A dream come true. A film to rival how bad ass Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter was. Karate Bull Fighter is just the first entry in a trilogy where Chiba plays Karate legend Masutatsu Ōyama. He was the man who invented Kyokushin Karate (The first full contact Karate) which is now practiced by over 12 million martial arts enthusiasts. The legends and myths surrounding this martial artist including him wrestling and killing live bulls which later became the glowing point of a film based on his life.
Sonny Chiba was the perfect casting choice for due to the small fact of him being trained by the real life Oyama for 5 years. He delivers the same action that we've grown to love over the course of his Street Fighter trilogy plus he really surprises with an incredible ability to act as soon as the drama begins. I have had a sweet tooth for all his films ranging from Kill Bill to the wacky Samurai Resurrection.
The choice of settings really flow freely with the cultural bonanza to which we acquaint with over the runtime of our beautiful film. The violence is almost off the charts for a Chiba film. While not featuring as extreme violence as the kind committed by Terry Tsuguri, we have many surprising shots of facial impalements as well as a bulls horn getting ripped out. As usual with any Sonny Chiba film, the choreography isn't really much, just Chiba flying around with a voracious appetite for destruction but that is just his own unique style. One cannot call fault on his behalf because he does his job and he does it extremely well.
If the mental image of Sonny Chiba karate chopping a bulls horn off doesn't appeal to you and excite every male gene in your body, then you are a lost cause. Karate Bull Fighter acts as an extraordinary action film laced with these delicate scenes of earnest emotion delivered by our Japanese muse himself. Karate Bull Fighter is one of Chiba's bloodiest and most brilliant.
-mAQ
No comments:
Post a Comment