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)

Version: Avenue One DVD. Dub only.

'Sister Street Fighter' was basically made to show much arse Etsuko Shihomi kicks. Sonny Chiba appears in this third Streetfighter installment for only 10 minutes, letting Etsuko do most of the arse-kicking.

Lee long is a martial artist who the Hong Kong police use to help stop a Japanese drug-ring importing drugs into Hong Kong. When he goes missing, its up to his sister Tina (played by Etsuko Shihomi) to go to Japan and find him. She gets help from Lee's martial arts school (which just so happens to include Sonny Chiba) to free Lee and generally kick arse.

The story is your average "relative has been kidnapped and our hero/ine must save them". But who needs a decent plot when you've got cool fight scenes, bad dubbing, and an 'interesting' array of bad dudes and dudettes (to say the least).

Avenue One re-mastered the movie for their DVD and included some special features, yet they couldn't do a subtitle job? I would have taken this movie a bit more seriously (and thus given it a higher rating) if it had been subbed, and not dubbed. Oh well, at least the dub was funny-bad.

Good action movie. 6/10. Check it out if you're a fan of Etsuko Shihomi.

Possibly the most polished production of the Streetfighter franchise. Few complaints about not being able to see the action properly in this one. Even Sonny himself seems more clean cut and freshly scrubbed, perhaps because he is wearing white instead of black this time, and his moral code is more conventional, if still tongue in cheek chauvinist.

However, Sonny is only a supporting player, with only a few fight scenes, which may come as a disappointment to some, based on what the promotional material implies, and though he is billed as "The Streetfighter", he isn't really the same character he played in the first two movies. Instead, as the title suggests, sexy tomboy Sue Shiomi takes centre stage, stepping out from the shadow of Sonny, and she has the charisma to make it work.

The film is reminiscent of "Enter The Dragon" in some ways, in that the head villain favours the metal claw as a weapon, he has an impressive "lair" (which includes an Olympic size swimming pool!) complete with underground cave passages similar to "Enter The Dragon". He also has an array of colourful assassins, who each seem to specialize in different weapons, as well as the usual cannon fodder henchmen.

As fans of Japanese martial arts movies have come to expect, it has its fair share of crimes against fashion, bizarre costumes, gratuitous sadism and bloody, cartoonish violence. All present and correct then.

"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!

This isn't a Sonny Chiba film, although it has the same name as the series, and he does appear briefly in the film, it features the very capable Etsuko Shihomi, one of his students.

This is her first leading role and she would make many films before achieving award status, but she is still very watchable and entertaining in this non-stop karate exhibition.

Be it Asian beanpoles armed with Nunchukas or elderly men wielding metallic claws, our lovely heroine will crush anyone who tries to prevent her from rescuing her brother from the clutches of the vile villains that hold him.

You must really like karate to watch this film as that is all there is. Be warned that there is not a lot of gore, but there is one rape scene.