatsuo Endo	...	Rikizo Watanabe
Akira Shioji	...	Gô Ôwada
Tsuyoshi Ôtsuka	...	Ittetsu Sakuragi
Frankie Black	...	Dorian Howard
Shingo Yamashiro	...	TV Anchor
Masafumi Suzuki	...	Kendo Masaoka
Etsuko Shihomi	...	Kahô Huo-Feng
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masaharu Arikawa	...	Takao Nagatomo
Cathy	...	Kimiko Nakayama
Willy Dosey	...	Wolf
Seizo Fukumoto	...	Gondo
Jan Hermanson	...	Billy
Masataka Iwao	...	Yamane
Eizo Kitamura	...	Seigen Ôwada
Fuyuki Murakami	...	Shonosuke Iizuka
Kinji Nakamura	...	Tsuneo Ushida
Kazumoto Saito	...	Tanabe
Shunji Sasaki	...	Yokomitsu
Isao Takanami	...	Moriyama
Kyôko Tsukasa	...	Satoko Yamada

Also Known As:

Revenge! The Killing Fist (USA) (literal English title)
Street Fighter Counterattacks!
The Street Fighter's Last Revenge
The Streetfighter's Last Revenge (International: English title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | Finland:K-18 | USA:R | Netherlands:16 | USA:X (original rating) (uncut version) | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Company:

Toei Company

Movie Connections:

Follows Satsujin ken 2 (1974)

Chiba, Sonny Chiba.

Takuma Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) (AKA: The Street Fighter"), rather like James Bond, is an assassin for hire, a man who is a master of disguise and the martial arts but don't cross or betray him because if you do, you will pay and pay dearly. He, again rather like James Bond, has a weakness for playing with dangerous women, particularly the most ruthless and cutthroat. Here the villains, who have hired Tsurugi to get two tape cassette recordings that when played in unison provide a formula for creating synthetic heroin potentially worth a fortune in the wrong hands, make that most fatal mistake of crossing Tsurugi. And now they will pay!

This moves at a brisk pace, is exciting and action-packed, and feels like a much darker take on a James Bond type of film. It's not really all that much like the previous "Street Fighter" fare at all but it is fun if you're willing to forgive that fact. The only problem I had with the film was all the betrayals and double-dealings became confusing after a time and I was surprised Tsurugi allowed himself to be put into a position where he could be betrayed by the lead villains on more than one occasion. Also Tsurugi is hardly an heroic male lead, in fact he's every bit as ruthless and unrelenting, if not even more so, that this story's villains. Still the good in terms of entertainment value here I feel far outweighs the bad.