Sister Street Fighter
Martial Arts Mayhem • Action, Adventure
1974 • Japan • Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
After the massive success of 'The Street Fighter', Toei decided to build a new karate series around a female lead and cast a young actress who had appeared in a cameo role alongside her mentor Sonny Chiba. Still a teenager at the time, Etsuko Shihomi exploded onscreen in her first leading role and created a new character type: a tough fighter who was fierce, fearless, good-hearted, and decidedly non-sexualized, a departure from Toei's typical formula. The film was another huge hit for the studio and Shihomi and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, who had previously launched Meiko Kaji's career at Toei, made two additional films based on the same character, with a final unrelated follow-up appearing a year later. In 1974's 'Sister Street Fighter', Shihomi is the half-Chinese, half-Japanese Koryu Lee, who travels to Yokohama to investigate the disappearance of her brother, an undercover cop. When she discovers a smuggling ring run by a drug lord with his own personal army of deadly fighters, she must penetrate his evil lair and defeat not only his champion (Masashi Ishibashi from the Street Fighter films) but also a group of female Thai kickboxers called The Amazon Seven. Chiba appears in a cameo as a fellow karate master who helps Koryu in her mission.
Up Next in Martial Arts Mayhem
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Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a T...
1974 • Japan • Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
Released only three months after the original film, the sequel 'Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By a Thread', once again follows Koryu Lee as she investigates another smuggling ring, this time involving diamonds implanted into the derrieres of prosti...
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Return of the Sister Street Fighter
1975 • Japan • Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
The final film of the official trilogy, Return of the Sister Street Fighter, finds Koryu Lee back in Yokohama searching for a woman who has become the mistress of another crime kingpin. Kurata again co-stars but this time as a crazed fighter working ...
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The Executioner
1974 • Japan • Directed by Teruo Ishii
Ryuichi Koga (Sonny Chiba) is a descendent of the Koga Ninja school, now earning his living through more nefarious means as a gun for hire. When he is enlisted to take down a drug cartel alongside Hayabusa (Makoto Satô), a disgraced former narcotics detecti...
