The Street Fighter (4 Stars)

Is the Street Fighter in the title a hero or a villain? There's a common concept of an anti-hero. Usually it's a person who's willing to do bad acts, such as murder, in order to achieve a good goal. A vigilante might kill a criminal if he doesn't think he'll be found guilty in court. "The ends justify the means". But what about Takuma Tsurugi? Does he have any motives at all apart from making money? In his previous films as Bodyguard Kiba he was a bodyguard who was prepared to defend criminals if they were paying him, but he had a heart. There were lines he wouldn't cross. But what about his new role?

The film begins with Tsurugi impersonating a Buddhist priest to pray with Shinkenbaru, a criminal awaiting the death penalty. He frees Shinkenbaru with a complex scheme of making him too sick to be executed. Is that done in America as well? If a convict has a bad fever, is his execution delayed?

Tsurugi frees Shinkenbaru on his way to hospital and sends him to Hong Kong. Tsurugi goes to collect the payment for his services from Shinkenbaru's brother, but he says that he doesn't have the three million Yen that he promised him. Tsurugi kills him in a fight. Then he kidnaps Shinkenbaru's sister and sells her as a prostitute.

Do we have any sympathy with the main character at this point?

The plot moves on. Sarah Hammett is an American woman living in Japan who's recently inherited the world's third largest oil company. She's being protected in a karate school. A Chinese gang offers Tsurugi five million Yen to kidnap her. He knows that the school's teacher is a skilled fighter who might defeat him, so he says he wants fifty million Yen. The gang tries to kill him, but he kills everyone sent to get him. Tsurugi goes to the karate school and offers himself as Sarah's personal protector. A bodyguard again! But as he makes clear, he's only doing it because he expects a very large payment.

Despite the main character's moral ambiguity, it's a good film. The fight scenes are stunning, even if they're slower than anything we see performed by Donnie Yen.