Rating: 14/20
Plot: The mafia attempts to recruit the titular bad ass to kidnap a woman who just inherited a ton of money from her rich father. Terry, however, does not like the mafia and decides to protect her instead. Meanwhile, a pair of siblings keep trying to kill Terry for revenge. Lots of skull-smashing and nut-rippage ensues.
Despite the most famous scene in this in which a punch is shown in x-ray in order for the audience to see the actual denting of a skull, and despite a scene where Sonny Chiba's character does castrate a guy with his bare hands, this is nowhere near as violent or as bloody as I always imagined it would be. In fact, I've always wondered if I've just caught abridged versions of this every time I've watched it or something. I generally prefer old-school kung-fu movies that take place a long time ago more than the ones with contemporary settings, but this is an entertaining martial arts movie, mostly because of the faces that Sonny Chiba makes right before or right after he's nutsack-torn or skull-squished or eye-gouged somebody. Chiba's facial expressions and strange posture give him some charisma, and he's got the perfect face for the type of anti-hero he plays in these things. The fight scenes aren't terrific. The most challenging one-on-one match-up he has is with a rotund gentleman, and nothing about that makes any sense. The climactic fight aboard a ship is good and involves some cool stunts. And it's mostly accompanied by cheesy 70's electronic-y sound effects and funky music, especially the great title track which made me want to dig up Dolemite and show off a few of my dance moves. You know, put my weight on it.
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