Fists flurry as legendary director Teruo Ishii joins forces with martial arts legend 'Sonny' Chiba in this double whammy of classic karate flicks!
Fists flurry and blood flows as legendary cult director Teruo Ishii (Shogun's Joy of Torture, Horrors of Malformed Men) joins forces with martial arts legend Shin'ichi 'Sonny' Chiba in this bone-crunching double whammy of classic karate exploitation from Toei.
Ryuichi Koga (Chiba) is a descendent of the Koga Ninja school, now earning his living through more nefarious means as a gun for hire. When he is enlisted to take down a drug cartel alongside Hayabusa (Makoto Sato), a disgraced former narcotics detective now operating within the criminal underworld, and renegade Aikido master Sakura (Eiji GÅ), tensions grow among this three-man team of ne'er-do-wells as each come to question each other's motives. Koga returns in the even more gung-ho follow up, Karate Inferno, as the ringmaster of a gang of thieves plotting to steal a priceless jewel from a master criminal.
Making its High Definition home-video debut, The Executioner is presented in both its original Japanese-language version and with the English dub track from the 1970s North American release. Fans of the Street Fighter star will delight as Chiba pitches himself into a succession of freewheeling action and feisty fight scenes in this double dish of martial arts mayhem, all served up in director Ishii's characteristically lurid style.
Media
Bonus Materials
- 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
Cast & Crew
Actors:- Sonny Chiba
- Eiji Gô
- Hiroyuki Sanada
- Makoto Satô
- Rikiya Yasuoka
- Michitarô Mizushima
- Ryô Ikebe
- Yasuaki Kurata
- Yutaka Nakajima
- Etsuko Shihomi
- Kanjûrô Arashi
- Tetsurô Tanba
- Hiroshi Nawa
- Takashi Hio
- Hideo Murota
- Yasuko Matsui
Director: Teruo Ishii
Additional Details
Label: Arrow Video
Genre: Action/Adventure
Language: Japanese
Run Time: 183 mins
Region: 0
Release Date: 01/10/23
UPC: 760137117476