Basically the rationale was that some of you guys might get frustrated with me posting so many Japanese TV / VoD reviews of films that can't be purchased from abroad in the JP Cult thread, and I didn't want that to happen. Hence I created a new thread.
There's no strict rules, though. Discussion of rare films is just fine in both thread. But I'd prefer the Japanese Cult Cinema thread to focus on films that are available on (or might be coming to) DVD/BD.
(Classic Japanese Exploitation thread still covers both films available and not available on DVD/BD).
VoD Review / No DVD available
Wicked Kempo (1974)
This is one of the numerous karate films Toei produced after The Street Fighter (which itself was a response to Bruce Lee's popularity) turned out a success. Unlike The Street Fighter, though, it's a period film. The film opens really good. Tsunehiko Watase plays a bodyguard for a hire, a real asshole kind of guy who only helps others for money. He lands himself in jail after beating two military policemen, but is then hired by the government to eliminate gangsters who are selling state secrets to foreign powers.
Watase was not really a martial artist, but he did have a bit of karate background from his university times. This was his only starring role in a martial arts movie; he's more often seen as lead actor, co-lead or supporting player in yakuza films (e.g. Wandering Ginza Butterfly, Okinawa Yakuza War, Violent Panic: The Big Crash, Salor Suit and Machine Gun etc.). He's quite alright in the fight scenes, which are pure Chiba-school badassery (e.g. he throws a guy trough a window, then pulls him back up for a series of punches, and finally breaks his neck has he's lying on the ground).
Unfortunately the film pairs him with two useless sidekicks who steal screentime from him during and between fight scenes, and throws in some dumb comedy and silly melodrama. Despite the historical setting and Shaw Bros. style character introductions the film just doesn't feel as epic as it should. Director Shigero Ozawa, who was a prominent yakuza film director in the 1960s, did much better the following year with the excellent martial arts biopic The Defensive Power of Aikido (1975). Wicked Kempo falls somewhere between The Defensive Power of Aikido and his earlier karate-violence classic The Street Fighter, sharing a bit with both of them, but not succeeding so well at either style.
Some of the supporting cast is great, though. For once, regular karate film villain Masashi Ishibashi gets to play a good guy. Ishibashi was a real life karate master who taught Sonny Chiba and visited Masutatsu Oyama's dojo as a quest instructor every now and then (on his way home from work, they say). He had been working on TV and movies as drama actor for a few years before he collaborated with Chiba in the second Bodyguard Kiba movie in 1973, and the rest is history. He went on to play villains in countless Chiba and Shihomi films and also often worked on the choreography together with Chiba.
Wicked Kempo is not a bad film overall - it certainly has its violent charm - but it's not one of the best movies in the Japanese karate film genre either. Fans of the genre should take a look if they have a chance; others can focus on the better films like the Masutatsu Oyama trilogy, The Killing Machine, The Defensive Power of Aikido, The Street Fighter etc.
A few screencaps from a Japanese VoD version:
