I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

"Kenka Karate Kyokushinken" aka. "Karate Bullfighter" (1975) is the first film of the Oyama Trilogy, starring Sonny Chiba as the legendary real-life Karate master Mas Oyama (1923-1994). The collaboration of two prolific Japanese Exploitation filmmakers, "Karate Bullfighter" was scripted by Norifumi Suzuki ("Sex and Fury", "Girl Boss Guerilla"...) and directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi ("Delinquent Girl Boss - Worthless to Confess"), and, in regard of that it is actually pretty tame. Even though violent, the film is nowhere near as gory as some Chiba highlights (such as "The Street Fighter" or "The Executioner"), and while he often plays anti-heroes, he plays an overall very heroic and moral character here (though some of his deeds lack morality).After WW2, martial arts were banned in Japan by the Americans for a short time period. At one of the first Karate tournaments after the war, in 1949, a man dressed in dirty rags beats all the well-established masters. The rag-clad champion is Mas Oyama (Sonny Chiba). Since he detests how Karate 'is becoming a dance', conflict is inevitable... While this film is an account of Mas Oyama's life, it is obviously highly fictionalized. As the title already suggests, Chiba fights a Bull in this film - which, to my surprise, the real-life Mas Oyama actually did over 50 times in his life. Other events, such as the scenes in which he fights small armies of armed men, killing many of them, are probably fictitious. The real May Oyama himself appears in the credit sequence, practicing Karate. Sonny Chiba is great as always, both in his incredible martial art skills and his charismatic screen presence. Chiba's younger brother Jirô Chiba plays his disciple, Masashi Ishibashi ("The Steet Fighter") plays the bad guy, and the beautiful Yumi Takigawa ("Graveyard of Honor", "School of the Holy Beast") is lovable and innocent as Oyama's girlfriend.Overall, I personally still like Chiba best when he plays brutal anti-heroes as in "The Street Fighter", but this is doubtlessly another fantastic Karate flick with the man. I am now eager to watch the two sequels, "Karate Bear Fighter" and "Karate For Life", which are supposedly even better than this one. Highly recommended to my fellow Sonny Chiba fans.

This movie would receive a much higher vote from me in general and I will talk about why, but first and foremost it receives four stars and should stay at four stars because of the directors ridiculously tasteless portrayal of rape and sexual assault. Not far into the movie Oyama sexually assaults a woman he rescued earlier, and while she briefly becomes somewhat miffed by his actions this attitude only lasts about five minutes before loving adoration sets in and carries her character through the rest of the film. I know many will argue that it's not that important in a kung fu beat-em-up, and as a fan of the genera I can't say that it's all that unusual, but that doesn't stop it from being completely tasteless every time I see it.What I will say in this movie's defence however is that it's somewhat refreshing to see a martial arts, or even action movie of any sort, that offers no actual hero for the viewer to get behind. Oyama is portrayed as a rapist and murderer; a societal outcast whose only student becomes completely mentally unbalanced before being gunned down by the police. The final shots of the movie leave one with the feeling that Oyama himself is poised for a major breakdown and no longer seems to care for the woman he earlier assaulted into loving him and has since followed him with puppy-dog like devotion.Whether this was truly the intended message of the movie or not, one can't help but feel a little hopeful that Oyama might be on the brink of suicide by the time the movie is over. This is a rare emotional treatment from the martial arts genre and its interesting to see a film that leaves you with a sense that its violence is not to be celebrated. If only Karate Bullfighter had treated the subject of sexual violence better, either by creating more emotional depth and recognition between the two characters involved, or by leaving it out all together, this would have been a much more interesting film.

Oddly enough, the Independent Film Channel showed this film a week AFTER it showed KARATE BEAR FIGHTER--even though the bear film was the second in the trilogy and this film was the first!!! What were they thinking?! While all three of these films are supposedly based on the life of this great Kyokushin Karate master, you can't help but think that they MUST have embellished the story quite a bit--especially in this first film. Sure, the guy evidently DID fight and kill a bull and later a bear (in fact, he fought and killed MANY bulls during his career), but in this film set in the early 50s, at the end of the film, the hero actually fights about 60 guys and kills many of them brutally. I just can't imagine that this really occurred. So I did some checking and found that while many of the details are correct, some of this film is pure bunk! Yes, he DID kill a man in self-defense and YES he did follow the widow and her son and spent a year working for them--trying to get them to forgive him. But the end of the film is great to watch but hogwash. Seeing one of his opponents get a staff thrust through his head and all the other gory details couldn't have happened or else the Japanese government would have locked Oyama up to protect society! The film is entertaining and the fighting is excellent. There are no complaints about the action or acting. The only minor complaint is the camera work--which is a tad sloppy during some of the fight scenes. Despite this minor complaint, this is a most enjoyable film. In many ways, the wandering Karate master theme is pretty reminiscent of the Zatoichi films--which are also lots of fun to watch but many of the exploits are truly impossible.FYI--There is an Englished dubbed version of this film entitled "Champion of Death" and I just saw it as well. It's not a bad dubbing and it was letter boxed (a big plus), but still I prefer the subtitled version.

Sonny Chiba, as everyone knows, is the man. In this film, he portrays Mas Oyama (1923-1994), a real martial artist who fought over 50 bulls with his bare hands…and won (interesting guy…look him up). Anyway, Chiba only kills one bull in the film but it's a memorable scene and as the liner notes say, right up there with the zombie vs. shark scene in Zombi! The film also offers up loads of hand-to-hand combat and a decent plot to boot, though I don't believe all of it is true. This film is the first of the Oyama trilogy Chiba made and is recommended for fans of martial arts action. Finally, three neat little tidbits; part of the opening theme was used in Kill Bill Volume 1, Oyama himself appears in the opening sequences, and that is because he trained Chiba in real life for five years!