Karate baka ichidai

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I recently rewatched the Sonny Chiba classic Karate for Life (1977) on Tubi. The storyline follows the real-life journey of Choi Bae-dal, a Korean karate expert who battles his way through the Japanese underground to establish his own martial arts school, which would become known as Kyokushin Karate.

Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (Karate Warriors), the film stars Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter), Kôjirô Hongô (Satan's Sword), Hiroshi Nawa (Zatoichi the Fugitive), and Hideo Murota (Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior).

This is a fun and ultra-violent martial arts film featuring Sonny Chiba at his best-cool, calm, collected, and ruthless. The action scenes are outstanding, with dynamic choreography, a variety of fighting styles for Chiba to take on, and plenty of broken bones along the way. The film also mixes in some humor, like the kids with sticks who hilariously try to challenge Chiba. The soundtrack and sound effects effectively immerse you in the genre, and the final two boss fights are especially memorable.

In conclusion, Karate for Life is a solid entry in the martial arts/action genre. I would rate it a 7/10 and strongly recommend it.

The one Thing i can say is WOW! This movie kicks some butt and then some. It's the conclusion in the Oyama trilogy. Sonny Chiba reprises his role as Oyama in this terrific actioner that brings the saga to a close. In this actioner, Oyama has joined an outfit as a bodyguard and is going around japan challenging all schools that his karate is better than thiers. At this one school, Oyama kicks the crap out of 100 students and their teacher but not before he gouges his one eye out. Later, Oyama is offered some big bucks to go to Okinawa and participate in pro wrestling. If Oyama wins, he'll be paid handsomly. Only later does Oyama find out that the matches are fixed and he's supposed to lose. Oyama is very hot at this and he goes on fighting in the ring only to win and this angers the local mafia. With the mafia gunning for him, Oyama declares war. The movie is almost a copycat of Enter The Dragon except the director has a more visual eye than Robert Clouse. The fight scenes are brutal and bloody and Sonny Chiba is in top form in the last outing of Oyama. ****

This is an extremely violent and well made martial arts movie--the final in the trilogy based on the life of Masutatsu Oyama--actor Sonny Chiba's instructor in Kyokushinkai Karate. I enjoyed the first two films and at first thought they were totally fictional (after all, who would stage a fight with a bear or a bull), but was shocked to find that for the most part the details of the story were more or less true. However, in this final movie, there is so much killing and extraordinary action that I again wonder what is true and what is exaggerated in the movie. Web sites about Oyama's life weren't all that helpful and I enjoyed the movies enough I might just try to find a biography of this incredible man.

What made the real life Oyama amazing was that like Bruce Lee, his brand of martial arts was made up of whatever techniques worked and this style emphasized winning the fight as quickly as possible. So when you see Sonny Chiba portraying Oyama, it was realistic that he dispatched many opponents with one blow or used lethal-style attacks. However, if you add up all the people he killed in the trilogy, Oyama would have probably killed a hundred or more people and I seriously doubt that Japan would have allowed him to run free!! But, for a film, showing this style of brutal fighting is great because all the silly frills and silly crap that often accompanied SOME martial arts films is gone. Instead, it's stripped down to the bone--just raw and brutal fighting. Chiba is amazing in this film (as well as other films such as the STREET FIGHTER series) because his style is intense and forceful--it's easy to imagine him really being such a dangerous fighting machine. So, for raw fighting power, these films are very similar to the Bruce Lee films. In fact, towards the end, there's an obvious homage to ENTER THE DRAGON where Oyama fights the leader of the baddies in a mirrored room.

For fans of martial arts films, it doesn't get much better than this. While not a perfect film, it is among the very best and highest rated I have seen--earning a 9 through sheer brute strength and technique.