Sonny Chiba as Takuma Tsurugi returns for one final bout of karate mayhem.
I
first saw THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE with the American dub,
which involves intrigue surrounding factions warring over two tapes
containing a valuable formula for synthetic heroin. What I did not know
at the time was that the U.S. dub had been edited to remove some of the
gore — in the Japanese version, Chiba rips a guy's heart out, which
could have garnered an X — the order of some scenes had been rearranged,
and that the plot about heroin was added by the American distributors,
completely altering the Japanese version's story. The fuckery with the
American version forced the film to make little or no sense, and I hated
it when I saw that version in the '90's.
Then, a few years ago,
one of my favorite "grey market" online video stores began selling a
set of all three Street Fighter movies, uncut and with the option of
watching them with English dubs or in Japanese with subtitles. I snagged
the set and watched all of the films in Japanese for the first time,
and the native language made a big difference in re-experiencing them.
In the case of THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE, seeing the original
version completely reversed my opinion on the the film, and watching it
again yesterday cemented its place in my head as my favorite of the
sequels, as the liveliness of the first film returns somewhat. It's not
as savage as the first installment, but it's a solid chopsocky actioner.
So, for my one-man Sonny Chiba memorial wake, I re-watched all of the
Street Fighter movies, and this time I've finally made peace with RETURN
OF THE STREET FIGHTER. It's mediocre, yes, but overall it has its
moments, is entertaining enough to sit through, and Chiba is excellent
while in what he must have known was just a "meh" sequel. THE STREET
FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE, however...
The story is solid, with
Chiba's character staying more or less his usual asshole self, only
having upped his game into the realms of a 1960's spy boom hero for this
third outing. He's still a mercenary jobber for assorted underworld
interests, but now he utilizes MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE-style masks as
disguises and has a slick, James Bondian apartment.
Tsurugi fights for the film's Mcguffin, a tape containing a confession worth killing for.
This
time around, Tsurugi is hired to break out a criminal who's about to be
interrogated by the police. That daring and clever breakout places and
unwitting Tsurugi in the middle of two factions who seek to obtain a
tape containing a damaging political confession. (The heroin plot found
in the American dub has absolutely nothing to do with what was going on
in the Japanese original.) Though Tsurugi delivers on the jobs he is
paid for, he is double-crossed by his employers over and over again, and
as we have previously seen, he is not a man to take being fucked-over
lightly...
There's more mayhem in this one than in RETURN OF THE
STREET FIGHTER, and the film moves at a lively pace. It's replete with
karate fights, and the legendary Etsuko Shihomi (SISTER STREET FIGHTER,
DRAGON PRINCESS, THE YOUNG ARISTOCRATS, MAKI'S 13 STEPS) pops up as a
young but skilled Chinese karate fighter for hire.
Tsurugi cops a cheap feel off of Etsuko Shihomi.
There's also Reiko Ike as an underworld seductress, and she is by far the most memorable and well-developed female character in the entire trilogy. A Flemingesque avaricious viper with a hot pussy who will shift alliances in a nano-second, as long as her shenanigans will make her rich.
Tsurugi cozies up to Reiko Ike during a romantic ride though a carwash.
THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE would almost be on par with the original if it had more blood and overall viciousness. What nastiness it does have is fun, though, and there's Mister Black, a ludicrous American character who's another of the seemingly endless legion of martial arts thugs for hire, only this guy runs around in full-on Mexican attire, complete with huge sombrero.
Mister Black: the Frito Bandito with laser fingers.
He
claims to possess psychic superpowers that allow him to cut through
wood and metal, so our anti-hero must somehow contend with a man with
laser fingers. Tsurugi has a couple of encounters sombrero man and
susses out the source of his alleged superpower, with their final set-to
occurring in a crematorium, where Tsurugi lures the guy into a
coffin-style box that sends him straight into the the crematorium's
incinerator while the guy was very much alive. His screams as he's
dispatched into the incinerator and he realizes what's about to happen
to him are horrifying.
Anyway, none of the several
bad guys who fuck Tsurugi over during the course of the story make it
out alive, and all meet terrible fates. in short, THE STREET FIGHTER'S
LAST REVENGE does not disappoint, is flat-out the best of the sequels,
and is a good installment with which to end the series. Personally, I
would have loved to see more of Takuma Tsurugi adventures, perhaps even
one where he meets his inevitable and nasty fate, but Sonny Chiba chose
to move on and play other types of characters. Good on him, but his
Takuma Tsurugi is indelible, and he is among my Top 5 martial arts movie
protagonists.
Bottom line: THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE in its Japanese version is simply terrific and absolutely worth your time.
R.I.P, Sonny Chiba, dead at age 82, felled by the global scourge that is COVID-19. Thank you for entertaining us for so many years, and for being an all-around badass and sweet human being. You will not be forgotten.
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