Comparison between the censored British Blu-ray from Arrow Video and the uncensored US-DVD from BCI / Eclipse


- One deviation
- No time difference


In 1974 two films with Sonny Chiba in the leading role were produced. The first one, internationally known as The Street Fighter and second part Return of the Street Fighter. In the same year another, third part was produced, named The Street Fighter's Last Revenge. Of course Toei wanted to enjoy the corresponding successes and so with the Sister Street Fighter-series a female offspring was born in the same year.

Since 4th March 2019 a Blu-ray box from Arrow Video was released in Great Britain and the USA. This boxset contained the complete trilogy in HD and the 1976 created Sister Street Fighter: Fifth Level Fist has been added as an bonus. The latter has nothing to do with the original films except for the main actress and the title chosen for better international marketing reasons, also this film is less action-packed.

As we already reported in advance, a little censorship problem occurs with these two HD releases. The BBFC has many rules of its own, which have been eased in many cases over the years. The Protection of Children's Act 1978 still forbids "potentially offensive images of children" and unfortunately there is exactly such a scene in part 2 of the series: Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread. In one scene you can see a wall-mounted poster with a completely exposed girl in the background. The exact age is not apparent or is somehow thematized but it clearly shows a minor. Neither this has any special meaning for the plot nor is there any other explanation for this set design. Annoyingly, however, during this scene a (more or less) important dialogue takes place.

In any case, Arrow Video decided to leave the entire running time and the audio soundtrack of the British version untouched but zoomed-in the picture in such a way that the poster is no longer visible. So it's a very sensitive form of censorship, so you're well served with the British release. But if you prefer the original version as a matter of principle, you'll find what you're looking for on the discs of thejust released uncensored US Blu-ray box .

By the way, Arrow Video in a Facebook post has also commented extensively on the censorship in advance respectively has not withheld this information. In the comments section it's also mentioned that a blur-effect was planned first but the BBFC did not allow this option; "We asked, but the BBFC did not allow this option." We (https://www.movie-censorship.com) decided, among other things due to the legal situation, to illustrate the scene only in an alienated form or exactly with a blur-effect added. Thus at least the censorship measures chosen by Arrow films were achieved by a zooming effect and the changed image section can be compared sufficiently.



Term specifications are arranged according to the following scheme:
British Blu-ray / US DVD in NTSC

The UK Blu-ray has a bit more black-screen at the beginning.

+ 2.7 sec.



26:45-27:16 / 26:42-27:13

In the middle of the shot, the UK version remains in the same perspective respectively right in the picture, while the camera follows the man in the original version. During the conversation you can clearly see a poster of a naked minor in a lascivious pose.

Remark: As noted in the intro, we also altered the screenshots of the US-DVD with a blur-effect.

British Blu-ray	US-DVD