4 Star

The King of Kung-Fu Double Bill.

Writer and director Teruo Ishii (Female Yakuza Tale, An Outlaw), brings us his violent crime story. As leading man, The King of Kung-Fu Shin’ichi Chiba (as Sonny Chiba) takes to the streets of Hong Kong, to put criminals out of business. He does this with his amazing martial arts skills. He will beat the life out of you.

The Executioner brings together three rivals from various backgrounds, this is done by Commander Arashiyama (Ryô Ikebe, Pale Flower, Akatsuki no dasso), and his niece Emi (Yutaka Nakajima, Code Name Black Cat o oe, Tomie: Re-birth). They hate the fact that the Japanese mafia are flooding the streets with drugs and making a fortune out of other people’s misery.

Drug addicts must be saved by any means, fair or foul.

The three are Ryuichi Koga (Shin’ichi Chiba, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2) the heir to the Koga Ninja school, and he has been in training from a very early age (Hiroyuki Sanada, Shogun’s Samurai, Legend of the Eight Samurai), he trained hard, but he wanted to see more of the world. Takashi Hayato (Makoto Satô, The Hidden Fortress, Diary of Early Winter Shower) an ex-narcotics policeman, and Ichiro Sakura (Eiji Gô, The Yakuza, The Great Chase) who currently resides in a prison cell, and it is up to Koga to break him free.

The intelligence they have is that the daughter of a diplomat, Margaret, smuggles drugs in her luggage for mafia boss Mario Mitsuhara, and they believe that they are going to make a huge deal worth billions of Yen.

There is a lot of fighting, lots of very dodgy goings-on, and some very questionable driving, but it is one thing, explosive.

The Executioner II: Karate Inferno

The three friends/rivals are brought back together, this time there is very valuable jewels, and a kidnapping to sort out. With plenty of bad guys to fight and another mafia boss to bring down.

It is all eye-popping, either the violence or the nudity, but Sonny Chiba shines through with his amazing talent. The Executioner Collection is a must own for the martial arts fan of the household.

The Executioner Collection is available on Blu-ray

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS

– High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

– Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio for both films

– 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

– Original trailers

– Image galleries for The Executioner and The Executioner II: Karate Inferno

– Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Lucas Peverill

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the films by by Mark Schilling