I’m a huge fan of the Wizard Video releases from the 1980’s. This is one of the releases that I do not have in my collection. It is also a great piece of VHS nostalgia. Sister Streetfighter (1974) was released by Wizard in the “book box” format. This is a format that didn’t last very long in the VHS hey day. MGM made good use of the design for many of their early VHS releases. Wizard only released two other titles in this format, Parasite 3D and Bad Georgia Road. On the inside flap is a still shot of the movie and a caption. You can see why this didn’t fair well in the rental store market. I’m sure many of these didn’t survive because the flaps were torn and beat to oblivion due to mishandling by patrons.
As a casual fan of martial arts films, I possibly would have walked right past this one but if I was in the mood for some kung fu, I’m pretty sure I would have given it a rent. I remember seeing some of Sonny Chiba’s films on the old Black Belt Theater that used to air on WTVZ Channel 33 back in the mid 1980’s.
What I like most about this release is the amount of butt kicking that is going on here. Chiba looks to be “one up’d” by Shiomi. He’s only taken out two bad guys while she has laid out three! Apparently a “one man army” is no match for a “one woman death squad”. I also like the use of the phrase “got’m”. I’m guessing the illustrator felt that if he put the letter e in there, the m and exclamation point would have gotten lost in the poor fella receiving a face full of female foot? Hmmm….maybe the illustrator had a foot fetish and was just distracted.
Seeing this box on the shelf would have granted a rental. Heck it grants checking out the trailer on youtube! Enjoy!
A shout out goes out to the facebook group Horror VHS Collectors Unite! and the fellow collector who let me use the picture of his incredibly rare Wizard Video release of Sister Streetfighter.
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