The Killing Machine 1976 123movies

Watch: 少林寺拳法 1975 123movies, Full Movie Online – Sonny Chiba plays the character referred to as “Mr Soh”, who is based on the true life founder of Shorinji Kempo, Doshin So. Mr Soh has been acting as a secret agent in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation. He is first seen spying on a meeting of Chinese soldiers as they plan a surprise ambush on the retreating Japanese Army. He is discovered and has to fight his way out, using fists, feet and then a machine gun. He rushes to inform the Japanese commanders of the plot, but is horrified to learn that Japan has done the unthinkable by surrendering unconditionally. Soh returns to his homeland to find a ravaged land of beaten people. Victimised by gangsters, occupation forces and corrupt local officials, the poor and the disenfranchised have lost the will to fight back. Using his “Shao Lin” skills (subtitle translation of Shorinji Kempo), he regularly champions the weak and teaches the black market thugs the error of their ways, becoming a regular guest at the local prison. He is seen to assist a former soldier, Otaki, who is seeking his lost wife at the bottom of a bottle, a fallen woman (Kiku) who has turned to prostitution after suffering rape by Russian soldiers, her little brother Kimio who gets injured by some American G.I.s who subsequently try to flee from accident. The Prison Governor warns him that the US Administration will not be so tolerant now that he has “crippled” the troops, suggesting a likely death sentence. He helps him to “escape” the jail and Soh leaves town in a hurry, pausing only to give advice to the band of orphans that he has befriended. Soh leaves the city of Osaka (central Japan) to go to the rural island of Shikoku where he finds a similar situation. He determines to bring new hope to the locals by teaching his martial arts skills to a growing band of followers. He gathers the loafers, ruffians and aimless, teaches them Shorinji Kempo (referred to as “Shao Lin” in subtitles) to build them up to be stronger physically and mentally. He meets some new characters, who he soon enlists in his school; Tomoda the young ex-soldier and his sister Miho. When the noodle-stall girl Noriko is raped by a gang of yakuza thugs, Soh and Tomoda dish out some rough justice (with some sharp scissors to one of the miscreant’s tenderest flesh). Later, Tomoda and Miho are attacked and Tomoda has his arm cut off with a katana (Samurai sword). Soh avenges that with a visit to the local yakuza boss that leaves the boss with a dislocated arm and his minion missing a digit. Otaki, the former drunken soldier from Osaka joins the group, then in an emotional scene, discovers his wife is alive but has re-married after he was reported dead in the war. When the small-time local yakuza gangs are joined by familiar faces from Osaka seeking to expand their activities, it is time for action with a capital A. Before the final climactic face-off between Soh’s students and the yakuza mob, there is time for Soh to receive an urgent message to see Kiku in Osaka. He returns to find the orphans caring for a terminally ill Kiku, who had turned to prostitution to help support them all. Soh experiences an epiphany and comes to recognise that “Strength and Compassion must be together” (Riki Ai Funi). In a typically cinematic finale, Soh’s friend Otaki dies is killed by yakuza thugs paid to clear the honest poor from land to be used to build brothels and gambling dens. Soh goes on a final rampage to clear the yakuza right out of town forever. The epilogue reveals how Soh’s school has flourished and spread across Japan (circa 1975), with scenes filmed at the organisations magnificent headquarters still based in the town of Tadotsu..
Plot: Mr. Soh, a righteous man with a cold stare and fists of steel, returns to a lawless post-war Japan in 1946. He protects the weak, defends the poor and knocks some good sense into friends and enemies alike. Rapists and gangsters get the worst of it, as Mr. Soh builds up his school on the island of Shikoku.
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Ratings:

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Reviews:

Shorinji Kempo (known in English as “The Killing Machine”, a title with no particular relevance to the story)
Sonny Chiba’s masterpiece? Inspired by the life of an actual person. Sonny’s movies are often disparaged by serious martial arts fans for having camera work that obscures the technique of the martial artists during fight scenes, but most agree this one strikes the right balance. For myself, I think the Japanese directors of this period are always aspiring to a higher level of artistic expression than their Hong Kong equivalents (perhaps due to the recognition accorded to Akira Kurosawa?) but often their ambition outstrips their talent. However not in this case. Being a period piece (post WW2) we are spared (or deprived, depending on your point of view) the usual quirky Japanese fashion statements, which have seen Sonny kicking ass in an assortment of outrageous hats, goggles, puffy shirts and fishnets in other movies. The film is set mainly in Japan during the period of American occupation after WW2, so for the non-Japanese viewer, the main obstacle to enjoying this movie is trying to relate to the concept of feeling any sympathy for the Japanese people’s suffering, in light of the many heinous atrocities they committed during the war. Sonny begins the movie as a secret agent, kicking the ass of dirty Chinese guerrilla fighters, who are misguided enough to resist the heroic Japanese army of occupation, I mean liberation. Later, on a train journey, he kicks the ass of some despicable Korean carpetbaggers, who are gleefully lording it over their former oppressors, I mean emancipators. Then he brings swift and painful retribution to a couple of arrogant American soldiers in a jeep, who are driving around in a reckless fashion and inadvertently run down a hapless Japanese child. However Sonny is at pains to point out, to a local official in a later interview, that he also told off Japanese officers and soldiers when he saw them mistreat the Chinese (but stopped short of actually kicking their asses it seems). So for the foreign viewer it may be easier to enjoy the movie as form of dystopian science fiction film, where a conquered people, shocked and disoriented, their society completely dislocated, struggle to come to terms with their fall from grace. Putting aside the right and wrong of the war itself, where some may suggest, the Japanese deservedly reap what they sowed, the suffering on a human level is universal. A young woman who has been raped by the bestial Russians, is driven to try and become a prostitute in order to feed herself and her younger brother, until Sonny recues her from the harassment resentful regulars. A despairing drunken man, who has been searching for his wife among the displaced, eventually finds her and his son, only to learn that she has remarried, thinking he was dead, so he walks away rather than make her life more complicated. A man who has lost his will to live after having his arm chopped off regains his self respect after being given a good slapping by Sonny and told to harden up. This film contains considerable raw emotional depth! Mad Max-like, Sonny wanders through this wasteland of shanty towns and subways tunnels, dominated by Black marketeers and proto Yakuza, taking care of lost children and dispensing random vigilante justice. Eventually he realises he can’t redeem the Japanese National spirit alone and begins preaching his message of salvation and rebirth through martial arts to any who will join him. Along the way he also kicks plenty of corrupt Black market and Yakuza ass, including what, for many, is the ultimate Sonny Chiba moment, where he cuts off a rapist gangster’s privates with a pair of scissors!! Then he turns to the audience and hefts them in his palm appraisingly, before tossing them onto the floor, where upon a dog trots in from stage right and sniffs at them before happily wolfing them down!!!

Other Information:

Original Language ja
Runtime 1 hr 27 min (87 min)
Budget 0
Revenue 0
Status Released
Rated R
Genre Action, Drama
Director Norifumi Suzuki
Writer Isao Matsumoto
Actors Shin’ichi Chiba, Yutaka Nakajima, Makoto Satô
Country Japan
Awards N/A
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono
Aspect Ratio 2.35 : 1
Camera N/A
Laboratory N/A
Film Length N/A
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Toeiscope
Printed Film Format 35 mm