Inspired by the world-wide success of Enter the Dragon, Toei decided to release its own martial arts action films and cast Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba who had been well known in Japan for a while, having starred in many successful action, comedy and drama films, as well as numerous television shows. The films are well known for its extreme and graphic violent content. The Street Fighter was the first film to receive an X rating solely for violence. The film was especially controversial because of a scene in which Tsurugi castrates a rapist with his bare hands; it is this scene (among others) that reputedly gained the film its ‘X’ rating. 16 minutes were later edited from the film in order to get an R-rating.
