This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

the audience applauded

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Regardless of whether or not you love this genre, purely from a technical standpoint, I cannot understand those people who gave this movie ratings of 9 or 10. What were they thinking?! There are many "guilty pleasure" films I love to watch and are fun, but I could never score them that highly because of these technical problems. Oh, well.If you are a die-hard lover of kung-fu films, then all the problems I mention about this film are pretty irrelevant--you will like the film. It's got all the action you are looking for and all the usual clichés you love and expect. However, for the average viewer, this is a very problematic movie to watch. The biggest problem is the horrendous quality of the DVD. I found it as part of a 9 movie set entitled "Samurai Collection" by St. Clair Video. ALL the movies in the set were grainy and washed-out and most appeared to come from old 1980 era videotapes that had degraded significantly. Of the ones I have so far watched from the set, this is by far the worst quality. It really looks as if someone sat in the theater with a video camera and recorded the film and then they put it in the set. This actually could be the case and since it appears to be a public domain video, there's nothing that can be done about this. In addition, almost none of the movies had anything to due with the samurai (i.e., a Japanese knight) but were kung-fu movies (or some other martial art film).The beginning of the film is pretty cool, as an evil guy who wants to be named the sensei of a dojo decides to kill his rival to guarantee he gets the job. He enlists the help of some amazing karate experts to kick the innocent man's butt. This is a tad gross, though, so be prepared--you get some pretty amazing eye gouging out scenes so beware!! Oddly, at the end of the fight, instead of killing the man, they let him leave to live in America with his young daughter. There, he trains his daughter as a killing machine so she can return to Japan and seek revenge (duh--you NEVER let them or their kids escape--what was this villain thinking?!). Oddly, although the subtitles say they were living in New York, later they refer to it as Los Angeles.Once the father dies, the daughter returns and seeks justice. It's interesting to see a lady karate expert but it's also weird to see the film is named after Sonny Chiba in the Western release of the movie. He was a major player in the second half of the film, but I really think they were just trying to capitalize on his name--the movie really does star the young female karate master. Originally, there MIGHT have been more scenes with Chiba, but on the DVD, many of the earlier scenes appear to have been edited out with a Ginsu knife! Although the killing machine lady's back story is clear, Chiba's is a choppy mess! Much of the ineptness of this film may not be the fault of the Japanese crew that made the film but the stupid Westerners who dubbed and edited the film. It's really bad and I wish Chiba would kick their butts for doing this!The end of the film is about what you'd expect--with all the usual clichés and intense sound effects. The problem for me was that the movie wasn't particularly good. If it were campier (like MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE) I would have loved it more. Or, if the action had been better (like most Jackie Chan films), I would have enjoyed myself. Instead, there were few surprises and nothing to distinguish this dull film within the genre. My advice is see one of the films I just mentioned or a Bruce Lee film--they are simply better.

To sum this movie up as briefly as possible (it does not need elaboration)... karate master (Sonny Chiba) is crippled by evil assailants, then trains daughter (Sue Shiomi) in the art of karate, mindless vengeance and coldhearted blood-letting. (I don't know, I would have encouraged her into dentistry or some other respectable profession, but that's just me) There are some good choreographed moves, and Shiomi, like Chiba, displays a penchant for not only kicking an opponent's ass but making a point of crushing her opponent's bones and internal organs afterwards.In a lot of the fights though, the techniques are obscured by bad and changing camera angles.Overall, not that great. You are only going to want to see this if you are a Sonny Chiba fan.

1st watched 9/15/2002 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Yataka Kodaira): Ok karate flick with long-winded final fight scene and shaky camera-work throughout. The camera-work that is done lessons the karate action because it's hard to tell what actual moves are being done and their impact on the intended victim. The plot has been used before(vengeance asked for by the father on his death bed) in films of this genre and there is a fitting ended for those who care enough to stay until the end. If you make it till then, you're a better man than most of us or your interest in the karate action genre is what keeps you close. What you can see of the karate scenes is well-choreographed and this is the reason that I gave this movie a higher rating than what I had originally expected it would receive.

Etsuko "Sue" Shiomi stars as the daughter of a karate master who trains her to be his instrument of revenge against those who permanently crippled him. From the time that she's about eight, her father mercilessly trains her in karate, night and day, excluding school and even friends from the young girl's life. She grows into a reluctant warrior with no life at all outside of her training.Unlike a lot of films that have the same basic plot, DRAGON PRINCESS has at its heart a real sadness for the waste of this poor girl's life. Even if she succeeds at her mission, what then? All she knows is vengeance. The print and film-making quality is not great, but give it a chance for it's unique viewpoint.