Retail Price: $12.98

Reviewed by:

Ian Jane on August 30, 2007.

Tarantino and Rodriguez' ode to trashy seventies exploitation movies may not have set the box office on fire but it did manage to convince a few home video companies to follow in their footsteps by releasing some interesting 'grindhouse' themed releases. BCI Eclipse is one of those companies, and this entry in their Welcome To The Grindhouse double-feature line pairs up two fine offerings starring the Bad Man From Japan himself, Sonny Chiba – Dragon Princess and Karate Warriors. While these have long been staples of ‘public domain’ budget DVD packages, this release marks the first time that the two pictures have been presented on DVD in North America in their original aspect ratios. 

DRAGON PRINCESS 

When the film begins, Agaki (Sonny Chiba) is squaring off with a group of four tough guys who call themselves the Big Four. The fight doesn’t go in his favor and before you know it, he’s got a stick poking out of his eye and he’s lying on his deathbed. It seems that the gang’s leader, Nikado, wants to take Agaki’s place as the number one Karate Sensai in the land and he’ll stop at nothing to get him out of the way. With no choice left, Agaki takes his young daughter, Yumi (Etsuko Shiomi), and heads west towards New York City. 

When they get to America, Agaki makes his daughter train day in and day out until finally, he’s fashioned her into a living instrument of vengeance! When Agaki passes on, his daughter heads back to Japan to settle the score with Nikado and the Big Four once and for all. 

Similar in theme to Lady Snowblood, Dragon Princess is a lot of fun despite some very obvious flaws and choppy editing. The build up to the tournament is more or less just tossed to the side by the time the finale rolls around, leading us to wonder what the point was, and there are continuity gaffs aplenty. That said, Chiba and Shiomi both bring their tremendous screen presence to the picture and for that reason alone it’s worth a look. The opening fight scene, despite some unusual shaky camera work (a problem that plagues most of the fight scenes in the film) that looks like it’s trying rather unsuccessfully to emulate Fukasaku’s style, is tremendous. 

Although the movie toys with the theme of lost innocence by showing us how Shiomi’s lift was more or less predestined by her father’s choice to turn her into his instrument of revenge, it never gets as deep as it seems like it’s going to. Instead, the focus is first and foremost on action and violence. As a serious drama, the film fails miserably but as a fast paced piece of Karate fueled violence, it works quite well. Shiomi proves here, as she did in the Sister Street Fighter films that came before it, that she can hold her own against whoever should cross her path and throwing Chiba into the mix, even if his role is more of a supporting one than a lead, just adds fuel to the fire. 

Dragon Princess doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the countless other martial arts revenge movies out there and the over use of the cam-cam during the fight scenes takes away from the picture a bit, but regardless, it’s fast paced, violent and it makes for a great vehicle in which the always charming Shiomi gets to do her thing.  

KARATE WARRIORS

The second feature is a proper starring vehicle for Chiba. Here he plays a loner named Cheiko who arrives in a small Japanese town only to find himself thrust into a gang related brawl at a local smut peddler’s emporium. One of the punks involved in the fight takes quite a beating and so Cheiko brings him to the hospital so that he can get the medical attention that he needs. It’s here that Cheiko meets a cute nurse named Yumi who tells him that two different local gangs, the Igas and the Nishis, have been at war for some time now with no end to the violence in sight. 

At this point, Cheiko decides he can capitalize on the gang war by playing them off of one another. Along the way he hangs out with a lone samurai dude, makes friends with a little boy, and beats the living crap out of a bunch of guys who won’t take their sunglasses off. 

From regular Chiba collaborator Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (he directed Sonny in Karate For Life, Karate Bullfighter, Karate Bearfighter, Wolfguy: Enrage and Sister Street Fighter), this fast paced and exceptionally violent remake of Yojimbo (or, if you prefer, A Fistful Of Dollars) has got style to spare even if the story really only exists as an excuse to string together a bunch of sleazy set pieces and hard hitting fight scenes. The film puts Cheiko in a paternal role towards the end and allows us to like him by showing us how he helps people out from time to time but the fact of the matter is that he’s more or less out for himself and that he’s willing to kick people in the face or break their bones if he needs to in order to get what he wants. He’s also not above sleeping with a woman who has just been seriously beaten. That’s just the kind of guy that Cheiko is, and that’s what makes Sonny Chiba perfect for the part – he’ll kick your ass, bang your girl, then steal your smokes and there’s nothing you can do about it. 

Extras are limited to trailers for The Bodyguard (VIVA! CHIBA!), Legend Of The Eight Samurai, Nine Deaths Of The Ninja, and Sister Street Fighter as well as feature presentation and intermission bumpers.

While neither film looks or sounds perfect, they are at least anamorphic widescreen and they both make for completely enjoyable karate-kraziness! Chiba's got screen presence and style to spare in both pictures and they're nothing if not fun entertainment. Given the low retail price and high entertainment value, Chiba fans will want to give this set a chance.

Sonny Chiba, Etsuko Shiomi, Yasuaki Kurata, Jiro Chiba/Sonny Chiba, Akane Kawasaki, Akiko Koyama, Hideo Murota