La Karatigresse aux mains d'acier

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.

Note--This review is based on an English-dubbed version of this movie. Usually dubbed movies stink compared to subtitled ones, though this one wasn't bad. The worst aspect of the dubbing was the stupid voice they gave Sonny Chiba in a few BRIEF scenes. It just sounded very wimpy.

As for Chiba, there are undoubtedly a lot of "Chiba-philes" out there who will watch this film because it's part of the Street Fighter series. However, be warned, he is barely in the movie at all--appearing briefly three times and amounting to perhaps five minutes on film. I assume either they added Chiba to the film later to cash in on the success of the Street Fighter films or they just paid Chiba for a couple days work because that's all he wanted to do. Regardless, many have unscrupulously marketed this as a Sonny Chiba film, but it really isn't. Plus, what you do see of this great martial artist is far from his best work.

So instead, watch this movie just for its merits without Chiba--which it does have in spades. While not among the very best martial arts films, the action is significantly better compared to the average film from Hong Kong from the same time period. And while the story about drug dealers is just okay (it's really just an excuse for all that kicking and crunching), it's also better than the silly plots of many Hong Kong productions as well. Now I am NOT saying the Hong Kong films aren't fun to watch, but many have the most outlandish plots ever to appear in martial arts films (blind assassins, guys with three foot long tongues, fighting gorillas, etc.). SISTER STREET FIGHTER is much more direct and down to earth--with a very conventional plot and setting.

What was unusual about this film, and I appreciated it, was the collection of both styles and masters in various styles of martial arts. In fact, during one portion of the film, they freeze the frame to tell you who this master is and their style. A nice touch. However, there were also some real odd-balls among these "greats"--such as the guys who wore black baskets on their heads and the ladies who dressed like Fred Flintstone!!! You have to see them to believe it!

My most serious negative is that while the action is good, the lady protagonist's style isn't Chiba's--and she doesn't deliver as many crunching death blows as Chiba--it's more a kinder, gentler version of martial arts. Plus, the plot itself is nothing new and isn't all that engaging. Also, parents take note, there is some nudity in this film as well as the expected violence. Think twice before letting the kids see this one.

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.

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.