Onna Hissatsu Ken: Kiki Ippatsu (Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By a Thread) (1974) July 2, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films , trackbackDirector: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Main Cast: Etsuko Shihomi, Masashi Ishibashi, Yasuaki Kurata Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei
The next Sister Street Fighter film off the Toei production line is Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By a Thread (a title that doesn’t seem to have any real relevance, incidentally). Already, you can see the formula: beloved relation/friend of Koryu kidnapped or working against their will, heinously evil crime lord with crazy henchmen, fights galore and sexploitation. What sets Koryu off this time is the murder of a police detective in Hong Kong, who kept evidence in a role of microfilm in his false eye (no, seriously!).
The villain in this instalment is a diamond smuggler, who uses young ladies to hide diamonds in their…well, let’s just say these ladies are sitting on a lot of money. He collects martial artists to do his dirty work, and employs them to eliminate Koryu when she starts to get too close to his operation. And if the bad guys weren’t weird enough in the original, the ante has been upped in this episode with the inclusion of an alcoholic parrot-wearing freak of a doctor who I couldn’t tell was wearing blackface or not.
Toei certainly liked to recycle their actors a lot, and a staple of this series seems to be recurring performers returning to play different roles. Masashi Ishibashi returns as lead thug in a role almost identical to the last movie. A real shot in the arm, though, is the inclusion of Yasuaki Kurata as a kind of rock star-styled thug for hire.
You are probably thinking it all sounds a little too similar to Sister Street Fighter, and you’d be absolutely right – and it suffers from much the same problems. The script is unengaging and derivative of its predecessor (most of the time, this feels like nothing more than a remake of the first film) and the same shaky camerawork gets in the way of the fight scenes. However, I enjoyed this sequel slightly more than the original and this is mainly down to Yasuaki Kurata’s involvement. His character is the only one to have any kind of depth (although I’m using the word “depth” very loosely) and his abilities are astounding. I’d go as far as to say he’s never looked better.
Etsuko Shihomi also has some great fight scenes, and again handles the nunchaku like a demon. Plus there’s more sleazy 70s sexploitation in this as well as some nasty gore and torture scenes. That, coupled with the bizarre plot of the film and the freaky characters makes me doubt the sanity of the makers of these films. But that’s always the appeal of these crazy 70s actioners.
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