This sequel to the grindhouse favorite The Street Fighter is every bit as violent and gritty as its predecessor, but lacks its kinetic flair. As a result, Return of the Street Fighter is a much more mundane affair. The main problem is its predictable, by-the-numbers plot line, which shamelessly rehashes the basic beats of the original film's story (Tsugury suffering a vicious beating at the midway point, the death of his sidekick, the final battle with Junjo) and pads the film with gratuitous flashbacks and martial arts training footage. Despite these problems, patient viewers will be rewarded with a few memorably brutal action set pieces. Highlights include a mountaintop battle that ends with Tsugury hitting a man in the head so hard his eyes fall out of their sockets and Tsugury's final showdown with a couple of dozen men in a darkened office. However, viewers have to wade through a lot of uninspired dreck to get to these moment of inspiration. In the end, Return of the Street Fighter lacks the demented inspiration that made its predecessor so unique and comes off as just another second-rate chop socky film.