Director: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi
Year: 1974
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: Onna hissatsu ken: Kiki ippatsu
Genre: Kung-Fu
Plot:
After a detective is killed, a detective is assigned to look into the case involving a diamond smuggler who lives in Japan. After arriving in Yokohama and meeting her sister, she immediately finds herself in the bosses' crosshairs as he carries out a scheme involving the smuggling of diamonds from Hong Kong to Japan inside the bodies of prostitutes and then being removed, of which her friend is included in. Forced to fight an endless stream of fighters and henchmen aiming to stop her, an enigmatic fighter arrives on the scene but unknowing if she can trust him or not as Koryu continues taking on the thugs to stop their crazed scheme.
Review:
Much like the original, this one really shines with it's action content. The story favors a nearly relentless pace that exists solely to engage in fight scenes that are designed to show off her martial arts prowess. The initial alley encounter that gets her onto the case, the hijacked car-ride that turns into a brawl in a trainyard with ninjas that escalates onto the train as it pulls out of the station and a rooftop encounter with an opponent all give this one strong, thrilling fights. Even later scenes and encounters, including the brawl at the racetrack or a battle with the henchmen in their nightclub hangout offer up some hard-hitting and enjoyable martial arts battles. As well, the villains aren't exempt from displaying their fighting skills as well with several demonstrations of their unique skills involving various weaponry and forms of martial arts. That several unique formats are employed in the fights and training montages to give this one a lot to like in the action department.
Also as impressive here is the dynamic exploitation elements. Much like before, the continuous funk-driven soundtrack drives the action with plenty of groovy licks, enhancing the stylized fighting choreography and frenetic hand-held camera-work. As well, the fact that the wounds or direct hits on people result in massive arterial sprays or oozing blood puddles from their mouths allows for the rather graphic kills featured. With victims being stabbed in the stomach, getting their throats ripped out, impaled through the throat by spears or using knives to rip eyes out, on the surface there's some far more graphic and brutal gore to be featured as well as the strong body beatdowns. Also quite enjoyable in this exploitation context is the main plot involving the diamonds being smuggled into the country by being surgically implanted into the buttocks of various prostitutes which then requires the objects to be shown removed from their nude bodies at their headquarters without the use of anesthesia during the surgery in a rather fine, cruel twist. Overall, these are more than enough to really like the film.
There are a few more issues in this one than in the original. The first problem is the issue of the crazed scheme at the forefront of the film. There's never really anything given here as to why the diamonds need to be smuggled in this manner, and the process of doing so causes this one plenty of issues. The fact that they're just simply thrown into a hole carved into the buttocks and not sealed inside a container or other form of protection for safe-keeping during the travel is excessively risky. The risk of injury not only to the transport vessel that would require intervention to check on is excessively high, and the manner of just stashing them inside and leaving it runs the further of being dislodged or relocated before removal. These issues are just brought up at the mere suggestion of how they
As well, the rushed nature of the film also stands out in the acting. Etsuko Shihomi as Li Koryu is pretty much the same as before, single-mindedly kicking her way through the endless rounds of thugs without much going for her as she doesn't have the opportunity for the range she portrayed in the first one. An attack on her sister doesn't get resolved until the end which is what sets up her steely determination so it doesn't really play into the film as much as the first entry. As well, Yasuaki Kurata as Shunsuke Tsubaki is a poor substitute for Sonny Chiba, who handles the wardrobe right with his leather jacket and shades but doesn't really have the charisma of Chiba with his flip-flopping character that can't really be trusted until we get the full revelation at the end. Likewise, the fighting is suspect with his continuous resorting to rabbit-punches showcases the fact that he doesn't make contact once with his opponent even though the rest of his moveset isn't bad, yet just doesn't have that charisma. Hideo Murota as Kazushige Osone is the best performer here with his crazed wide-eyed drug smuggler, but it's a familiar formula here in that he doesn't match the crazed performance or eccentricities of the first film.
Overview: ***1/2/5
While on the surface providing pretty much exactly what's needed in terms of fine martial arts battles and a simplistic story to set that up, this one comes off as a lower version of the original in most regards. As it's still worthwhile and watchable, give this a chance if you're a fan of the first one or a general film of these kinds of films from that era, while viewers who aren't into martial arts efforts or weren't fans of the original should heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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