Read This: The story behind the first film rated X for “extreme violence”
Previously reserved mostly for sexually explicit material, a Sonny Chiba kung-fu brawler, The Street Fighter, made history for its ridiculous gore

It’s called The Street Fighter and it starred the late Sonny Chiba, if there was still any question. Screenshot: YouTube
Late last week, the world lost veteran actor and martial arts legend, Sonny Chiba. Although only particularly diehard American audiences knew of him until his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1, out of the dozens of grindhouse kung-fu brawlers leading up to his 2003 mainstream stateside introduction, one title arguably stood apart from the bone-crunching pack: The Street Fighter. Released in 1974, The Street Fighter garnered a level of American scandal—and, thereby a level of salacious success, of course—for achieving the first ever X-rating bestowed solely for its “extreme violence.”