Sister Street Fighter Collection

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domino harvey
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Sister Street Fighter Collection

#1 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 26, 2018 3:18 pm

Image

Synopsis: After the massive success of The Street Fighter, the Toei Company 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-sexualised, a departure from Toei's typical formula.

In 1974's Sister Street Fighter, Shihomi is the half-Chinese, half-Japanese Li Koryu, who travels to Yokohama to investigate the disappearance of her brother, an undercover cop. Li discovers a smuggling ring run by a drug lord with his own personal army of deadly fighters, and must penetrate his evil lair with the help of a fellow karate master (played by Chiba). Shihomi and director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (Wolf Guy) made two additional films based on the same character over the next year, Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By A Thread and Return Of The Sister Street Fighter, with a final unrelated follow-up (Sister Street Fighter: Fifth Level Fist) helmed by original Street Fighter director Shigehiro Ozawa appearing in 1976.

Genre entertainment of the highest order, the Sister Street Fighter films are a wild ride through some of the best exploitation cinema Japan produced in the 1970s. Funky and over-the-top, filled with wall-to-wall action, and featuring some of the craziest villains ever depicted onscreen, the series embodies female power in a male-dominated genre and is a magnificent showcase for the physical presence and martial arts skills of its lead star.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations of all four films
Original uncompressed Japanese mono audio
Original English dubbed audio for Sister Street Fighter
New optional English subtitle translation for all four films
English SDH subtitles for the English dub for Sister Street Fighter
New video interviews with actor Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba, director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, and screenwriter Masahiro Kakefuda
Original Japanese theatrical trailers for all four films
Original U.S. theatrical trailer for Sister Street Fighter, plus original English opening titles to the film
Original German theatrical trailer for Sister Street Fighter, plus original German opening titles to the film
Stills and poster gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Kungfubob O'Brien
First pressing only: Illustrated booklet featuring writing on the series by Patrick Macias and a new essay on the U.S. release of Toei's karate films by Chris Poggiali

U.S. STREET DATE: MARCH 5.
UK STREET DATE: MARCH 4.

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domino harvey
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Re: The Sister Street Fighter Collection

#2 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 26, 2018 3:19 pm

Worth owning for the first film alone, but at $49.99 US MSRP, this will be reasonably priced at $25-30 before too long. Here's my thoughts on all four films from the 70s List Project:
domino harvey wrote:
Tue Jun 18, 2013 8:01 pm
Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1974) This is the first grindhouse film I've seen that lives up to its promise: a free-associative, endlessly novel barrage of creative and well-choreographed fight sequences accompany the titular character as she seeks to find and later avenge her brother. The plot is but a means of hanging the action sequences in a certain order, but this film barrels so rapidly towards its finish that it hardly matters-- there are enough ideas and characters in the film for a half-dozen other films, and the movie exhausts its elements at a rapid, seemingly unsustainable rate. At one juncture there were by my count at least six different factions working against the heroine, each identified by their fighting style by a freeze-frame super on the screen, and that doesn't even begin to cover the assorted henchmen and unlucky gophers who get in the way. This was solid, surprising fun from beginning to end, and it could very well make my list.

Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1974) For the sequel, featuring many of the same principals (most in different roles), the approach shifts in a weirder direction-- the movie concerns prostitutes being trafficked not for sex but for diamonds sewn into their buttocks-- and the film is gorier and somewhat mean-spirited, with the action harder to follow thanks to the freewheeling camera. That said, I still enjoyed this one, but it's not as entertaining as the first trip to the well.

Return of Sister Street Fighter (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi 1975) And here the law of diminished returns is alive and well. Shifting the narrative towards a more conventional plot and significantly smaller cast of characters, this one fully shows the increasing lack of enthusiasm put into the series. And by this point you'd think characters would quit recruiting Etsuko Shihomi to find their missing loved ones, as her recovery record stands at 0-3!

Sister Street Fighter - Fifth Level Fist (Shigehiro Ozawa 1976) Sequel in name only, other than starring Etsuko Shihomi, this film has no relation to the other three pics, in that this apparently takes place in something resembling our world. And who wants that? Shihomi infiltrates a Samurai movie studio to get revenge for assorted socially conscious ills. The approach here is somewhat hammy (but not particularly funny) and I wouldn't mind so much that this film doesn't resemble the others if it did so in a good way. Even the weaker last entry spread its fights around and attempted some variation, but this thing just pummels a couple brawls long past their natural end-point. Also, there's no end to the film-- I'm not speaking figuratively!

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TheRanchHand
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#3 Post by TheRanchHand » Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:06 am

Love this! More of these great martial arts titles please. Some fun in each of the series so really looking forward to this.

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colinr0380
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#4 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Dec 27, 2018 8:20 pm

Sister Street Fighter's recent (or rather early 90s) claim to fame is also that it is one of the triple bill of films playing at the movie theatre that the main characters meet at in one of the first scenes of True Romance.

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TheRanchHand
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#5 Post by TheRanchHand » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:39 am

I think that is true but pretty sure they were only showing The Street Fighter on the screen as been awhile since I saw TR.

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tenia
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#6 Post by tenia » Thu Jan 03, 2019 6:31 am

It is indeed The Street Fighter, not Sister Street Fighter.

Orlac
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#7 Post by Orlac » Thu Jan 03, 2019 2:03 pm

In fact, I'm sure it's Return of the Street Fighter

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colinr0380
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#8 Post by colinr0380 » Thu Jan 03, 2019 7:03 pm

It is mentioned in the dialogue and the marquee as the third film in the triple bill so you are all right, as is TheRanchHand in that the on screen footage is from The Street Fighter.

