Soooo... any news on the R1 Street Fighter DVDs?

[Guest Bentley2005]

Haven't heard much lately, and with the recent Chiba-based posts, I thought I'd try to find out any possible news lurking about. I'm tempted to pick up the R2 box set, but the fact that I know a (possibly) better version for each film (plus an uncut Sister Street Fighter) will be out in the (hopefully) near future is holding me back. Mainly interested in The Street Fighter's Last Revenge... basically because it's the only one of the "real" trilogy (nothing against SisterSF) that hasn't been released uncut in the US yet.

*******SPOILERS********

I read that the uncut version of Last Revenge shows Chiba tearing out the villain's heart. The US version simply shows the villain getting stabbed with Chiba's fingers, but doesn't show "the aftermath". I've only seen one shot from this version in which Chiba has his bloodied hands clasped together up to his face.

*******END SPOILERS*********

Anyway, here's hoping the US releases will be soon... I can't wait much longer!

[Guest biomorph]

Do you have any idea whats uncut from sister streetfighter?

[Guest Bentley2005]

I don't, but I've read in the past that the Japanese releases of "Onna hissatsu ken" (Sister Street Fighter) have had additional violence which had been cut to secure an R in America, and most likely cut in other countries. I'm sure if I do enough searching I can find some info somewhere. Plus, few people realize that there are at least two Sister Street Fighter sequels... guess the original didn't make enough money here in the US, so New Line didn't try to release the other two.

[Linn1]

there's about five- ten minutes of fightscenes missing from the film that would pull it to an X-rating. Sue kicks a guys head around backwards and he walks down the stairs, Chiba disembowles a man, etc. I've never seen anyone actually do a comparison between the two, other than one I had set to do for my "Chiba by the Dozen" series I was doing for Cave of Kung Fu. BTW, there's actually two sequels and another film that fans argue over as being a third sequel. With the added scenes, Sister Streetfighter moves into full blown Streetfighter film and the sequels are MUCH better with Kurata in his prime as Sue's co-star. BTW, the US set is still coming out, as well as perhaps an uncut version of Bronson Lee, Champion. The original title was The Champion and with the cut gore intact and correct storyline, it's supposed to be as good as the Streetfighter films (I've never been able to find an uncut copy of this one). That film also had two sequels that were FAR superior, both being like a crack addict's remake of Bloodsport aka Streetfighter films with some bloody tournament style fighting.

[Guest fabhui]

The R2 Boxset is only £11.99 on play.com, which at that price is a steal!:eek

[Guest Bentley2005]

Found the Japanese posters (and one video cover) for the Sister Street Fighter series after doing some searching... note Kurata on the poster for 2 and video cover for 3:

Sister Street Fighter:

Sister Street Fighter 2:

Sister Street Fighter 3:

Found the first two at this Japanese fan site for Etsuko "Sue" Shihomi... plus a couple of gratuitous swimsuit shots

[Guest kungfusamurai]

Thanks for those pics and posters. I can't wait to see SSF 2 and 3, especially with Kurata in them.

KFS

[Guest Bentley2005]

I'm not sure if anyone is releasing the SSF sequels or not, they just cropped up in the conversation. However, here's a website that has them on DVD-R:

Sister Street Fighter Sequels

You'll have to scroll down a bit to find them, but they're there. They also have the original SSF uncut and CLAIM to have the infamous "fourth SSF" that nobody knows if it's a real sequel or not. Kinda like how some people claim that Sonny Chiba's Karate Warriors is essentially Street Fighter 4. I might pick up SSF 1 uncut and work on that comparison that Linn tried to get someone to do. Maybe I can work on it and he can put it in the "Cave" :b

[Guest kungfusamurai]

Thanks for the info on those sequels on that website. What about some of the other karate films they have listed? They have a series called 'karate' with bronson lee, sonny chiba, and mas oyama! This definitely isn't the bullfighter/bearfighter/for life films, are they? I don't remember Bronson/Tadashi Yamashita being in any of those.

