Review: Chiba’s portrayal real life, famous martial artists was really a big part of his early career. This time it is the turn of Masutatsu Oyama to be portrayed by Chiba in this first part of a trilogy. What is particularly interesting in this case is that Chiba actually trained for many years under the tutelage of master Oyama. KARATE BULLFIGHTER is the first movie or a trilogy, all directed by Kazuhoko Yamaguchi, featuring the actual life of Masutatsu Oyama, founder of the Kyokushi karate style. Sonny Chiba will go on to reprise his role as Oyama in the remaining two films as well: KARATE BULLFIGHTER, KARATE BEARFIGHTER and KARATE WARRIORS.

In this first volume, our initial impression of Oyama is very drastic as he shows up in rag and dirty clothes in a formal Karate Championship, the first since the end of the Second World War. However, even with his homeless appearance, Oyama is nonetheless as the most confident man in the arena and what you expect actually happen. Oyama defeat all of his adversaries without too much trouble. This even is the turning point of the whole story as it is in this arena that Oyama will not only make a favourable impression on some martial artist, but he will also create jealousy in the eyes of another who will simply want to get rid of him to keep their style on the top. Though, most of the story follows the after events of this tournaments mostly concentrating on how Oyama will find his first disciple and how he will redeem himself of the wrongs he did to others.

Masutatsu Oyama is a very interesting character indeed, but it is surprising to see how much he actually let the producer show in the movie. Oyama, who died in 1994, actually participated in the making of the movie and has usually done so also in his biography films; usually people want to show his best side. Oyama was sometimes pretty mean with people, raping girls or treating people like nothing is not exactly something you want people know you did. I cannot see what is true or not in the movie, but it is certain that Oyama had a pretty lively lifestyle as he not only had to be on constant guard to defend himself against his scrupulous enemies, but he also attempted to always make things right around him by helping people in need.

If you are familiar with some of Sonny Chiba’s other films, you will probably know what to expect for the fighting quality. It is not Hong Kong in the 1980’s, but it is still much better than what the Americans were doing at the time. Punches, kicks, jumping and stunts were always on a realistic level, brutal and effective. The actual fight with the bull is pretty entertaining, too, and quite impressive. Fortunately, they did not think of using two guys in a suit. Yes they actually indeed used a real bull, and the scene looks realistic enough to look like something you don’t want to try at home

KARATE BULLFIGHTER might not be the best Chiba film available at the moment, but it is still a good entry into Chiba’s filmography and contains enough material to please any fans of the legend.