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The classic video game series Street Fighter is getting an all-new live-action movie adaptation from Legendary Entertainment, and there are a ton of exciting updates. Developed by Capcom and debuting back in 1987, the Street Fighter franchise is perhaps the most beloved fighting game of all time and helped to popularize the genre throughout its six main installments. The concept of the game is rather simple and pits players against one another in one-on-one duels. Outside the main games, Street Fighter has spawned countless spinoffs and sequels across multiple gaming platforms.

The lucrative video game franchise quickly blossomed into other forms of media, and Street Fighter was expanded into comic books, animated series, and even a live-action feature film in 1994. Street Fighter featured an all-star cast including Jean-Claude Van Damme and Raúl Juliá, but is generally considered one of the worst video game movies of all time despite maintaining a cult following.

It can’t be denied that as far as martial arts movies go, the best ones come from Asia, particularly Hong Kong during their action heyday, which was arguably the 70s, 80s and first half of the ’90s. It’s tough to compete with the likes of the Shaw Brothers and the drunken master known as Jackie Chan. That said, martial arts movies were also making a foothold in the States decades ago, thanks mainly to Bruce Lee-mania following the release of Enter the Dragon. Before that movie, very few actors in Hollywood seemed like they were credible martial artists, except maybe James Coburn, a student of Lee’s, who pulled off some pretty good-looking moves in the otherwise silly Our Man Flint movies. Steve McQueen also had training but didn’t use martial arts on screen. Up to then, though, the most notable uses of martial arts in movies usually revolved around Judo,...

Quentin Tarantino, best known for his supporting turn in "Destiny Turns on the Radio," has never been shy about his taste in movies. Tarantino has long been drawn to aggressively masculine genre films, Westerns, war pictures, martial arts films, and anything one might have seen at a run-down grindhouse theater in 1977. He also likes very terse, tense movies, and has listed Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver," William Friedkin's "Sorcerer," and Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" as his favorites. He's likewise admitted to having fond feelings for "The Great Escape" (who doesn't?) and thinks very highly of Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk." It's easy to guess that he similarly loves "Rio Bravo" and "Apocalypse Now," and he often recommends the Sonny Chiba vehicle "The Street Fighter" from 1974.

Despite his tastes, however, Tarantino remains cinematically omnivorous, taking in hundreds of movies a year, sussing out the pop...

The British Film Institute (BFI) is set to make waves with its upcoming “Art of Action” season, anchored by a re-release of Kathryn Bigelow’s 1991 cult classic “Point Break.”

The U.K.-wide celebration of action choreography in cinema will run from October to December, offering audiences a high-octane journey through the evolution of the genre.

BFI Distribution will bring “Point Break,” starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, back to U.K. cinemas on Nov. 8. The film’s return to the big screen after years of limited theatrical showings is expected to be a major draw for both nostalgic fans and new viewers alike.

The “Art of Action” season, presented by the BFI Film Audience Network using National Lottery funds, aims to showcase the artistry behind action sequences that have kept audiences enthralled for decades. The program will feature a diverse array of films, including silent era classics like Buster Keaton...

Stars: Julia Nagano, Yuichi Nakamura, Kohshu Kirano, Shun Nishime, Kanon Miyahara | Written by Junichiro Ashiki | Directed by Kôichi Sakamoto

With a title like Ninja vs Shark you might think this is another Mark Polonia film along the lines of Sharkula or Shark Encounters of the Third Kind. Or maybe one of the more bizarre Chinese kaiju films such as Land Shark. But you’d be wrong, it’s actually a Japanese film written by Junichiro Ashiki and directed by Kôichi Sakamoto.

During Japan’s Edo Period, Sayo, a pearl diver from the village of Okitsu, swims back to shore only to find the remains of one of her fellow divers washed up on the beach. This has been happening a lot since Lord Koshiro Mizuchi of the Crimson Devil Clan demanded the villagers hand over their pearls to him. When they refused he used sorcery to turn the sharks into living weapons.

Netflix may be the top streaming service on the planet but they’ve never been great at putting classic movies into the feeds of their subscribers. A quick glance at the streaming service at any given time will mostly assault your eyeballs with new originals and recent hits, with older movies from the 70s, 60s, 50s and earlier being almost completely absent from the service.

That’s why it’s great to hear that Netflix is currently celebrating the cinema of 1974, and it’s the first phase of their Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection initiative.

Netflix explains the project, “Starting this month on Netflix in the US, you can watch a robust roster of movies released in 1974 and turning the big 5-0 this year.”

Additionally, “More offerings from 1984 (turning 40), 1994 (turning 30), and 2004 will follow in April, July, and October, respectively.”

Netflix’s 1974 Collection is now streaming, and it includes Larry Cohen’s killer baby horror movie,...

1974 was quite a year for cinema; 50 years later, Netflix (of all places) is celebrating the golden jubilee.

