Fighters with Bruce Lee, four powerful pulsations spread in the early 70s around the world, inherited in the cinema so that any doubts about their genre significance are absent even among the most inveterate debunkers of the semi-mythical image of the famous actor. But if this very “image” after the death of Bruce began, practically, to live his own life, finding embodiment in a variety of film materials, then the general style of his key militants in the most untouched form expectedly settled on a huge layer of slightly more niche films, trying about the same year to grab their share in the operational market.
“Street Fighter” (not to be confused with the eponymous nightmare based on Capcom games) is the most honest movie. The main character named Terry Tsurugi performed by Sonny Chiba is a Japanese copy of Bruce Lee, but with an increased degree of combat expression and anti-heroism. Performing dirty work for money, ready to kill or even sell customers who did not pay him on time - the local karate master is not much different from the bandits opposing him, the good news is that almost any scum or mafia has very peculiar codes of honor. To elevate this to the category of shortcomings, of course, will be too reckless. The realistic and, in some ways, even harsh approach that Lee brought to the production of action scenes with his four famous films is turned here into a much more maniacal channel, where the bloody naturalism goes against the slight absurdity of some situations and characters. From this, the animal cynicism of Terry in the surrounding hero of reality looks no more than a quite appropriate distinguishing feature. Well, the fact that it is difficult to call him a valiant hero - is it really a problem when the viewer sitting down to watch the action movie already initially expects to enjoy the immoral feast of violence?
Possession of a black belt in karate undoubtedly helped Thiba to keep in the frame at a decent level when his character was surrounded by a whirlwind of clumsy enemy strikes. And although there is no talk of any innovation here, Street Fighter gives a completely competitive level of action shooting, which is pleasant to look at not only through the screen of vintage. Well, as a small bonus compared to the mainstream brethren, expected to be a pinch of slightly eccentric cruelty. Terry not only beats opponents to the bruises, he also knocks out their teeth, crushes their eyes, rips off their genitals and even, long before Steven Seagal, rips out an adversary, fighting on the deck of the ship. As a result, watching the main character with over-the-top masculinity and only to the end of a diminishing egocentrism goes to his goal is a truly delightful occupation. And the long action segment, in which Chiba in the scenery of a rusty ship breaks through the bandits who come again and again, is almost an ideal way of mesmerizing immersion in the world of Asian militants, in which each hand is put to the body of another person is accompanied by a ringing “smack!”
Words about the importance of competent storytelling in the justifications of such paintings usually flash no less often than Jackie Chan gets his injuries. In "Street Fighter" the situation is about the same, except that most importantly - the pace and alternation of combat episodes with conversational - the authors managed to balance. But much more amusing is what happens when you look at the events from the point of view of the cinematic relationship of the film with the Hong Kong action films, which he was inspired by.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the crime syndicate, famous for its best killers in the world and forced to declare a hunt for the main character, is based in Hong Kong. And the moment when his head personally decides to come to Japan to control the murder of the character of Sonia Chiba is in many ways a kind of first swallow to the recognition of the importance and a kind of respect for the hero, which the leader of the syndicate will demonstrate more than once in the future. From this and the final tape, which seemed strange and fragmentary, acquires a semblance of regularity. Terry Tsurugi may not have been destined to defeat the leader of the Hong Kong assassins in a deadly duel, but that doesn’t matter. Already not really standing on his feet, almost dead the main character at the last moment supports not only the girl he tried to save, but also the leader of the syndicate. And so there's no sense of tragedy or special anxiety about Terry's fate in the finale. He may not have done his job to the fullest, but he certainly proved himself a worthy fighter in front of rivals from Hong Kong. And therefore, respect in the eyes of the most skillful killer - in this case, the main reward and the best outcome for the upstart from Japan who encroached on their territory.