I LOVE SONNY CHIBA!

Although the clip above is really from the highly recommended "The Streetfighter",I'm really posting a link to a REVIEW by Keith Allison of Tele-port City for Kinji Fukasaku's sprawling epic, "THE YAKUZA PAPERS" which is now available on DVD. It's an incredible series of movies made in the early 70's that run 7 hours when watched in order. Somehow, Blockbuster online does not have PART ONE, so I am stuck beginning with part two. I am told this does not matter much since each film contains about 100 characters each and are equally confusing. Basically, everything Mr. Allison says in this review is spot on, except for his criticism of the camerawork which I think is this genre master's wonderful signature. The incredibly shaky shots put you right in the middle of the action and capture the raw anger that seems to EXPLODE from these movies, as every three minutes seem to be filled with people stabbing each other, axing each other, shooting someone in the face(with the incredible gunshot sound effect that the japanese always use-sounds like some kind of BUCK ROGERS ray gun and their brand of blood which looks like poster paint), yelling at the loudest volume, being thrown through plate glass, having sex with a woman who pullls a knife on you and says, "Pay me like the whore I am". And ANY MOVIE that has SONNY CHIBA in the cast is a must see.

CHIBA was once the biggest export star from JAPAN, Japan's answer to Bruce Lee, an incredibly pissed off looking SOB that seems to be some kind of half Japanese half Italian thug. You may have recently seen him as the notorious sword maker Hattori Hanzo in Tarantino's KILL BILL, VOL..ONE. But if you haven't seen THE STREETFIGHTER series of movies, you are really missing out. And I'm not talking about that Van Damme garbage.SONNY CHIBA is the most hateful, violent, pissed off, hero EVER as he goes on his killing spree against the YAKUZA.

He seems to rise from certain death over and over in these films, spurred on by the echoing mantra of his dead father,"Harden your body! Become a...NUMBER ONE MAN! Do not ever let anyone BEAT YOU!"
Anyway, enjoy this REVIEW