Explosive
Summary
Chiba is in top form with these two films, and Eureka! brings them both together in a two-disc Blu-ray set that will make fans happy.
Karate Bullfighter (1975) Plot: A vagabond martial artist turns the martial arts world in Japan upside down.
Review: Oyama (Sonny Chiba) is a wandering vagabond, wearing tattered rags and looking like the hobo that he is, years after his tour of duty as a soldier. He waltzes into a karate tournament where the best martial artists in Japan are competing, and he shocks everyone – especially the judges – when he turns out to be a force to be reckoned with. He not only sweeps the tournament, but he gains a follower for life in one of the students who trails after him as he leaves with the trophy in hand. The judges who tried to recruit Oyama and sponsor him are spurned by his refusal to conform to their rules (he calls their style of martial arts “dancing”), but the lone student who vows to study under him is honest and true in his intentions to be his disciple for life. Oyama has a complicated history: After the war he became a taxi driver and in a fit of rage he raped a young woman who later fell in love with him despite his flaws, and he carries with him the sins of a man who has no way to repent other than to take his rage to the wind with his intense katas, which he passes on to his new student. When the judges of the martial arts tournament get wind that he’s undermining them with his unique and powerful style, they send out scores of martial artists to put an end to him … but he’s way too strong and wild to tame – especially when they murder his only student!
Karate Bullfighter is a real showcase for star Chiba in a role that originated in a manga comic book that sees him fighting dozens of guys at once, and in one memorable scene where he takes on a real bull in a showdown that has him literally chopping a horn off the bull’s skull, spraying blood and gore all over the place in the process. Chiba also has a memorable one-on-one duel with a black boxer in a flashback in his days as a soldier, and the scene ends with Chiba shattering his opponent’s (named “The Executioner”) entire bone structure in his hand and arm! Kazuhiko Yamaguchi directed it, and it’s got everything you’d hope to see from a movie with Chiba.
Karate Bearfighter (1975) Plot: The saga of Oyama continues as he joins the yakuza.
Review: Vagabond ex-soldier dynamo with a chip on his shoulder Oyama (Sonny Chiba) has accrued quite the reputation: No aspiring martial artist or teacher can touch him, and he’s labeled a dirty fighter for the mere fact that he doesn’t pull his kicks or punches. In exile, he wanders around, drunk as a skunk without purpose until an old friend of his from the military approaches him in a restaurant when his ass is on the floor, drunk out of his skull. He’s made an offer he doesn’t refuse: Join the yakuza as an enforcer. Now, with his reputation notorious, Oyama has imposters posing as him throughout the countryside, but there’s only one of him, and he’s not messing around. His old flame rebukes him for having lost the “spirit” of karate, and he eventually leaves the yakuza to find himself again. He encounters an old master wandering around like him, and Oyama is shamed by the old master for defeating him by simply showing him his own reflection. Humbled, Oyama is hunted by yakuza enforcers for leaving, and he must take all comers … including a bear in the woods, which is one of his great trials.
A worthy sequel to Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter features Chiba in more or less the same frequency as you saw him previously as Oyama, only this time he has a slightly softer side as he becomes a father-figure to his nephew in a prolonged epilogue that sees him trying to start over. The one big disappointment here is that the man-against-animal sequence where Chiba “fights” a bear is obviously cheated by using a guy in a suit. The movie is built and hyped around that so it was a goofy letdown compared to the sequence in the previous film where it was clear that Chiba “fought” a bull. Still, this is a pretty solid martial arts film with one the greatest martial arts personas in cinema history.
Eureka! brings these two titles together in a double feature, two-disc Blu-ray set, and the high definition transfers of both films are more than satisfactory with clear, crisp filmic presentations. Special features include brand new feature-length audio commentaries, a booklet, a two-sided slipcover, and a video essay.