Shigehiro Ozawa
Il teppista

“Gekitotsu! Satsujin Ken”, which should roughly translate as “Clash, the Assassin’s Fist!”, known in America as “The Street Fighter” and in Italy with the somewhat unconvincing title “Il teppista”, is a Japanese martial arts film released in 1974 directed by Shigehiro Ozawa. The movie has achieved cult status largely thanks to the appreciation of Quentin Tarantino, who has frequently included it among his favorites within the genre, so much that in “True Romance”, scripted by Tarantino but directed by Tony Scott, there is a scene where the protagonist goes to the cinema to watch “The Street Fighter”.

The success of the work is primarily owed to the charisma of Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba, who plays the troubled protagonist Takuma Tsurugi, the quintessential anti-hero who, despite being one, still connects with the audience. He is a sort of assassin who offers his services to the highest bidder to accomplish seemingly impossible missions. However, he is not entirely evil, which is why he agrees to protect the young heiress of an oil empire from the Hong Kong mafia.

The film is a succession of violent fights that leave a visual mark, almost always bare-handed, where the fiercely energetic style of Chiba dominates, and between castrations and vocal cord tearing, it raised the bar of on-screen violence at the time.

Co-starring in the duels with Tsurugi are lethal blind men with sharp katanas, wise and powerful martial arts masters, and especially the nemesis Tateki Shikenbaru, who will also return in subsequent episodes. In fact, the movie is the first of a trilogy, and the actor who plays Shikenbaru, Masashi Ishibashi, also portrays the rival adversary in the Oyama trilogy, which also stars Chiba.

A final honorable mention goes to the soundtrack, whose main theme, in its simplicity, stays in your head for weeks after viewing.

In summary, recommended for those seeking high-adrenaline visual violence, all condensed into an hour and a half of karate-punch-based entertainment.