QUICK SCHLOCK: Sonny Chiba's STREET FIGHTER Trilogy (Plus Two Protege Vehicles)

When it rose to popularity in America during the early '70s, the martial arts genre became an instant staple of the grindhouses. Sonny Chiba spent the decade making some of the wildest films in the genre, including what it is perhaps the ultimate grindhouse kung fu title, The Street Fighter. It inspired two sequels, both of which followed the first film into American grindhouses and made an impression on an array of cult movie fanatics. Quentin Tarantino was one of those viewers and he would later pay homage by making reference to the series in his script for True Romance and casting Chiba in his own gonzo Kill Bill film duology.

This installment of Quick Schlock provides you with capsule review for all three films in the series. As a bonus it also includes two vehicles that Chiba starred in with his proteges, Etsuko Shihomi and Hiroyuki Sanada. The latter transitioned to a successful Hollywood career after costarring with Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai and has more recently been seen in the t.v. revival of Westworld, Army Of The Dead, Bullet Train and John Wick 3. Read on for all the high-kicking, blood-spattering coverage of these colorful and wacked-out Japanese imports...

THE STREET FIGHTER: "Ultragore violence collides with strange bursts of extreme sentimentality, all of it set to a galvanizing fuzz-funk "Shaft Goes East" soundtrack." https://boxd.it/1C6uTx

RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER: "...it's so determined to follow what made its predecessor work in a point-for-point fashion... That said, there is plenty of garish eye-candy and grindhouse nostalgia value" https://boxd.it/1C6Eef

THE STREET FIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE: "...offsets the plot recycling elements with new doses of cartoonish weirdness... still fun for those who like their martial arts fare on the grindhouse side." https://boxd.it/1C6SuV

SISTER STREET FIGHTER: "Total fun for fans of '70s martial arts flicks, particularly if you embrace the sleazier side of that era." https://boxd.it/3dqTo1

ROARING FIRE: "This endearingly bonkers star vehicle for Chiba protege Sanada plays like a particularly crazed anime transferred to the live action realm..." https://boxd.it/25bzxR