21 May 2010

The Street Fighter

(Gekitotsu! Satsujin ken)
Japan - 1974
Director - Shigehiro Ozawa
MGM/CBS Video, 1981, VHS
Run Time -1 hour, 15 minutes

Nice very early oversize box from MGM Home Video, when they were still partnered with CBS. In 1982 MGM bought United Artists and CBS left to join Fox. The simplicity of the cover design somehow makes up for and even enhances the low quality source image. I personally would have used the poster art (below,) but admittedly that wouldn't have fit in with the other MGM boxes of the time which primarily used film stills.
I like The Street Fighter (though this version is missing some sixteen minutes), but prefer The Executioner (Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken) which came out the same year.

Poster courtesy IMPAwards.

2 comments:

James said...

Amen to The Executioner, that is such a fucking incredible mind melter.

Trekkie313 said...

Could they have chosen a worse picture for the cover? It looks like something from "The Stuff".