Yet another roller-coaster of non-stop ass-kicking madness, this spin-off from the STREET FIGHTER franchise points the series in a totally opposite direction but doesn't fail to be any less thrilling than the previous instalment. The fact that Sonny Chiba is no longer in the leading role is eased by the fact that he does appear in the cast, albeit playing a different character, and yes, he does get to kick and kill a number of bad guys using his patented furious style. The "sister" of the title – played well by Etsuko Shihomi – is a human dynamo of action, with Shihomi's martial arts skills up there with the best and the acting element not too bad either.The plot is as complex and as irrelevant as ever, with a bunch of drug dealers smuggling heroin inside human wigs (what the -?) and a kidnapping which leads to mucho revenge and madness. The film takes great delight in having Shihomi battle a variety of weirdly-dressed bad guys. First there are a sect of fighters with cone masks which cover their faces; then a number of lethal weapon guys with nunchucks and the like; even some people in leopard skin caveman wear show up to fight for a bit. There's a killer preacher, a guy in a fishnet top. By appealing to public demand, the makers of this movie score a hit in a classic re-run of the showdown between Tsurugi and Junjo at the end of the first movie – yep, the guy playing Junjo is back as another baddie, and Chiba gets to kick his backside one final time.Choreography is excellent, packed with off beat camera angles, good staging, and a wealth of interesting and exciting locations. The action never lets up, fusing together the successful combinations of sex (a parade of topless starlets) and violence (gratuitous bone-breaking) to provide a satisfying whole. Over half of the film consists of fight scenes making it impossible to dislike, and the only thing missing is Chiba's theme tune from the first three movies – it would have been great to hear that one last time as well. Otherwise, this is a great movie, really exciting, that never lets up and delivers all that it promises.

When undercover narcotics agent Lee Long is captured by a Japanese drug lord (who is smuggling wigs impregnated with heroin!), Lee's sister Tina (Etsuko Shihomi), a pretty but tough karate expert, goes to his rescue.Sister Streetfighter came as part of my Sonny Chiba DVD box-set, but it is really Etsuko Shihomi's show, with Chiba only appearing in a small supporting role, and not even as his Streetfighter character, Terry Tsurugi. Streetfighter fans definitely shouldn't let that fact put them off from watching, though, 'cos Shihomi proves more than handy in the fight department, and the film—nearly non-stop action all the way—is far more entertaining than Chiba's previous Streetfighter film, the disappointing Streetfighter's Last Revenge.What makes the film extra fun is the sheer range of crazy opponents lined up by director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi to battle his pretty star. The film's chief villain likes to 'collect' killers, and pits a whole variety of bad-ass baddies against Tina, including Hammerhead and his basket-headed cronies, some mad dude with a pair of nunchuks, a blow-dart killer, seven female Thai kick-boxers, and the spear-gun toting Reverand. Helping Tina in her quest are undercover cop/exotic dancer Fanny, Tina's cousin Emi, a karate ballerina, and, of course, Chiba as a hard-as-nails karate teacher.After much wanton violence, with a little gratuitous female nudity for good measure, the film ends in Enter The Dragon style, as Tina chases the main bad guy—who straps on a pair of Mr.Han iron claws for the finalé—through the underground tunnels of his lair and out onto a rocky shore (a classic setting for a martial arts showdown).7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

I don't understand people who give a movie like this a low rating because of a few plot holes, or because it's not the paragon of realism. If total realism and an airtight plot were the goals, these movies would lose a lot of their charm and just become the unremarkable action flicks you see so much of nowadays. This movie is a fantasy. And it eclipses many films of its martial genre precisely because it has so many and such creative fantasy elements. And hot chicks, did I mention the pretty girls?OK, if realism were the goal of this movie, the gangsters could all pull out guns and plug sweet Etsuko full of lead. Instead, we get something much more entertaining. We get a mohawked assassin who shoots darts into people's necks, a defrocked priest who shoots armor-piercing arrows out of a gun, seven Thai-boxing amazons with hairy armpits, a police agent who works as an exotic dancer and has a tattoo of a rose on her inner thigh, a karate school that chants its philosophy of mixing power and love to us for a while, and more... And did I mention the most sadistic of all villains? A hedonistic drug lord who sports a Vega-style claw on his hand, tortures Li Long by continually giving him more heroin, tortures Tina by having a gorgeous femme fatale whip her, all the while maintaining a bevy of bathing beauties that let him fondle them at will. It's not cheese, because all the fights are cool, the villains are really truly evil and sadistic. All the exaggerations are done with purpose, like in a painting of Dali.The movie maintains suspense with plenty of plot twists. In a run-of-the mill flick, Tina Long might kill Hammerhead right off the bat. Instead, he overpowers her, and kicks her off a bridge. Some of the dramatic scenes are truly poignant, right out of a Shakespeare play with terser dialogue--the brutal scene in which the old man is forced to betray his own niece, the suffering of Li Long as his sister rescues him!Not the least of what makes this movie great is the abundance of hot girls. Just when you think there's enough to keep you happy, they keep adding more. First there's Tina Long herself. Then there's the exotic dancer--right at the get-go, what more can you ask for? Then there's Emmy. Sometimes the girls even play-fight each other, and then end up hugging. All in all, I think it's safe to generalize that it's much more appealing for straight men to see hot girls kick butt, than brawny guys, and this is something that Quentin Tarantino realizes and capitalizes on.Finally, this movie is clearly anti-drug, or anti-hard-drug, but it clearly rises above propaganda like Reefer Madness, because it portrays the horror of heroin addiction in a quite realistic way. It even weaves this creatively into the film by using heroin as a torture device, a great plot device which I can't recall seeing often in movies.

This movie contains my favorite line of dubbed dialogue. When asked why she is willing to help look for another character's brother, played by Sonny Chiba, Sister Streetfighter responds with; "He saved my life once. And not only that, if not for him, I'd be dead!!!"