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Return of the Street Fighter
Movie

Return of the Street Fighter

1974 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Martial artist Takuma Tsurugi returns to take on a Yakuza family that may be embezzling money from charities to finance their own operations. Both the police and the Yakuza find themselves battling Tsurugi, but Tsurugi's fight ultimately is with the mob, and he concentrates on them.

Overall Series Review

Return of the Street Fighter is a brutal, hyper-violent martial arts exploitation film from 1974. The plot follows the mercenary-for-hire Takuma Tsurugi as he takes on a Yakuza family running a phony charity. The narrative is entirely focused on bone-shattering action and Tsurugi’s ruthless personal code. The movie contains no discernible elements of modern social or sexual ideology. Gender dynamics are overtly misogynistic and women are frequently targets or sexualized antagonists, presenting a view that is the direct antithesis of the 'Girl Boss' trope. The core conflict critiques corruption within the Japanese underworld, not Western civilization. The protagonist is an ethnic outcast, but this detail is a gritty backstory element, not a vehicle for lecturing on intersectional oppression. The story adheres to a transcendent sense of honor in martial arts, even as the hero is an anti-villain.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The film’s focus is on an individual's brutal code of martial arts and mercenary work over social concerns. The protagonist is half-Japanese and half-Chinese, a background that positions him as an outcast, but this serves as character motivation rather than a basis for a lecture on systemic oppression or privilege. All primary characters are Asian, with no presence of race-swapping or vilification of 'whiteness' as a narrative focus.

Oikophobia3/10

The film is a Japanese production, and the plot centers on fighting criminal elements (the Yakuza) operating within Japanese society. The target of the film's critique is internal corruption, specifically a Yakuza family embezzling from charities. The narrative does not contain hostility toward Western culture, and the plot is largely concerned with domestic underworld conflict.

Feminism1/10

The gender dynamics are the antithesis of the 'Girl Boss' trope. The film is a hyper-masculine exploitation feature where women are often sexualized, used as bait, or violently dispatched as antagonists. A female assassin is defeated by the protagonist in a bone-snapping battle, and there is no messaging promoting female perfection, male emasculation, or anti-natalism.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative is a straightforward, brutal crime-action film and contains no evidence of alternative sexualities being centered. The film adheres to the traditional male-female pairing in its limited romantic/sexual elements. The plot is entirely devoid of deconstructing the nuclear family or introducing gender ideology.

Anti-Theism1/10

The anti-hero’s crucial moral turn is prompted by a sense of honor toward a respected martial arts sensei/friend, Masaoka. This places the narrative on a foundation of traditional morality and a transcendent code of honor, even if the hero is personally amoral for much of the film. There is no hostility or critique directed at traditional religion, only a contrast between honor and Yakuza corruption.