Killing Machine (1976, Japan)

Starring: Sonny Chiba, Yutaka Nakajima, Makoto Sato, Etsuko "Sue" Shiomi. Directed by: Noribumi Suzuki

This is a very good martial arts flick, and a movie that is regarded as one of Sonny Chiba's best. It's also based on the real-life story of Doshin So, the originator of Shorinji Kenpo.

In "Killing Machine", Doshin So (Chiba), a Japanese army commando, has returned to Japan from China in 1946. He has returned to a nation that has been ravaged by war and is mired in deep poverty and hardship. He takes it upon himself to take care of some of the street orphans, as well as the many Japanese and Koreans living in dire poverty on the streets of Osaka.

When he is arrested by American soldiers after getting into a fight with the local racketeers (who, in turn, are profiting from the GIs), he is forced to flee the city and start his own martial arts school.

He starts his school in the countryside, opens his doors to anyone who wants to learn his Shorinji Kenpo style, and installs pride in his students so the Japanese people can become a strong, proud people once again. He brings in some of the homless people, the orphans, and the ex-soldiers who are now disillusioned and lost with nowhere to go and teaches them Shorinji Kenpo.

But will the local authorities stand by and let him teach under the nose of the American occupation authorities? Or the racketeers who want to make their own profit from his school? Most importantly of all, can he protect the helpless and needy people and help them stand on their own two feet again?

The martial arts in this movie is very brutal, but excellent. A word of warning though: There is one scene where Doshin So inflicts an excruciatingly painful punishment with a pair of scissors on a local thug/rapist. This scene will make most male viewers cringe!

While the Japanese patriotic sentiment may not rub off on or even settle too well with many Western viewers, this is an excellent karate/martial arts movie and one you'll want for your collection if you're a Sonny Chiba fan.

Also known as: Shôrinji kenpô (original title-Japan), Shaolin karaté (France)