Satsujin Ken II

Don't worry, the movie is English spoken.

Hello fellow readers! I'm back with another cult movie review. This time we'll give teen horror flicks a well deserved rest and move into the amazing world of punches, kicks, uppercuts and martial arts style killing courtesy of the one and only Sonny Chiba with Satsujin Ken 2, AKA Return of the Street Fighter, and Duelo en Karate. Released in 1975, a year after the original film we gather around another explosive and violent Takuma "Terry" Tsurugi adventure. However, unlike the original film, the violent excess quota has been notably diminished in the sequel. Let's remember part I gained the "X" rating not for softcore/hardcore sex, but for the high amount of graphical violence at display, turning the film into a cult item just for being a collection of brutal action. Perhaps, the sequel producers wanted to make the movie available to wider audiences, and if that was the case, their change hurt only diehard fans.

From my humble point of view, whilst this sequel is indeed bereft of much of the old red stuff a flying, I would say that it actually surpasses the original in pure entertainment value by far. The martial arts sequences are far superior this time around including some rather nifty Kobudo weapons displays throughout. Also Sonny Chiba is on much better shape here to – just check out the awesome sequence near the start of the film in which our role model protagonist allows himself to be taken to a police station in order to silence a witness. He makes his escape by kicking the bars out through the wall and leaping through the subsequent hole from a few stories up!

The international movie poster.

Did this guy inspired Mortal Kombat's Liu Kang?

Another scene of amazing note involves our hero punching some poor chap so hard in the back of the head that his eyeballs literally pop out!!! (some great utilisation of ping-pong balls there!) It's also great to see the return of a supposedly deceased character from the first flick who returns here with the intention of exacting his revenge upon our hero.

To be quite honest, there's only one negative I can think of in this flick and that is the ill advised inclusion of Chiba's 'side-kick' (just like they did in the the first film) who in this instance is a veritably annoying chick boasting ridiculous school teen looking pig tails, besides her presence doesn't really make sense. I mean, if the film makers only wanted us to check out Terry's gal, they should have at least included a nudity/sex scene!

Aside from this minor gripe though, overall, this proves to be a tremendously entertaining affair. I recommend it to martial arts lovers, cult movies lovers, 70's films lovers and everyone willing to witness real martial arts movies, not the blue screen/wire shit Hollywood has gotten us used to.

Bruce Lee is a pussy to me!

Your mom was in her period! check her hand!

Chuck Norris? he's a fag!

The movie has been re-released in DVD in several B-movie packs and a single disc edition as well. However, getting your hands into an original copy may be tricky. Perhaps some specialized online stores and second hand stores alike may still have some copies. If not interested in buying it you can still download it somewhere, or watch it online as the film is now public domain stuff, so sopa, screw you!

Here's the cool movie trailer:

And here's the whole film for your legal pleasure: