Kaette kita onna hissatsu ken

While in Hong Kong, the female martial arts expert, "Koryu" (Etsuko Shihomi), is informed by an undercover law enforcement agent named "Sho Tokki" (Xiang De-Ki) that his sister, "Shurei" (Akane Kawasaki), has been kidnapped by a criminal organization in Japan, and he requests her assistance in rescuing her. During their conversation, they are attacked by some goons from that very organization, and Sho is killed right in front of Shurei's young daughter, "Rika" (Chieko Onuki). With Rika by her side, Koryu travels to Yokohama and, after handing Rika over to Shurei's sister, "Reika" (Miwa Cho), she heads off to a nightclub to talk to a young lady named "Suzy Wong" (Izumi Shima) who might have more information on where Shurei is being held. What Koryu doesn't realize, however, is that the boss of the criminal organization knows all about her plans, and he has hired several assassins to resolve her meddling in his affairs. Permanently. Rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this third film in the "Sister Street Fighter" series pretty much follows the same general pattern as the other two, with only a few basic changes made to differentiate them. For example, all of them involve a criminal organization kidnapping someone, but their primary raison d'être varies. In the first film, it was illegal narcotics; in the second film, it was diamonds; and in this film, it is gold--different characters for the most part, but the same overall plot, more or less. That said, since it was somewhat more polished than the first film in the series, I have rated it slightly higher than the first one and on par with the second movie.

Return of the Sister Street Fighter is the third and last official entry in the franchise around empathic, resilient and tough martial artist Li Koryu. The story isn't a far call from the first two entries. A friend and police officer approaches Li Koryu in Hong Kong since his sister disappeared when investigating a shady company that smuggles gold by using chemicals. The man gets assassinated and Li Koryu needs to take care of his niece. They travel to Yokohama in hope to find the young girl's mother alive. The protagonist brings the charming young girl to her aunt but she has become a drug addict who quickly betrays them. Li Koryu has to confront a charismatic boss in a wheelchair with an artificial hand who organizes brutal death games between exotic martial artists to find a team of four fighters willing to stop the nosy protagonist from uncovering the company's dark secrets and setting the kidnapped woman free.

The movie has the same elements that made the two previous entries so entertaining. The quirky characters are quite diversified as we meet a sinister villain with a dark secret that could have come from the James Bond franchise and a martial artist who looks like a shady cowboy on one side but also a tormented drug addict forced to betray her own sister and a charming, dynamic and joyous young girl who must witness her family's slow demise on the other side. The locations are once again very interesting and especially the dramatic scenes close to an abandoned mine are quite fascinating and flirt with the western genre. The camera work is precise this time around and the vibrant soundtrack blends in very well.

The main reason why this movie isn't as great as its two predecessors is the fact that the fight scenes are quite brief this time around. Especially the two final duels only last about thirty seconds each when there would have been room for some more climatic duels. The film is also about ten minutes shorter than the other two films and seems to be slightly rushed as if it had been produced on a shoestring budget. The film would have been much better with a more generous budget, extended fight scenes and an additional length between ten to fifteen minutes.

Nevertheless, Return of the Sister Street Fighter is brutal, dynamic, entertaining, quirky and sinister all at once as it will entertain you from start to finish. It isn't the perfect conclusion to a great franchise but a very solid one. Fans of contemporary martial arts movies or action thrillers of the seventies will certainly get their money's worth. The perfect balance between empathic scenes and brutal sequences is the movie's greatest strength and one would have liked to see more movies in this sympathetic franchise and this comment comes from someone who usually dislikes endless sequels, prequels and franchises these days.

If your cup of tea is martial arts action, then this film is for you. It has lots of action, female nudity, more fighting, some ridiculous Japanese character in black-face, fighting on the rooftops, drugs, burning houses, more nudity, more fights; it just goes on and on.

Somehow there is a point to all of this, but it just seems like Sister Street Fighter's Greatest Hits. A thin story about using chemicals to smuggle gold and a friend forced to be the mistress of the kingpin is just an excuse to have fights. Many of the fights are pretty lame, with the loser going down quickly. But, hey, it's great 70s grind-house fun and the hokeyness is just part of that.

So while the sister (street fighter) is still going strong (no pun intended), we give her a sidekick here (again with the puns), that is morally ambigious to say the least. The enemy of my enemy ... is my friend I guess? Who knows? The screenwriter I reckon should. But in a movie with beatings, nudity and general mayhem, is morality really that necessary? Of course it is, we want to root for good guys/gals.

But the viewers should able to forgive and forget. And the charismatic addition might just be able to pull that off. More insanity ensues, lots of murder and blood, a lot of crazy stuff happening and the sister in peril. She's quite gullible come to think of it (easy to trap her with a phone call that is). Ah well it is what it is

Our girl does her forms demonstrations over the opening credits. The story starts on the streets of Hong Kong. Our girl is sent to Yokohama to investigate a person's disappearance. First, there is a street fight. On arrival in Japan there is another street fight.

These opening fights are choreographed to appear as what the audience would expect a street fight to resemble. However, most real fights end up on the ground. Ground fighting was rare to see in early 1970s movies. Otherwise the fights looked good. Another thing, if I arrived at a fight on a motorcycle I would keep my helmet on. In the movies, though, you want to show your face.

Yasuaki Kurata also appears in this movie. He seems to have replaced Sonny Chiba, He offers his service to the bad guys to kill our girl, similar to the last movie. Things get complicated and he ends up stealing the show. He was the best part of this movie.

The third of this series and it is starting to get thin. I still rate it above average for the year and genre.