Hissatsu onna kenshi

Funky Nipponese martial arts period piece.Chiba stamps his trademark well & truly.Things progress along nicely with a standard plot line.Camera-work is a bit dodgy but who cares.The fight sequences are masterfully turned out.Definitely worth a look if you like this genre. This movie has enough blood and action to maintain the viewer's interest though because of its technical shortcomings can be hard to follow at times visually. Lots of dark sequences contributing to the general mayhem with a hokey soundtrack. The dubbed dialog is somewhat stilted,but who cares,this is ultimate fun to watch. Chiba has a long track record for making wickedly masterful fight films,one can only equate the fight sequences with high ballet. This is early fare but still serves up the usual dollop of action.

Version: English dub.

I found 'Dragon Princess' on a DVD titled 'Masters of Martial Arts volume 4': four movies, on two discs, for $10. Essentially, I bought 'Dragon Princess' for $2.50.

'Dragon Princess' is pretty much 'Sister Street Fighter' with a different name. Etsuko Shihomi is brought up by her father, a karate master, to seek vengeance on those who disabled him. Etsuko then spends the rest of the movie beating up bad guys, with some (but minimal) assistance from Sonny Chiba.

That's about it. Pretty standard revenge plot, decent fighting scenes, but the camera is shaky and its sometimes hard to make out whats happening on screen. Despite the standard plot, there is an interesting sub-plot regarding Etsuko's character 'only knowing vengeance' and having no real life, however, it was done better in 'Lady Snowblood'.

5/10 - An OK karate movie.

OK. If you are around my age and went to high school back in the late '70s in Florida, then you probably remember a little Saturday afternoon show called "Black Belt Theatre". Every week they showed another badly dubbed, low budget martial arts flick.

And I LOVED it! It was here that I first remember seeing Etsuko "Sue" Shiomi. I can't remember the actual movie but it might have been Sister Streetfighter. In any case, I was a die-hard fan from then on. So when I first saw a copy of Dragon Princess on VHS a few years later at the local Blockbuster, I scarfed it up. Yeah, Sonny Chiba has only a small part in it and the budget is typically minuscule, but if you can get past that then you are in for one fun ride! Sue Shiomi does an excellent job as the revenge seeking daughter of Sonny Chiba's character. The villains though, especially the blind swordsman, in my opinion steal the show. Each fight is unique and entertaining with the violence being, of course, over the top.

A few years ago I found this gem on DVD. If you get the chance, grab it up. Trust me; you'll have a blast!

To sum this movie up as briefly as possible (it does not need elaboration)... karate master (Sonny Chiba) is crippled by evil assailants, then trains daughter (Sue Shiomi) in the art of karate, mindless vengeance and coldhearted blood-letting. (I don't know, I would have encouraged her into dentistry or some other respectable profession, but that's just me) There are some good choreographed moves, and Shiomi, like Chiba, displays a penchant for not only kicking an opponent's ass but making a point of crushing her opponent's bones and internal organs afterwards.

In a lot of the fights though, the techniques are obscured by bad and changing camera angles.

Overall, not that great. You are only going to want to see this if you are a Sonny Chiba fan.

Sonny chiba is only in this film for the first 7 minutes. Intresting actioner showcase Sue Shiomi's talent as a action star casting her opposite to Japanese action star (who also does Hong Kong films) Yasuaki Kurata (of G-men 75 fame). Good soundtrack and some good action scene helps this poorly put together film. This film actually still played in Cameo, a Los Angeles grindhouse theatre in 1992!