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JamesF
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#9 Post by JamesF » Fri Jan 04, 2019 11:49 am

Just to remind everyone that they're all correct, here's the ad for the actual triple bill when it played in US cinemas in the 70's, courtesy of Temple Of Schlock:

Image

Orlac
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#10 Post by Orlac » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:06 pm

The BBFC has cut the fourth film due to a "potentially indecent image"

I wonder if things have changed at the BBFC. They left through much worse things with In the Realm of the Senses and Lady Snowblood.

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tenia
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#11 Post by tenia » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:34 pm

I don't think it was of a naked child, was it ?

Orlac
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#12 Post by Orlac » Fri Jan 18, 2019 3:47 pm

In both cases, yes. ITROTS used to be censored in the UK for the abuse, but LSB never had issues with the BBFC despite a nude scene.

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JamesF
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#13 Post by JamesF » Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:32 pm

Just to correct Orlac’s post a little, as the co-producer of the release - we’ve had to censor the second film (Hanging By A Thread) for the large framed photo of a naked child hung in the background of one of the villains. We haven’t cut the film, but rather zoomed and reframed the shot in question to crop out the offending image and preserve the dialogue in the scene. The US edition is uncensored, as per previous releases, and in all other respects the UK edition is otherwise uncut.

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Finch
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#14 Post by Finch » Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:23 pm

What was the justification for the BBFC demanding the cut, i.e. that the picture is there in the first place or the context you could draw from the scene (it could be read to mean that the owner of it is a paedophile)? I haven't seen the film so I'm guessing at how it could be interpreted.

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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#15 Post by Twentyfoureyes » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:42 pm

If I put the UK edition on a region A player, would the picture still zoomed and reframed in that particular scene?

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Big Ben
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#16 Post by Big Ben » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:33 am

Twentyfoureyes wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:42 pm
If I put the UK edition on a region A player, would the picture still zoomed and reframed in that particular scene?
No because the change is made to the file on the disc and as the reframing exists entirely within the film on the disc. My knowledge of UK law on these issues is topical (I'm familiar with the BBFC on a basic level.) but I'm quite certain that Arrow would not distribute a disc that could have the offending image made visible through jerry-rigging just as I'm sure they wouldn't distribute a disc version of a film edited for animal cruelty (Although I am unsure how far back the BBFC goes and if it applies to say, horse falls done in films made in the fifties and sixties.) in the same manner.

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swo17
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#17 Post by swo17 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:24 am

It's possible though that they use branching to force it to play one version or another depending on which region the player is locked to at the time. Didn't they do that on one of the Suzuki sets?

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JamesF
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#18 Post by JamesF » Sat Jan 19, 2019 3:37 am

Finch wrote:
Fri Jan 18, 2019 8:23 pm
What was the justification for the BBFC demanding the cut, i.e. that the picture is there in the first place or the context you could draw from the scene (it could be read to mean that the owner of it is a paedophile)? I haven't seen the film so I'm guessing at how it could be interpreted.
Basically the latter - the photo is only there to further demonstrate that one of the villains is a demented pervert. So while the photo is in isolation fairly innocuous, its inclusion is contextually quite jarring and, to use the BBFC’s words, “potentially indecent” and likely to contravene the Protection of Children Act 1978. Also the fact that the provenance of the image can’t be proved one way or another is another sticky issue legally.

I don’t know about the Suzuki disc and what was done there, but in this instance, we’ve authored two separate disc masters, one for the UK and for the US. So to answer twentyfoureyes’ question - yes, the UK disc in a Region A player will only show the reframed version, but the USA release would play uncensored.

Orlac
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#19 Post by Orlac » Sat Jan 19, 2019 5:14 am

Does a BBFC decision like this make importing it ilegal in a way it wouldn't have been to import the old R1 DVD a couple of years ago when they hadn't seen it? I know I steered clear of importing all the Swiss Jess Franco films because of it - who wants to go to jail for Women in Cellblock 9?

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tenia
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#20 Post by tenia » Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:57 am

swo17 wrote:
Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:24 am
It's possible though that they use branching to force it to play one version or another depending on which region the player is locked to at the time. Didn't they do that on one of the Suzuki sets?
That's exactly what they did for Born Under The Stars, with a Region-related seamless branching. Region B players black out the specific frames while the audio (and subtitles) keeps going, while Region A players access the uncensored version.
I suppose the exact same can be done here, except that instead of switching to a black screen, the branching will switch to the reframed frames instead.

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swo17
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#21 Post by swo17 » Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:28 am

Right, except that JamesF just clarified otherwise

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tenia
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#22 Post by tenia » Sat Jan 19, 2019 11:57 am

My bad, I missed that bit.
I then wonder why this route was taken this time but not for the Suzuki.

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dwk
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#23 Post by dwk » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:04 pm

Could be that the Suzuki set was a limited edition of 1500 and this set isn't limited. So there is more of a chance that they'd get caught this time and I can only imagine the publicity difference between getting in trouble because of a few shots of a cockfight and beause of including a scene featuring a nude child that the BBFC deemed illegal.

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domino harvey
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#24 Post by domino harvey » Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:53 pm

I don't recall this image and am not sad to lose it, but wouldn't it have been better to optically obscure it (smear/black box/giant red box if you're Todd Solondz) rather than reframe the entire scene? I'd be curious to hear how the team arrived at the solution

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JamesF
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Re: Sister Street Fighter Collection

#25 Post by JamesF » Sat Jan 19, 2019 2:29 pm

The BBFC wouldn’t let us blur that part of the frame, so it was either overlay the left half of the frame with a solid colour, or crop the image out. We did tests both ways and felt the re-framing was the least distracting and less likely to be noticed by viewers not already aware of the situation. It’s very carefully handled and was done to the highest technical standard by R3store Studios.

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