Killing Machine

And man was it powerful. Just as hard hitting emotionally as a lot of good american post war movies, BUT WITH KARATE. I have to admit that I really am not a huge fan of Sonny Chiba. But then again, I don't really like the street fighter movies. I grew up on that stupid iron eagle movie. i like him more in movies like shogun's assasin, shogun's ninja, kill bill, and storm rider's but this movie is more of the "street fighter" style and is in my personal opinion, BY FAR SONNY CHIBA's SINGLE BEST PERFORMANCE. Sonny Chiba, the greatest anti hero ever is truly a killing machine in this one.

So basically every time you here a woman crying or someone is in trouble, SONNY CHIBA WILL START KILLING PEOPLE. Oh man was he awesome. He is not fighting some fat karate guy like he did in street fighter but he is playing a characeter named Doshin So. He was trained in Shaolin and eventually founded the style known today as Shorinji Kenpo. And Kenpo is beign used to just detroy people in thsi movie! He plays a renegade who after the war just gets pissed off at evreything wrong in the world and DOES SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!!! He doesn;t give up, just keeps noticign things that are wrong with his country becasue of the war and blows up. He is told to lay low, but oh no. He keeps teaching at his school and a young girl who he saved twice learns from him. So the local thugs know that Chiba is a badass and go to his school to offer him and his students money to take care of some criminal business they need done to capitilize on the post war depression, uh-oh. You just asked that question to the wrong guy. He declines of course but he goes to stop them and brings his students, of course. One of his students gets killed and uh-oh again. Yeah, some more limbs by the tens get broken and some are lost forever:)

Overall this movie has a few big flaws, but with how low of a budget they had, it was truly an epic for it's time.

Perfectly letterboxed picture, 5.1 sound is pretty good, and picture is surprisingly VERY good. Subtitles are also VERY good.

Also some trailers including another one of my favorite chiba flicks-G.I. SAMURAI.

I first saw this on the brentwood 10 pack-"Tough Guys of Kung Fu" and that is actually a pretty good buy. Full screened but probably best pictuer quality in the whole set. Still pretty bad though. I would only suggest the good version if you have the money and really enjoy this flick, casue i know I liked it enough that I had to egt teh other version. Well worth it! Enjoy.

Being a karate practitioner and all-around martial arts geek, Sonny Chiba is definitely a favorite of mine, especially there's not too many big-time Japanese/Okinawan-born karate stylists in the movie industry. So when I saw a Sonny Chiba movie for three bucks? Had to get it, and I was not disappointed. I'll say this though: if you're expecting the same thing you saw in the Street Fighter series, this will disappoint you. Sonny Chiba doesn't play the cold-hearted bastard type that Terry Surugi is known for This movie doesn't have much mindless violence or nudity. It's more of historical piece It's set in post-WWII Japan, and gives a glimpse at the struggles the Japanese had to go through in the aftermath - women prostituting themselves to feed their kids, American soldiers and local gangsters terrorizing the people, soldiers losing everything and everyone they had in their lives before the war. Chiba's is probably at his most heroic in his portrayal of Doshin So, creator of Shorinji Kempo. If you're a Chiba fan, this is a good movie to put in the collection

If you are looking for a good action-packed karate film that is set in the past then this one is for you. BUT, if you want to see Sonny Chiba as a ONE MAN ARMY with great and long fighting scenes as in Soul of Chiba, Street Fighter, Executioner and Karate Warriors then this one is NOT for you!

The fighting scenes in this movie were good but not spectacular and they were a little short. At least, the acting and the story were much better. This is the kind of movie that Sonny Chiba made so he could show the audience a more serious version of himself and not a ONE MAN ARMY macho man with cheesy stories.

Adios.

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