Sister Street Fighter

Sue Shiomi is not only a beautiful and cute woman (she reminded me of Cynthia Khan, and I love Cynthia Khan), but a fast, graceful fighter as well. Sonny Chiba has a limited role, but when he does appear he is in top form. The fights follow a mostly grounded style, although there is some unrealistic high-flying at certain points. The movie has plenty of action, but the plotting, characterization, dialogue, etc. are all nil. Simply put, there is nothing interesting going on in this film besides the fights to justify more than one viewing. Worth noting is also Maltin's review, calling this a "crude concoction of sex and sadism"; I wonder what movie he saw. And a word of advice: if you ever run across the DVD box set "Women Who Kick Butt", avoid it. At least half of the 10 movies included are complete crap, and some have no "femme fatale" action to speak of. "Sister Street Fighter" is easily the best of the bunch, but that's not really saying much. (**1/2)

A fierce female martial arts warrior named Tina Long sets out on a mission to rescue her captured brother Lee Long, an undercover agent now being held prisoner by the very drug smuggling ring he sought to bring down! Meanwhile, the head of the drug smuggling ring has assembled a menagerie of the world's greatest killers, some truly outlandish and bizarre eccentric characters, to protect himself and his interests.

This delivers the goods when it comes to fight scenes, 1970s style exploitation thrills, chase and action sequences and best of all, it takes a surprisingly cool stylish approach, like something out of a comic book splash page, when it comes to introducing its characters.

Where this falters is its mistaken over-reliance on wire stunts for the climactic showdown at the end leading to the most unbelievable and unrealistic fight sequence in the entire film. Also the characters, despite their colorful outer appearance, all remain completely one-dimensional making the film as an whole more forgettable than it might have been otherwise. All in all, this is a good albeit flawed effort.

I just saw this one last night. I thought it was quite fun in a awful kind of way. It features Sue Shiomi as Tina Long, a female karate expert who goes to Tokyo to find her brother. A cop who has mysteriously disappeared investigating a drugs ring. Lots of fights ensue as she tracks him down. Terrible dubbing(although thats par for the course in this sort of movie). The panning and scanning on the version I saw was horrible, regularly cutting people and faces out of shot that should obviously be on screen. Good fight sequences save it, and at 85 odd minutes does'nt outstay its welcome. Give it a go if you can find it, I liked it.

Not only is the movie great for martial arts fans but its also fun for fans of tokusatsu (Japanese science fiction) as its full of tokusatsu actors/actresses. Shihomi, Etsuko played Mari in Kikaida-01. Miyauchi, Hiroshi (star of Kamen Rider V3 and Kaiketsu Zubat, the Blue Ranger in Goranger, Big One is JAKQ, mentor in Ohranger, cop in 3 metal heroes series) plays her brother. She beats up on Oba Kenji (Battle Kenya in Battle Fever J and star of Space Sheriff Gavan) who works for Ishibashi, Masashi who was Iron Claw in JAKQ and the 2nd highest ranking villain in Battle Fever J. The music is even by Kamen Rider composer Shunsuke Kikuchi.

"Sister Streetfighter" is but one of Sonny Chiba's "Streetfighter" series, this time with the impossibly cute and dimpled Sue Shihomi in the starring role.

OK, I will admit, this film is technically not that great. The acting is bad, the plot cheesy, and you can drive a truck through the holes in it.

So I will admit I have a sick addiction to these types of movies, because I loved "Sister Streetfighter".

What other movie gives you a cavalcade of freak-shows like a drugpin who collects "killers" at is secluded villa, a guy who exports his heroin disguised as human wigs, a henchman named Hammerhead with a gang who wears black cone-shaped wicker baskets for helmets, a group of girl Thai kick boxers in leopard-print named the "Amazons 7", a dart-blowing freak with a weird African shield and dime-store cape... a movie where you will see an assortment of weapons including staff, forks, tonfa, nunchuku, darts... need I go on?? "Sister Streetfighter" is that, and more.

Sue Shihomi starts off the movie doing a combination of the katas "kanku dai" and "heian yodan". There is not much biographical information on her on the web but I would guess she has some formal karate training because she is executes many of her kicks well, and in one scene she executes three really nice thrust kicks (kekomi) in a row. You don't often see good technique in martial arts films. As a result the fight scenes with Shihomi in it are very good, exciting and dynamic. She shows herself skilled also at using nanchaku and the sai (forks), one of which she plant in a poor fellow's head. And Sonny Chiba steals the few scenes he is in.

The cheesiness of this movie cannot be understated. In one scene Tina Long (Shihomi) finds her way onto the evil drugpin's property. She is discovered by the henchman "Hammerhead". Suddenly and inexplicably, they are transported high atop a sea-side cliff. Then, just as suddenly, they are fighting on a suspension bridge. I mean, this is classic stuff people! Also hilarious is the person introduced as "Eva Parrish - Karate Champion of Australia" is shown doing an absolutely horrible version of the kata "tekki shodan". Then the mysterious Ms. Parrish is never seen again in the film.

Recommended with two thumbs up for fans of the genre!