So rushed was the production that its cast and crew, most repeating from the first picture, all but remake the very film they finished only weeks before. This time Koryu heads to Yokohama in search of a woman named Birei, kidnapped by diamond smugglers who move their hot rocks by surgically implanting them into the nubile buttocks of Chinese prostitutes (!). Koryu's older sister, Bykakuran (Tamayo Mitsukawa), working as a jewelry designer, is secretly if unhappily involved with the gangsters. This and the sequel to follow, The Return of the Sister Street Fighter rigidly follow the established formula. The action begins in Hong Kong, she heads for Yokohama but before she can even say "Taxi!" is attacked by an army of two-bit hoods, a sibling or close friend inevitably is by blackmail or drug addiction forced to collaborate with the villains (Koryu rivals Death Wish's Paul Kersey in this regard; nearly every living relative meets a violent end); and the bad guys demonstrate their might to the strains of classical music, in this case Night on Bald Mountain. Needless to say, this is not a series best enjoyed in rapid succession. This time the main villain is Kazunari Osone (Hideo Murata, in inadequate old-age makeup) and his Three Honiden Bros. More interesting, however, are the supporting villains, which include Al Capone-like Kuroki (Koji Fujiyama, late of Daiei's Gamera series), sultry Madam Mayumi (Madame Joy, a transsexual in the Black Lizard tradition) and her assistant (Shohei Yamamoto) who walks around with a giant Macaw on his shoulder. Significantly, all the villains in all the Sister Street Fighter movies have dark circles under their eyes, as if their villainy is keeping them up nights. The weakest of the four films, Hanging by a Thread all too clearly exhibits signs of having been rushed through production. The screenplay is practically non-existent: there's no character development or story, just broad villains for Koryu to pound into the dirt and virtually non-stop action. Still, series director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi keeps things lively with little flourishes, like his subliminal removal of select frames when a villain rushes the camera and shocks the audience with his sudden burst of speed, or this film's abstract bit where Koryu approaches a red, typhoon-like swirling sky as autumn leaves rustle about her, recalling the best Female Convict Scorpion movies. - DVDTalk
