Karate Bearfighter
Japanese Title: Kenka Karate Kyokushin Buraiken
Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
Actors: Sonny Chiba, Yumi Takigawa, Yutaka Nakajima
Year Released: 1975
Genre: Action
See Also: Karate Bullfighter, Karate For Life
"Oh, man, this is going to be so fake!" So remarked my friend Brian as the promised title fight began. As the howling started (that being us howling with laughter, not the bear), I realized that this is what this film was all about. Not martial arts prowess. Not a loving ode to a visionary athlete. But an excuse to have Sonny Chiba fight a guy in a bear costume. I love Japanese cinema.
Karate Bearfighter (or Kenka Karate Kyokushin Buraiken, literally "Fighting Karate—Ultimate Truth Brutal Fist") is the middle film in a trilogy about Sonny Chiba's real-life karate mentor, Korean-born Masutatsu Oyama. Hard-drinking, hard-playing, and hard-loving, it seems that Oyama barely had time to practice, what with all the ass-kicking, binge-drinking and lady-loving he got up to in these pictures. Maybe not the most flattering portrait, but remember, these were the days of the jitsuroku eiga, the "true account" film, as popularized by Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza films. The more gritty and badass, apparently, the better.
If you haven't seen the first film, Karate Bullfighter, don't worry, this isn't Empire Strikes Back. The most important part—Oyama beating a bull to death with his bare hands—is reprised at the beginning of the film, and man is it rough. Rough like Oyama's life after that incident, which put him on the outs with the controversy-shunning karate society of post-war Japan. To make ends meet, Oyama takes a job as a yakuza yojimbo (body guard), which gives Sonny Chiba ample opportunity to saunter around in cool suits and sunglasses. I had no idea they were wearing sideburns like that in 1951.
There's all kinds of subplot about a guy and his girl wanting to go to Hokkaido to start a farm, and them getting killed by the yakuza. Oyama makes the trip north to intern their ashes but this is really just an excuse to get Oyama up to bear country. Like I said, it's all about the fight with that mangy bear suit. It finally does come, via yet another subplot, this time with a cancer-ridden alcoholic father, his annoying son, and a big hospital bill that can only be paid off with money earned from fighting a bear.
So Sonny Chiba fights the bear. Rather, he fights a guy in a really unconvincing bear costume. They don't even attempt cutaways to a real bear. Instead, they've got two costumes: one for running on all fours and one for standing. After jumping over the bear a few times, Oyama does a Moe and pokes the bear in the eye, which promptly topples over like fur-covered tree, and dies, leaving Oyama to get back to the business of kicking yakuza and rogue karate champ ass.
Karate Bearfighter isn't what I'd call a good movie. But it is what I'd call a fun movie. "Oh man, it's so fake!" Love it.
Otaku Alert: Oyama's girlfriend, roundly ignored throghout the entire picture, is played by the lovely Yumi Takigawa, last seen getting whipped in School of the Holy Beast.
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