In recognition of the anniversary, the streamer on Wednesday launched a new, dedicated content row (and direct URL link) with the first films being honored under its new “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection” banner. Each of the 14 films came to Netflix this month by way of Warner Bros., Paramount, or Sony — the distributors that license content to Netflix.

The 1974 collection includes “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Black Belt Jones,” “Blazing Saddles,” “California Split,” “Chinatown,” “The Conversation,” “Death Wish,” “The Gambler,” “The Great Gatsby,” “It’s Alive,” “The Little Prince,” “The Lords of Flatbush,” “The Parallax View,” and “The Street Fighter” (“Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken”).

Netflix doesn’t plan to stop with disco’s heyday. In April, the streaming service will do the same for films from 1984 (turning 40); July will celebrate 1994 movies (turning 30); and in October...

Pictures: Universal Pictures

Netflix kickstarted the year as normal by rotating its library of movies. Among the movies that came to Netflix on December 31st and January 1st were 15 movies from the 1970s considered classics. Here’s a rundown of all those movies that dropped.

The movies seem to come to Netflix through a range of different distributors, including Paramount and Universal Pictures. It comes as Netflix has seemingly been getting greater access to some of the biggest Hollywood studios’ back library of IPs as of late. We’ve seen almost all providers step up their licensing to Netflix in various forms, whether that be through licensing newer movies, older movies like the ones below, or titles from their vast TV catalog.

In alphabetical order, then, here’s a rundown of all the new movies that recently touched down that were first released in the 1970s. Descriptions of each movie...

Martial arts actor with an economical style who starred in The Street Fighter and later in Kill Bill and Immortal Combat

In the early 1990s Quentin Tarantino helped extend Sonny Chiba’s appeal beyond the martial arts enthusiasts who had admired the actor’s work for decades. Chiba, who has died aged 82 from Covid-19, had already made more than 120 movies by that point. But it was in Tarantino’s screenplay for True Romance (1993), directed by Tony Scott, that many western viewers first heard his name.

Clarence, the amiable hero played by Christian Slater, declares Chiba to be “bar none, the greatest actor working in martial arts movies today”. He then spends his birthday watching a triple-bill of the actor’s explosively violent films.

On August 19, 2021, legendary Japanese actor Sonny Chiba succumbed to complications from Covid-19. He was 82. If you don’t know Chiba, he was a pioneering martial arts movie stars and a genuine master of the martial arts. Long before Bruce Lee, there was Sonny Chiba.

Chiba was his stage name. He was born as Sadaho Maeda and adopted “Chiba” after Japan’s Chiba prefecture where he grew up. His Japanese stage name was Shinichi Chiba, but he was known internationally as Sonny.

Chiba was a natural athlete and a contender for Japan’s Olympic gymnastics team until he was sidelined by an injury. He pivoted to study Karate under the venerated master Mas Oyama, a hardened full-contact fighter who was famous for killing bulls with his bare hands. Chiba went on to earn black belts in several schools of Karate, as well as Judo, Kendo, and Ninjitsu.

In the 60s, Chiba...

Sonny Chiba is being remembered by Hollywood as a “true action legend” after the “Kill Bill” and “The Street Fighter” star died on Thursday due to complications from Covid-19.

Martial arts actor known for “Mortal Kombat” Lewis Tan, Japanese auteur Hideo Kojima and Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema shared their tributes for Chiba on Thursday.

“A true action legend. Your films are eternal and your energy an inspiration,” Tan said in a tweet Thursday.

Chiba, a skilled martial artist, starred in dozens of films and television shows since the early ’60s. Among his popular films were the “Yakuza Cop” and “Street Fighter” series in the ’70s, which launched his international career when New Line released the film and gave it an X-rating for its extreme violence.

Keanu Reeves was also a huge fan of Chiba and his martial arts work, getting the chance to meet the man he called...

Sonny Chiba, the Japanese martial artist and actor best known to American audiences for his role in Kill Bill, has died at the age of 82.

Star of films like 1974’s The Street Fighter and 1976’s Karate Warriors, Chiba died from pneumonia caused by Covid-19, his agent confirmed to Variety. The actor had been hospitalized since August 8th.

An action star in his native Japan with over 200 films in his filmography, Chiba — a black belt in karate, ninjutsu, judo and kendo — first began acting in the late Fifties, appearing in films...

Sonny Chiba, the Japanese actor and martial artist known internationally for appearing in the Kill Bill films and The Fast and the Furious, died of Covid complications, his agent confirmed to Deadline. He was 82.

“He was a great friend and an awesome client. Such a humble, caring and friendly man. I will surely miss him,” said the actor’s agent Timothy Beal.

Chiba was a prolific actor in Japanese film and TV, racking up more than 125 credits for the famed Toei studios, and was also a noted stunt choreographer. In his later career, he attracted attention internationally by playing the sushi chef and retired samurai Hattori Hanzo in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Volume 2. Tarantino was a noted fan of Chiba; in his screenplay for True Romance, Christian Slater’s character is a fan of the actor.

After being talent spotted by the famed Toei film studio in the 1960s,...

Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba, the Japanese actor and martial arts legend who had roles in American films like “Kill Bill” and “The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift,” died on Thursday, his agent confirmed to Variety. He was 82.

Chiba’s career in film and television spanned from the 1960s through the 2010s, and he appeared in countless Japanese titles, in addition to some popular American films. In many of his projects, he showcased his expert martial arts skills, and he went on to choreograph fight scenes later in his career.

Born Sadaho Maeda in Fukuoka, Japan, on January 22, 1939, he began learning martial arts while at the Nippon Sports Science University in 1957. He studied under karate master Masutatsu “Mas” Oyama and earned a first-degree black belt in 1965. He later played Oyama in a trilogy of films, “Champion of Death,” “Karate Bearfighter” and “Karate for Life,” in the late 1970s. In 1984, he received a fourth-degree black belt.

In the climax of Shigehiro Ozawa’s The Street Fighter (1974), “hero” Terry Tsurugi (Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba) attempts to rescue a kidnapped heiress by boarding the enemy’s ship and fighting his way through a mob of henchmen. Within the ensuing smorgasbord of pain and grievous injury, two moments stand out. After vaulting over a railing and sticking a crunchy landing on a guy’s back, Terry blocks an incoming swing and plows his fist into the assailant’s stomach. A grimace or yell are to be expected, but the film gives us much more: in slow motion and close-up, we watch as the poor man’s mouth flops open and white-orange bile streams out, still chunky with foodstuffs reversing their prior course. A second thug lunges in, but this reckless charge leads to his ensnarement in an armlock. As Terry snaps the man’s limb not once but three times,...

Shout Select Presents The Street Fighter Collection On Blu-ray™ March 26th, 2019 “Brutal And Brilliant … Fans owe it to themselves to go buy this.” – Empire Shout Select will release The Street Fighter Collection on Blu-ray for the first time on March 26th, 2019. This set comes jam-packed, containing all three Street Fighter films …

The post ‘The Street Fighter’ Collection Comes to Blu-ray from Shout Select March 26 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

The Sister Street Fighter Special Edition Blu-ray Collector’s Set will be available From Arrow Video March 5th

After the massive success of The Street Fighter, the Toei Company decided to build a new karate series around a female lead, and cast a young actress who had appeared in a cameo role alongside her mentor Sonny Chiba. Still a teenager at the time, Etsuko Shihomi exploded onscreen in her first leading role and created a new character type: a tough fighter who was fierce, fearless, good-hearted, and decidedly non-sexualised, a departure from Toei s typical formula.

In 1974 s Sister Street Fighter, Shihomi is the half-Chinese, half-Japanese Li Koryu, who travels to Yokohama to investigate the disappearance of her brother, an undercover cop. Li discovers a smuggling ring run by a drug lord with his own personal army of deadly fighters, and must penetrate his evil lair with the help of...

The Street Fighter series has been around for 30 years now and has been renowned as the best fighting game since the release of the original Street Fighter in 1987. As such, Capcom is releasing a very special Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for its loyal fans. Cinelinx has the scoop on what's in store, so come on in and keep reading.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the world’s most popular video game series of all time, Capcom has announced the ultimate tribute to the Street Fighter arcade legacy in the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows PC coming in May 2018. The collection highlights the series’ past in this anthology of 12 iconic titles with arcade-perfect balancing, including the original Street Fighter, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo,...

By Salim Garami

What's good? Apologies because I don't have much to say or talk about this week, except remark on how I'm still in a pretty pleasant mood moving out of Thanksgiving weekend and into the holiday season.

And part of what prolonged my pleasant mood was to find an admittedly 2-year-old video of movie star Keanu Reeves on promotional tour promoting John Wick in Japan discussing his admiration for martial arts film legend Sonny Chiba (of The Street Fighter or Kill Bill fame), influencing his physical choreography and style. Lo and behold, Chiba was in the studio ready to meet with Keanu and the Matrix star is suddenly starstruck to meet him and begins waxing rhapsodic over Chiba's work. Seeing such a household star in the industry be taken aback by the presence of figure that certainly isn't as well-known internationally as Reeves brought a smile to my face.

Doberman Cop Starring Sonny Chiba will be Available on Blu-ray and DVD on July 4th From Arrow Video

Released just as the popularity of yakuza movies was waning in Japan, and as the country’s film industry was undergoing some fundamental shifts, Doberman Cop is a unique entry in the career of director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Cops vs Thugs), and reunited him with star Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba (The Street Fighter, Wolf Guy) in an American-style crime movie that mixes gunplay and pulp fiction with martial arts and lowbrow comedy to create one of their most entertaining films.

Based on a popular manga by “Buronson” (creator of Fist of the North Star), Doberman Cop follows the fish-out-of-water adventures of Joji Kano (Chiba), a tough-as-nails police officer from Okinawa who arrives in Tokyo’s Kabuki-cho nightlife district to investigate the savage murder and mutilation of an island girl...