KFS

[Guest Bentley2005]

Hmm... just read that, and as far as I could tell, it just said "Sonny Chiba's teacher, Mas Oyama". I didn't think Oyama did any actual films other than his cameo at the beginning of Karate Bullfighter. As for these "The Karate" films, they may be the sequels to "Bronson Lee, Champion". I know Linn said it was called "The Champion" originally, but it may be a different translation of the title. Here are the summaries for those interested taken straight from the site:

THE KARATE # 2-INCREDIBLY BLOODY and INSANE 70's Jpn. karate film, starring BRONSON LEE fighting against an army of Yakuza killers! He's blind throughout most of the film, but still manages to fight and kill everyone he meets! The SPAZZED-OUT KARATE GUY is also back, and still gettin' his ass beat and foaming at the mouth in many scenes! One guy Bronson has to face is a DERANGED, SCAR-FACED MANIAC, who likes to tie his opponents to a tree, fly into the air with hands and arms extended, then land on their CHESTS, splitting their RIB-CAGES open, and watching GEYSERS of BLOOD come GUSHING out of their chests, covering his face!! He also fights BOLO, too! GREAT FILM!! UNCUT, lbx'd., in Jpn. w/NO subts., very good qual. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

THE KARATE # 3-MEGA-RARE and SUPER-VIOLENT 70's Jpn. karate-action film starring BRONSON LEE and Sonny Chiba's teacher, MAS OYAMA! There's also a weapon-throwin' bad guy wearing a jacket with his name, "CRAZY RON", on it, who causes a lot of gory mayhem before having his neck snapped by Lee in a brutal battle! There's a black karate fighter too, with a funny name on HIS jacket, who grimaces and makes ALL kinds of crazy noises when he fights, and looks a lot like a thinner version of Rudy Ray Moore! Not to mention there's this SPAZZED-OUT chubby Jap fighter who foams at the mouth after every fight and jumps around, and needless to say, you've got one BIZAARE and CRAZY flick here!! Plenty of bloodshed and gore, too! UNCUT, in Jpn. w/NO subts., very good qual. RECOMMENDED!!

Depending on what Linn has seen or heard about the Champion/Karate sequels, we might be able to find out if these are those movies... they sound interesting enough anyway :lol

[Guest kungfusamurai]

Yeah, they sound cool. I might also check out his uncut Bodyguard. And that Aikido film with Chiba might be cool too. The only thing that sucks is that non-US customers have to pay $18 versus $12 for US customers. Oh well...

KFS

[Guest Bentley2005]

Well, shows what I know... according to the IMDb, Bronson Lee, The Champion IS indeed aka The Karate... so the two films are indeed the aforementioned sequels. However, I still can't find this one uncut, and I just realized that the US version was cut so bad, it was given a PG rating!!! Now, I know that is pretty much the equivalent to a PG-13 nowadays, but having heard that the gore level was originally high, that must be a lot of cutting! Oh well... I'm on the case! Or something like that...

[Guest kungfusamurai]

The Warner Bros version I have of Bronson Lee is really cut. The ending has him going against that funny looking guy, and it's practically over in three moves or so. It reminded me of the Ground Zero version of Killer Army. I had no idea what the heck happened. If Karate and Bronson Lee are the same films, I hope it'll get an uncut release soon.

KFS

[Guest Bentley2005]

I looked around for quite a while, but it was driving me nuts! Couldn't find the uncut version of the first film, just the sequels. I'm sure the first film had to get a VHS release in Japan at some point!

[Guest silver hermit]

it interesting that this subject was brought up just in time seeing how i just watched the street fighter 1 and 2 widescreen this week. they seem to be transfered from a 35mm print. there is 2 scenes i'm curious about there is one where sonny chiba rips of a rapists nuts you can see the nuts in his hand.

and second sonny chiba rips out the throat of his arch nemisis you can clearly see the flesh in his hands. does that mean my version is uncut? i remember saying to myself this movie is pretty graphic. now i'm hearing it might be the cut one. that i find is very interesting, now i want to see the uncut to see if it is more graphic. is this possible? can i get the run time of the uncut versions(ntsc)

[Guest Bentley2005]

It's uncut... 90-91 min NTSC. The cut version is like 75 minutes and is HORRIBLY cut!!! Seen it on Action Encore... sucks big time...

[Guest killer meteor]

15mins worth of fights cut? Yeesh!

[Guest Bentley2005]

I'm trying to remember how bad the finale was cut... been about two years since it was played on Action Encore. It was virtually incoherent! One second the final fight begins, and less than a minute, IT'S OVER!!! WHAT THE HELL?!?! Anyway, thankfully the rated version is pretty much non-existant on DVD.