Karate for Life (1977)

1977 film by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

Released

1977

Country

Japan

Language

Japanese

Genre

Martial arts film

Director

Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

Starring

Sonny Chiba, Hideo Murota, Yōko Natsuki

Distributor

Toei Company

Based on

Karate Master

Set in

Okinawa Prefecture

Karate for Life (Japanese: 空手バカ一代, Hepburn: Karate Baka Ichidai) is a 1977 Japanese martial arts film about the martial arts master Mas Oyama, starring Sonny Chiba.

It is a sequel to Champion of Death and Karate Bear Fighter, and is the third part in the Champion of Death series, a series of movie adaptations of the Karate Baka Ichidai by Ikki Kajiwara. Like the previous two films, it was a combination of starring actor Sonny Chiba and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi.

More films directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi

• The Return of the Sister Street Fighter 1974
• Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread 1974
• Sister Street Fighter 1974
• Karate Warriors 1976
• Which Is Stronger, Karate or the Tiger? 1976

External links

• Wikipedia
• IMDb
• TMDb
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q11597409 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.