The Street Fighter's Last Revenge (1974)

The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge (1974)
Japanese Title: 逆襲！殺人拳
Translation: Counterattack! Killer Fist!

 

Starring: Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba, Reiko Ike, Eizo Kitamura,  Etsuko Shihomi, Cathy, Akira Shioji, Koji Wada, Masafumi Suzuki, Tatsuo Endo, Dorian Howard
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa
Action Directors: Masafumi Suzuki, Toshio Sugawara

 

Released a few months after Return of the Street Fighter, the third and final film (discounting the Sister Streetfighter movies) in the adventures of Terry Tsurugi, amoral badass for hire, demonstrates the correlation between a hurried production and the Law of Diminishing Returns. Plotwise, the film goes back to the usual Tsurugi-vs-Yakuza nonsense, and is actually more focused than the previous film was. However, both the action and violence are watered down, and this is definitely the “safest” rendition of Terry Tsurugi of the three. It does ratchet up the sex and nudity quotient, courtesy of actress Reiko Ike.

Tsurugi is called in to infiltrate a riot started by the employees of a chemical company because of their opposition to the employer’s actions against the environment. Hidden amongst the rioters is a Yakuza chief’s younger brother, who is position of an incriminating tape. Tsurugi uses his collection of disguises to dress up as a riot brigade officer, get into the building, and get the guy to safety. When it comes to payment, however, the Yakuza double cross Tsurugi and try to kill him. He beats the living stuffing out his employers and breaks the brother’s neck, stopping short of killing him.

We learn that the tape has proof that the heads of the chemical company have the prime minister and other leading politicians in their pocket. The head of the Yakuza blackmails them for a billion yen in exchange for the tape. Suddenly, Tsurugi shows up at the meeting, people everybody up, and steals the tape. He demands 100 million yen from his employers in exchange for the tape. While the Yakuza try to get the tape back through the feminine wiles of the boss’s younger sister (Reiko Ike) and the mystical powers of the laser-shooting mariachi Mr. Black (Dorian Howard), a fourth party joins the fray looking for a tape: prosecuting attorney. To Terry’s dismay, the lawyer is not only good with the law: he’s the master of an obscure Okinawan karate style that is more than a match for Tsurugi’s Japanese-Chinese hybrid techniques.

 The most interesting aspect of The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge is how the American dub changes the story completely. Tsurugi is no longer a vicious karate master selling his skills to the highest bidder, but a government agent. The content of the tape goes from evidence of political corruption to a secret formula to produce heroin cheaply. These changes, along with the whole disguise subplot, gives the film a definite Bondian feel, complete with the hero sleeping with the femme fatale. What’s interesting is that it works in the context of the film, and that has a lot to do with the less-dangerous manner in which Tsuguri is portrayed. There is no way that he would be confused with a secret agent in the other films, because his character is such a jerk (a charismatic jerk, but a jerk nonetheless). Hell, in the other films, if a woman tried to kill him, Tsurugi would have no qualms about beating her to death with his own bare hands. Here, the slutty Yakuza goddess seduces him into danger not once, but twice, and at the end, Tsurugi acts as if he’d settle down with her if she were willing.

While on the subject of beating people to death with one’s own bare hands, let us discuss the action. Gone is the five-man choreography team and now we just have Masafumi Suzuki (also reprising his role as Masaoka) and Toshio Sugawara (best known for his work on the Samurai Wolf) movies. That makes sense, as most of the action has Tsurugi fighting off stooges and henchmen in one-on-many fights. Chiba looks as good as he usually does, but the absence of a quirky martial arts villain does make the action less memorable. The best we get is Mr. Black, the laser-shooting Mariachi whose memorable exit from the film involves a crematorium. Koji Wada shows up as the karate-kicking prosecutor and he handles himself well. His final fight against Sonny Chiba is decent, ending on the film’s most violent note.

Where the action ends up shining the most is the casting of Etsuko Shihomi as a Taiwanese assassin nicknamed “The Firebird[1].” She squares off with Sonny Chiba a couple of times, plus has a dust-up or two with the Yakuza. Her fights are actually the liveliest of the bunch and serve as a good preview of things to come in the upcoming Sister Streetfighter film. It is certainly a step up from her role in the first Street Fighter, where she threw a few kicks, but mainly stood around looking pretty and tragic. If Angela Mao was Lady Kung Fu, Shihomi was definitely Lady Karate and looks just as good onscreen as her Chinese counterpart. The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge may indeed be the least of the trilogy, but the combined beauty of Etsuko Shihomi and Reiko Ike, plus some solid fisticuffs from the former, make this an easy film to watch when you need a dose of chopsockey.

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[1] - When she introduces herself to Terry Tsurugi, he responds, “I don’t care if you’re a firebird or grilled chicken.” He then spends the rest of the film referring to her as “grilled chicken.”