Dragon Princess (1976)

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Dragon Princess is a 1976 Japanese martial arts flick from Toei and director Yutaka Kohira. Like The Killing Machine, it features a frequently sneering Sonny Chiba. Like Which is Stronger, Karate or Tiger? it is a revenge story that features Yasuaki Kurata kicking ass. Etsuko Shihomi, who had a small part as Chiba’s only female student in The Killing Machine, is promoted to (kind of) main character status this time around.

An American police department decides to train their cops in karate. The rivalry for the job is so intense, it leads to multiple maimings and murder! I can’t imagine the gig paid that much, so I guess it is about the pride and status of… who gets to train some honkies to highkick? Whatever the reason, it seemed pretty over the top to blind Isshin Higaki (Chiba) in one eye and cripple one of his arms. Witnessing all this was his young daughter Yumi, who after years of cruel training from Isshin grows up to be played by Etsuko Shihomi. Funnily enough, both The Killing Machine and Which is Stronger… had characters who had missing/crippled arms that were drinking themselves into oblivion until the hero beat the shit out of them and got them to start practicing martial arts again. This movie features Chiba with an immobile arm drinking himself into oblivion WHILE training his daughter in martial arts by beating the shit out of her.

After Ishin dies, Yumi travels to Japan to find the bastard who started this living large and expanding the influence and power of his martial arts school. He is holding an international tournament to gain clout. This is still the same duplicitous coward who brought a gang to fight Isshin in the opening, so of course he is playing dirty and trying to eliminate all the serious competitors from around the world before the tournament starts. New student Masahiko (Kurata) at the school has also been gaining a lot of attention and is the first to interact with Yumi, and has reasons of his own for trying to get close to the big bad. This sets up fight scene after fight scene.

This is an extremely straightforward and simple revenge movie, with none of the pacing or random flashback issues that troubled Which is Stronger… The plot is familiar and nothing particularly new or memorable is added in this iteration, but it serves as a solid structure to hang lots of action on. The plentiful fight scenes are far more clearly shot than in Which is Stronger…, and more extensive and choreographed than those in The Killing Machine. This is mostly solid meat-and-potatoes punch-and-kick ephemeral entertainment shot with some style an energy. Shihomi is kickass and cute in the ostensible lead role. It is a bit of a bummer that she has to share so much focus in the film, and her protagonist has almost no agency as she follows the plot that has been decided for her by her father. She has no friends, no family other than drunk daddy, and seemingly spent her entire youth enduring endless training/abuse. Then for a nice change of pace, ANOTHER old man tells her what to do, and the movie’s equivalent of grace is him telling Yumi, “well obviously you still have to do this whole revenge thing or it will haunt you forever, but maybe you could try NOT to die, and then start living an actual life afterwards?”

Obviously Chiba was a much bigger star and they wanted his name value, but he dominates the first act. Then once he’s gone, Kurata takes on a fairly significant supporting role. It does feel like the filmmakers were worried about a female lead’s ability to carry a film/draw an audience, which is a shame because Shihomi was definitely capable. It was cool getting to see some of Kurata’s moves in action when the camera and editing weren’t working against him (like they did in Which is Stronger…).

Overall, this is an enjoyable if forgettable flick for fight fans. I liked it more than Which is Stronger…, but I have to admit that movie’s crazy elements were more memorable. My wife preferred the crazy tiger fighting, as she thought Dragon Princess was a bit too self-serious and dark with Yumi’s life consisting of nothing but suffering and revenge. Dragon Princess delivers more as a fight flick than The Killing Machine, but lacks the historical setting and biopic subject that made that one so compelling. I can’t say Dragon Princess is essential viewing, and it isn’t going to convince the unconverted, but if you are deep enough into martial arts movies to go beyond the classics and big names then this is a pretty good time.

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