Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Thank you, @flemishdog !
This had to be broken up into two videos to avoid being blocked by automatic copyright detection, sorry about that. End titles are here: youtu.be/az4om7hgSDk
Grindhouse Cinema Database has the theatrical trailer. Cool, huh? youtube.com/watch?v=lTceI2hGcS0
"The Steel Edge of Revenge" is the 1974 Americanized theatrical release of Hideo Gosha's "Goyokin" (1969), as produced and distributed by Kelly-Jordan Enterprises, Inc. Dubbing was directed by Peter Fernandez through New York's Titan Productions. Gosha's two-hour original had been generating positive buzz in American arthouses since 1969; but while Kelly-Jordan's ~79-minute version played across the U.S. in general release situations well into the 1980s, it doesn't seem to have made any impression with the reviewers in trade publications or in nationally-syndicated news.
I don't believe the American version ever made it to television in the States (not that I've been able to find) and all U.S. home video releases of "Goyokin" have been the Japanese-language original. The video you're seeing here comes from an obscure Australian rental (on the Cannon Video Australia label) with artwork cribbed from "Kung Fu Rebels." This seems to be a 16mm anamorphic print with the entirety of the picture squeezed into the 1.33 TV frame (varyingly squeezed from approx. 2.66:1 for these titles and 1.66:1 for the bulk of the film) and video produced via film chain.
For more information on "The Steel Edge of Revenge" and the brief 1974 samurai spinoff of the stateside martial arts boom, I cannot recommend enough Chris Poggiali's "The Deuce Notebook: The Samurai Cinema Slaughter of ‘74" on Mubi.
Thank you, @flemishdog !
This had to be broken up into two videos to avoid being blocked by automatic copyright detection, sorry about that. End titles are here: youtu.be/az4om7hgSDk
Grindhouse Cinema Database has the theatrical trailer. Cool, huh? youtube.com/watch?v=lTceI2hGcS0
"The Steel Edge of Revenge" is the 1974 Americanized theatrical release of Hideo Gosha's "Goyokin" (1969), as produced and distributed by Kelly-Jordan Enterprises, Inc. Dubbing was directed by Peter Fernandez through New York's Titan Productions. Gosha's two-hour original had been generating positive buzz in American arthouses since 1969; but while Kelly-Jordan's ~79-minute version played across the U.S. in general release situations well into the 1980s, it doesn't seem to have made any impression with the reviewers in trade publications or in nationally-syndicated news.
I don't believe the American version ever made it to television in the States (not that I've been able to find) and all U.S. home video releases of "Goyokin" have been the Japanese-language original. The video you're seeing here comes from an obscure Australian rental (on the Cannon Video Australia label) with artwork cribbed from "Kung Fu Rebels." This seems to be a 16mm anamorphic print with the entirety of the picture squeezed into the 1.33 TV frame (varyingly squeezed from approx. 2.66:1 for these titles and 1.66:1 for the bulk of the film) and video produced via film chain.
For more information on "The Steel Edge of Revenge" and the brief 1974 samurai spinoff of the stateside martial arts boom, I cannot recommend enough Chris Poggiali's "The Deuce Notebook: The Samurai Cinema Slaughter of ‘74" on Mubi.
![Earth 1999 [CC]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/X1DojKM67VM/mqdefault.jpg "Earth 1999 [CC]
Earth 1999 [CC]")
