Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken (1974)

Director:

Shigehiro Ozawa

Writers:

Kôji Takada (writer)
Motohiro Torii (writer)

Release Date:

November 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

If you've got to fight...fight dirty!

Plot:

Terry is a tough, mercenary, master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter...

Plot Keywords:

Kobe Japan | Betrayal | Oil Tanker | Execution | Sword Cane

Cast

Sonny Chiba	...	Takuma Tsurugi (Terry)
Goichi Yamada	...	Rakuda Zhang
Yutaka Nakajima	...	Sarai Hammett
Tony Cetera	...	Abdul Jadot
Masafumi Suzuki	...	Kendo Masaoka
Masashi Ishibashi	...	Tateki Shikenbaru
Akira Shion	...	Liang Dong-Yi
Osman Yusuf	...	Kingstone
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bin Amatsu	...	Môrôkô
Jirô Chiba	...	Gijun Shikenbaru
Tatsuo Endo	...	Bayan
Ryuji Katagiri	...	Hanada
Nobuo Kawai	...	Tetsunosuke Tsuchida
Takuzo Kawatani	...	Ôshima
Chiyoko Kazama	...	Yang Ji-Chun
Ken Kazama	...	Senkaku Kan
Takashi Noguchi	...	Yokoyama
Hitoshi Omae	...	Musukari
Chico Roland	...	Bondo
Etsuko Shihomi	...	Nachi Shikenbaru
Kojiro Shirakawa	...	Inspector Chen
Fumio Watanabe	...	Renzo Mutaguchi
Rinichi Yamamoto	...	Kowloon Dinsau

Also Known As:

Clash! Killer Fist (International: English title) (literal title)
Sudden Attack: The Killing Fist (literal English title)
The Street Fighter
The Streetfighter (International: English title)

Runtime:

Australia:91 min | UK:87 min (cut version) | USA:75 min (R-rated version) | USA:91 min (unrated version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated (DVD rating) | West Germany:18 (cut) | Finland:K-18 | UK:18 | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:M (VHS rating) (cut) | France:-16 | New Zealand:R13 (DVD rating) | Norway:18 (video premiere) | USA:R | USA:X (original rating) | Canada:18+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Toei Company

Trivia:

The blind assassin wielding a cane sword appears to be an obvious reference to the Zatoichi blind swordsman films starring Shintarô Katsu.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Near the end of the movie, on the ocean liner, Terry is fighting three men in a hallway and some equipment is visible at the bottom of the screen.

Quotes:

Terry's Father: Listen my son, TRUST NO ONE! You can count on no one but YOURSELF. Improve your skills, son, harden your body, become a NUMBER ONE MAN! Do not ever let ANYONE beat you!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Undercover Brother (2002)

Blood Stained Action

Gekitotsu Satsujin Ken/The Streetfighter(1974) is a movie that relies more on pure action and violence then on plot. The main character is an interesting one because he's a very complex person when it comes to understanding his reasons for his job. It doesn't have the grace and polish of a Bruce Lee film but then not many Kung Fu or Karate flicks are on the level of Bruce Lee's movies. Romeo Must Die(2000) must have been influenced by this especially with the scene where a man is killed while the film is using X-rays to display this sequence. The Streetfighter(1974) is to Martial Art films as the Lone Wolf & Cub films are to the samurai genre. The best way to watch this movie is in its uncut and letterbox version.