The Executioner DVD

THE EXECUTIONER (1974)
Crash Cinema
Directed by Teruo Ishii
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Yasuaki Kurata, Makoto Sato, Doris Nakajima, Henry Sanada
Video: Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono 2.0
Subtitles: None
Packaging: Keepcase
Chapter Stops: 12
84 Minutes

The Shaw Brothers kicked off the Kung Fu craze with ONE ARM BOXER in 1966. That box office smash changed the way Chinese action pictures were perceived and subsequent studio (and

independent) efforts became more entrenched with violence and elements of exploitation. By the time Bruce Lee’s THE BIG BOSS came out in 1971, the Hong Kong film industry literally exploded with exploitative martial arts fare. Japan, on the other hand, started a bit late. Sure Samurai films had been thrilling audiences for decades, but the swift death via a razor-sharp blade hardly qualifies as a complex, choreographed fight scene. Leave it to Sonny Chiba to take credit for creating the world’s first Japanese Karate film, THE STREET FIGHTER in 1973. As the Hong Kong Kung Fu movie is unique to China, the Japanese Karate film is indigenous to Japan. All the Sonny Chiba Karate films of this period are basically gang-related thrillers, with Chiba playing either a gangster, a vigilante, or an assassin himself. THE STREETFIGHTER was so successful it spawned three sequels, and a spin-off series SISTER STREETFIGHTER. It was during this time that Chiba starred in CHOKUGEKI JIGOKUHEN: DAI GYAKUTEN, directed by Teruo Ishiii—a great talent in the area of Japanese genre films, having directed science fiction, Yakuza, and horror movies. CHOKUGEKI JIGOKUHEN: DAI GYAKUTEN was rechristened THE EXECUTIONER for it’s North American debut. THE EXECUTIONER got lost in the U.S. Box Office glut of the 1970s, but leave it to Crash Cinema to dig up a widescreen print of this over looked action/exploitation film for their DVD release.

THE EXECUTIONER begins with an old Ninjitsu master teaching martial arts to his grandson. The boy grows up to become Koga, the Ninja enforcer; a man who will kill for a price. The Chairman is an ex-cop who resorts to vigilantism to fight organized crime. He hires the best men money can buy, such as Koga and the cold assassin Hayabusa (Makoto Sato). The Chairman uses his beautiful daughter to win the loyalty of these professional killers, and one other named Sakura (who Koga busts out of jail). The Chairman learns that a Latin American gang is smuggling cocaine into Japan from China. He deploys the team of Koga, Hayabusa, and Sakura to take down the drug ring—but these three temperamental types just don’t get along. Meanwhile, the leader of the smugglers, Mario, gets his kicks by staging fighting tournaments. Mario hires three vicious fighters, the Cannibal, Leo the Sicilian, and Boxer Nagasura to join his gang. Hayabusa talks Koga into breaking into Mario’s mansion and stealing the drugs which will be worth several billion yen. As Koga storms the mansion and is greeted by an army of gangsters, Hayabusa recruits the aid of his former pupil (Yasuaki Kurata) to help out in the raid. The fighter known as Boxer Nagasura actually holds his own against Koga. Thanks to Boxer Nagasura’s fighting prowess, the gangsters overpower Koga. Once they have him, they quickly turn their backs on Boxer Nagasura. He stands up for himself but is stabbed by Mario. Hayabusa and his protégé literally crash the party and tackle the gangsters. In the fracas, Koga is freed and all hell breaks loose. Koga and Hayabusa manage to steal a suitcase containing the drugs. Once they escape, Koga and Hayabusa open it up to inspect the stash, only top find it full of flour…

THE EXECUTIONER is one mean-spirited martial arts film. Right away, the movie opens up with Chiba’s bitter grandfather putting his grandson through the wringer. He belittles Chiba because he cannot master the disjointed limb tactics employed by Ninjas. Then director Teruo Ishii introduces the character of Hayabusa, perfectly essayed by Makoto Sato. We learn right away that Hayabusa is a two-timing contract killer who punches his victims so hard that their eyes fall out. Hayabusa is also a horny old goat, who enjoys having sex with the girlfriend of his victim, right next to the still-warm corpse. And this guy Hayabusa is one of the heroes! As you can tell, THE EXECUTIONER is much more than a martial arts flick; it’s a genuine exploitation opus played out to the extreme. Chiba must join with this man to accomplish the goals of the Chairman. The alliance between Koga and Hayabusa is an uneasy one, which generates a fair amount of suspense. These two men must learn to co-exist to destroy the gang of sleazeball drug smugglers. The true villains are overconfident scumbags who delight in violence and cocaine whores. Because the gang are Caucasian, the filmmakers got mostly non-Asian actors to challenge Chiba, Kurata, and Makoto. This kind of paints a picture as the white man as a symbol of evil, as the Caucasians are constantly getting the tar beat out of them. The plot is a little thin at times, and functions merely to bookend the violence and fights, but THE EXECUTIONER is seldom boring. Teruo Ishii includes some wonderful bits of black humor. For example, when our heroes have a meeting with the Chairman to plan the downfall of the gang, Sonny Chiba is shown taking part in the conversation while hanging from the ceiling like a true Ninja—and nobody acts like its at all unusual. This particular type of humor is what’s missing from the ultra grim THE STREETFIGHTER series.

