Overview: Fists flurry and blood flows as legendary cult director Teruo Ishii (Shogun�s Joy of Torture, Horrors of Malformed Men) joins forces with martial arts legend Shin�ichi �Sonny� Chiba in this bone-crunching double whammy of classic karate exploitation from Toei.

Ryuichi Koga (Chiba) is a descendant of the Koga Ninja school, now earning his living through more nefarious means as a gun for hire. When he is enlisted to take down a drug cartel alongside Hayabusa (Makoto Sato), a disgraced former narcotics detective now operating within the criminal underworld, and renegade Aikido master Sakura (Eiji Gō), tensions grow among this three-man team of ne�er-do-wells as each come to question each other�s motives.

Koga returns in the even more gung-ho follow up, Karate Inferno, as the ringmaster of a gang of thieves plotting to steal a priceless jewel from a master criminal.

Blu-ray Verdict: Making its High Definition home-video debut, The Executioner is presented in both its original Japanese-language version and with the English dub track from the 1970s North American release.

Fans of the Street Fighter star will delight as Chiba pitches himself into a succession of freewheeling action and feisty fight scenes in this double dish of martial arts mayhem, all served up in director Ishii�s characteristically lurid style!

First up is The Executioner (1974), three men, the skilled ninja Ryuchi Koga (Sonny Chiba), the deadly assassin and former drug detective Takeshi Hayato (Makoto Sat�), and the criminal and death-row escapee Ichiro Sakura (Eiji Go), are assigned to crush a drug ring which, due to diplomatic connections, is unaccessible to the law.

All three leading men fit their roles very well, Chiba, of course, being the main attraction. The film obviously took a lot of inspiration from Spaghetti Westerns, most obviously from Sergio Leone�s 1966 masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (the best Western ever made, and probably my personal choice for the best film ever!).

The introduction of Sat�, for example, was almost taken over exactly from Lee Van Cleef�s introduction in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - only this one features explicit gore and loads of sleaze! The character relations also show a resemblance to those in GBU, although the distinction between good and bad is even more vague.

Eiji Tokyo Drifter Go is the one responsible for most of the funny bits. Sonny Chiba�s martial arts are, as always, absolutely amazing, and they come along with loads of brutality. Chiba plays a more likable character here than in the Street Fighter films, but he�s kicking ass the violent way all the same. Beautiful Yutaka Nakajima, who also played the female lead in The Street Fighter, is once again a welcome addition in her role here.

Then we get The Executioner II: Karate Inferno (1974), where a former police captain recruits a group of deadly murderers to remove the corrupt and mafia Yakuza . Their first task is to intercept a briefcase from a band that trafficked drugs.

The opening credits for the film seem like they know what we�re here for, teasing us with a montage of violence and nudity ... and which the film completely fails to deliver on!

In fact, much of it was taken from the first film, and almost all the good bits of the second get shown right there and then, but I digress.

This time solely taken as a slapstick comedy, Karate Inferno is pretty decent, as a stand-alone, sure, and although the humor can be a bit hit and miss, and some of the production looks frighteningly cheap - almost as if the intention was to spoof bad �70s films, the film manages to keep you watching from start to finish.

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio for both films
Original uncompressed English mono audio track for The Executioner
Optional English subtitles
Brand new audio commentary by Chris Poggiali and Marc Walkow
Sonny Chiba, Karate King, a 30-minute featurette on the legendary Sonny Chiba, featuring Grady Hendrix, Tom Mes, Chris Poggiali, Marco Joachim and Seiji Anno, from the band Guitar Wolf
Original trailers
Image galleries for The Executioner and The Executioner II: Karate Inferno
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Lucas Peverill

www.arrowvideo.com