Kung Fu Street Fighter

Japan had its Bruce Lee craze like everywhere else, and this offers a taste of the ultra-violent unarmed combat movies the Japanese started making after Lee's death in 1973. Chiba stars as Terry Tsuguri, the meanest bastard who ever gouged eyes, in an incomprehensible kidnap plot which rises to a wonderfully hysterical climax with samurai-style swordplay aboard an oil-tanker. If you can take the film's formulary nature, its rampant misogyny, and the peculiarly Japanese notion of tortured personal honour that Chiba's 'hero' represents, it's quite impressive.