Karate Bearfighter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Karate Bearfighter | |
|---|---|
 Film poster for Karate Bearfighter. |
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| Directed by | Kazuhiko Yamaguchi |
| Starring | Sonny Chiba Jun Fujimaki Yumi Takigawa Yutaka Nakajima |
| Distributed by | Toei Company |
| Release date(s) |  December 27, 1975 1977 |
| Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Preceded by | Champion of Death |
| Followed by | Karate for Life |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Karate Bearfighter (けんか空手 極真無頼拳 Kenka karate kyokushin burai ken?, literally "Fighting Karate-Brutal Ultimate Truth Fist") is a Japanese martial arts film made by Toei Company in 1975 and directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi. It is the second installment of a trilogy of films based on the manga Karate Baka Ichidai (literal title: "The Fanatical Karate Generation") by Ikki Kajiwara, Jiro Tsunoda and Jōya Kagemaru.
In the film, a piece of grindhouse cinema, Sonny Chiba reprises his role from Champion of Death as Masutatsu Oyama, the historical founder of Kyokushin karate in Japan (Oyama makes a cameo appearance in the film as well). Chiba was an interesting choice for the role, as he had studied martial arts under the real-life Oyama for several years. True to the film's title, at one point in the course of the narrative he battles a "bear", actually a human actor in a bear costume.
