“Trash-Action Classic” Lady Street Fighter Is Coming to Blu-ray

Classic martial arts film: Sonny Chiba’s 1974 The Street Fighter. Classic videogame: Street Fighter 2. Not-so-classic martial arts film: 1981’s Lady Street Fighter, a film completely unrelated to Chiba’s series, including its similarly titled sequel Sister Street Fighter. Still, although the stuntwork and choreography of Lady Street Fighter are not what one might call “inspired,” that doesn’t mean the film doesn’t have value. Rather, Lady Street Fighter is a mouth-dropping example of WTF exploitation cinema, and one that is now headed to Blu-ray with a brand new 2K transfer, thanks to Alamo Drafthouse and its American Genre Film Archive. The organization, which is dedicated to preserving lost and forgotten genre films before their film canisters degrade completely, was also behind the preservation and digital transfer of 1975’s The Astrologer, a film we recently called the greatest cult classic you might never get to see. They describe Lady Street Fighter thusly:

She makes the bad guys bleed! Written and produced by exploitation demigod Renee Harmon (FROZEN SCREAM) and directed by the legendary James Bryan (DON’T GO IN THE WOODS), this is the story of Linda (Harmon), a tough-as-nails karate cop on the trail of the ruthless scumbags who murdered her twin sister!

From the outrageous fight scenes to Harmon’s incredible outfits, LADY STREET FIGHTER is a joyous blast of no-holds-barred chaos from one of the most important female filmmakers in genre history. Don’t miss the special appearance by Trace Carradine, the most elusive Carradine brother of all!