, also known as Karate Bullfighter, is a Japanese

Cinema of Japan

The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...

 martial arts film

Martial arts film

Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...

 made by the Toei Company

Toei Company

is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...

 in 1975. It was the first in a trilogy of films based on the manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 Karate Baka Ichidai (literal translation: A Karate-Crazy Life), a manga based on Masutatsu Oyama

Masutatsu Oyama

, more commonly known as Mas Oyama, was a karate master who founded Kyokushinkai Karate, considered the first and most influential style of full contact karate. He was born Choi Yeong-eui . A Zainichi Korean, he spent most of his life living in Japan and acquired Japanese citizenship in 1964...

's life by Ikki Kajiwara

Ikki Kajiwara

was a Japanese author, manga writer, and film producer, also known under the pseudonym . His real name is . The pseudonym was used since he was writing for a rival magazine at the time. Having multiple names would not allow overlaps by the two magazines...

, Jiro Tsunoda and Jōya Kagemaru.
Sonny Chiba

Sonny Chiba

, also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor, singer, film producer, film director and martial artist.Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience.- Early life :Born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka,...

 stars as his former master Oyama who was the founder of Kyokushin

Kyokushin

is a style of stand-up, full contact karate, founded in 1964 by Korean-Japanese karate master, who was born under the name Choi Young-Eui . Kyokushinkai is Japanese for "the society of the ultimate truth". Kyokushin is rooted in a philosophy of self-improvement, discipline and hard training...

 karate. Chiba would reprise this role in two more films Karate Bearfighter

Karate Bearfighter

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 by Ikki Kajiwara, Jiro Tsunoda and Jōya Kagemaru.In the film, a piece of grindhouse cinema, Sonny Chiba...

(1975), and Karate for Life

Karate for Life

Karate for Life is a 1977 Japanese martial arts film about the martial arts master Mas Oyama starring Sonny Chiba.-Cast:*Sonny Chiba as Mas Oyama*Kôjirô Hongo as Shuzô Fujita*Hideo Murota as Great Yamashita*Yôko Natsuki as Reiko...

(1977).

External links

• Japanese Movie Database