Sonny (Shin’ichi) Chiba made his acting debut in the late ’50s, quickly becoming a prolific performer and one of Japan’s top stars. After Bruce Lee, martial arts films were the flavor of the time, and Chiba was a perfect candidate to step in and make an impact. With the Streetfighter films, he would achieve international fame. Those films still inspire filmmakers and excite fans the world over. Arrow Video has been doing a fantastic job bringing some of the actor’s lesser-known films to disc. In addition to the Sister Streetfighter collection, they’ve released Wolf Guy (1975) and Doberman Cop (1977). Now they’re bringing out The Executioner Collection, which features The Executioner and The Executioner II: Karate Inferno, and they’re glorious.
Ryuichi Koga (Sonny Chiba) is working as a mercenary of sorts, hiring himself out to do the dirty work. He’s a descendant of the Koga Ninja school and is deadly with his fists. Hayabusa (Makoto Sato) is a disgraced former detective working in the criminal underworld and teams up with Koga to take down a drug cartel. They also happen to have Sakura (Eiji Go) working with them. Their personalities constantly clash, and their motives may not be what they seem. The Executioner II: Karate Inferno sees the return of Koga, where he leads a group of criminals and masterminds a heist to steal a priceless jewel from another feared criminal.
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Chiba is great despite the films hitting the mark in certain areas and missing in others. But his fans may be a bit disappointed since these are mostly caper films. The first film is the stronger of the two and has a harder edge. The poorly titled Karate Inferno trades the edge for humor which never really hits. Maybe it’s partially due to cultural barriers, but with a title like that, you’d think it would be non-stop action which sadly is not the case. Are these movies fun? They are. They’re entertaining as hell, just not what most people would want.
Arrow sent promotional copies, so I will not be able to comment on the packaging, but there is a nice selection of special features with some good content. The disc features a high definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation, the original uncompressed Japanese mono audio for both films, the original uncompressed English mono audio track for The Executioner, optional English subtitles, brand new audio commentary by Chris Poggiali and Marc Walkow, “Sonny Chiba, Karate King,” a 30-minute featurette on the legendary Sonny Chiba, featuring Grady Hendrix, Tom Mes, Chris Poggiali, Marco Joachim and Seiji Anno, from the band Guitar Wolf and original trailers.
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The final packaging will have a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Lucas Peverill. The first pressing will only have an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by Mark Schilling. You definitely get the bang for your buck, and hardcore Chiba fans will undoubtedly enjoy this release. Check it out on the official website.
