Produced to capitalize on the worldwide kung-fu craze and the popularity of Japanese Pinku films, this spin-off from Sonny Chibas Street Fighterseries should by rights be a pedestrian cash-in, a fate it avoids because of its leading lady, Etsuko Sue Shiomi. Praise Cynthia Rothrock and Michell Yeoh all you want, but Shiomi got there first and can kick butt with the best of them. In a plot so generic it also served as the basis for TNT Jackson that same year, Shiomis search for her missing brother takes her to Hong Kong, where she learns he has gone undercover to infiltrate a dope smuggling ring. Sent to Yokohama to meet a fellow agent named Fanny Singer (even the dubbers are having fun) our heroines first act, after wowing some local thugs by plucking flies out of mid-air, is to get into a fight, which she then does every five minutes for the rest of the movie. Fortunately, the villains are so cartoonish that their shenanigans never become boring. Among those introduced with freeze-frame captions are Tessin the sickle user and Eva Parrish karate champion of Australia (who we see once in training but never again) plus Amazons 7 Thailand kickboxing who wear white masks, stockings and loincloths handed down by Fred Flintstone. Special mention however must be made of shoulderpads-loving Hammerhead, who goes everywhere followed by six dudes in conical black helmets that cover their faces.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