During the last half hour, the film introduces Yasuaki Kurata’s character. He is such a seasoned martial artist that he is bored with normal competition. He wants someone to really challenge him. So he begs his former master Hayabusa to allow him to join them in the fateful final battle. The role is essentially a token one; a move made by the filmmakers to throw Kurata in to up the ante. The final battle has Chiba, Kurata, and Hayabusa smashing the heads of the hired goons. In a rare dose of reality, the bad guys actually defeat Chiba by sheer force of numbers. It’s still very unusual to see Chiba defeated in any of his movies, no matter the odds. Chiba uses all Karate against his opponents. As a true martial artist can tell you, Karate is the total opposite of Kung Fu. The Shaolin form of Kung Fu developed by the monks is designed to incapacitate your opponent with several swift strikes. When Kung Fu became the number one sport in China, more elaborate forms of fighting were created, all of which are very pleasing to the eye (such as sparring with staffs and other weapons). Karate is the total opposite as it was designed to quickly maim and cripple your opponent to attain victory. For instance, one common move in Karate is the cheap shot to the family jewels. I’m not knocking Karate; it definitely has it’s place in society and it’s a supremely effective form of self-defense. However, it is not nearly as camera friendly as Chinese Kung Fu, which allows the fights to be as elaborately staged as the creativity of the choreographers allow. So by using Karate, Chiba’s fights are as brutal as they are short. He fights a lot like Bruce Lee, giving quick volleys of punches and kicks that his opponents don’t get up from. Very different form the cinematic style of Hong Kong Kung Fu where it’s not uncommon for the combatants to trade blows for up to 15 minutes. Truth be told, the Karate style of fighting is actually more true to real life combat. Nevertheless, in THE EXECUTIONER, we witness more range from Chiba than in any other of his films. He punishes endless waves of bad guys in such a fashion as to make a normal man wince.

Crash Cinema presents THE EXECUTIONER in the original widescreen ratio of 2.35.1. ratio. The source print alternates between being fairly clean to downright scratchy. The opening title sequence is in very bad shape, but things soon settle down and blemishes disappear almost completely. The print also is somewhat dark, so do not expect fully saturated colors. Even the blood is more black than crimson. The night scenes are especially murky. I believe this darkness is the result of grain and cheap film stock. The action sequences look pretty good though, and the Karate battles are thrilling and fully rendered in the image. Skins tones are a bit dark, as well. Black levels are solid. Though THE EXECUTIONER exhibits intermittent picture quality, martial arts fans should overlook this for the scarcity of a movie like this. THE STREETFIGHTER is available on DVD from about a dozen labels, but this is the only version of THE EXECUTIONER likely to surface on disc anytime soon.

The soundtrack for THE EXECUTIONER is Dolby Digital Mono 2.0. Though the transfer is worn at times, the general sound quality is pleasing. There is no hiss, drop-outs, or background noise. The English dubbed dialog is delivered without distortion. The dubbing is done by those folks who did many Godzilla movies. You can clearly hear the voices of Peter Hernandez and Christina Orr, better known as Speed Racer and Trixie. It’s a riot listening to Yasuaki Kurata who is voiced by Peter Hernandez. Teruo Ishii uses a minimalist approach with the scoring. There is also some age-appropriate lounge music for the nightclub scenes. Like Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba employs his own hissing battle cry, which sounds cool in the mix.

THE EXECUTIONER is truly one of Sonny Chiba’s best flicks. The movie has a great supporting cast and nice touches of black humor. It has violent action and sleazy exploitation. It’s not quite as brutal as his breakthrough film, THE STREETFIGHTER, but I find THE EXECUTIONER is a greater overall effort than that one, with Chiba displaying his real-life mastery of Karate, Judo, and Ninjitsu. THE EXECUTIONER is the superior film in many respects, mainly because it has decent direction from Teruo Ishii. And any film where Yasuaki Kurata fights side-by-side with Sonny Chiba is worth owning!

Movie:	4.0
Video:	4.0
Audio:	3.0
Extras:	0.0
Overall:	4.0