“The Killing Machine” Theatrical Poster
Director: Norifumi Suzuki
Cast: Sonny Chiba, Yutaka Nakajima, Makoto Sato, Naoya Makoto, Sanae Kitabayashi, Akiko Mori, Akira Oizumi, Hosei Komatsu, Kyoichi Sato, Genji Kawai
Running Time: 85 min.
By Slaxor
The Killing Machine is a fun little Chiba flick. Probably one of my favorites of his and much much better then the overrated chore to sit through that is The Street Fighter.
In the movie, Sonny Chiba very loosely portrays the character responsible for creating Karate. The story goes that the character was a spy during the war while in China and learned Shaolin martial arts to which he modified in to what we know today as Karate. In other words, without this man, we would not have today such legendary masterpieces as The Karate Kid series.
The basic formula for this movie reminded me a lot of a Bruce Lee flick, but with a Japanese touch. A lot of the fight scenes are done in a more realistic manner placing a lot of emphasis on takedowns. Basically, don’t expect the Venoms to show up and put on the clinic they usually do.
Of course, no 70’s movie is complete without some exploitation in the form of child rape, which thankfully is not shown – as well as a scene that made me feel like I was watching one of those South American cannibal movies for about 5 minutes. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll just leave it at that.
The only real downside to the movie is some of the drama is incredibly overdone at times.
The finale is probably worth the price alone as Chiba shows up at the baddies house Big Boss-style and proceeds to get his ass kicked all over the place… well, just the opposite of course, but you already know that without seeing it, so I figured “what the hell”.
Overall, I recommend this movie if you’re Chiba fan,but would advise to rent if you consider yourself spoiled by Hong Kong fight scenes. Although this movie is highly praised for actually filming Chiba’s fight scenes properly, they still don’t hold a candle to what Hong Kong has to offer.
Slaxor’s Rating: 6.5/10
