The biggest mistake that you can make while watching Shigehiro Ozawa's The Street Fighter is to assume that the protagonist, Takuma Tsurugi (played by the legendary Sonny Chiba), is a good guy. He is not. The film opens with him breaking a death row convict out of prison. He does so after being hired by the man's brother and sister. When they ask for more time to pay for his services, he kills the brother and sells the sister into sexual slavery. Takuma Tsurugi is not a nice guy. But then again, this isn't a nice film. The Street Fighter is a brutally violent, nihilistic martial arts film. Takuma Tsurugi is hunted by the yakuza after refusing to kidnap the daughter of a recently deceased oil tycoon for ransom. For some unexplained reason this sociopathic criminal decides to protect the daughter. Unfortunately, the yakuza retaliates by sending the escaped death row inmate from the beginning of the film after Takuma Tsurugi after showing him what he did to his sister. Really, all of the troubles that befall Takuma Tsurugi in The Street Fighter are his own fault, so it's hard to cheer for him. I have no interest in watching people fight each other if there isn't some kind of dramatic weight behind it. The Street Fighter just devises ways for Sonny Chiba to brutally beat up random fighters. Is the story compelling? No. Therefore, the action, while well choreographed, is not interesting. And when you're a martial arts movie with uninteresting fighting, then you profane your own existence.
5/10
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