Karate badass and newly crowned champion race-car driver Shinobu Yashiro (Etsuko Shiomi) works with the Japanese Secret Service to bust up an international drug ring. To that end Shinobu is asked to spring valuable informant Henry Nakatani (Shohei Yamamoto) from captivity. It is a task she does reluctantly since he is the man responsible for framing her father who was subsequently murdered in prison. However, Nakatani reveals the drug kingpin that made him do it is respectable politician-turned-secret scumbag Takeo Inomata (Bin Amatsu). As an unparalleled master of many disguises, Shinobu infiltrates the drug ring and sets out to take them down hard. Along the way Shinobu is delighted to be reunited with childhood friend-turned-glamorpuss Yukiko (Hisako Tanaka) without knowing the latter is now Inomata's girlfriend.
Etsuko Shiomi was the idol of millions of Japanese girls throughout the Seventies and Eighties. Trained by the legendary Sonny Chiba she was a karate expert and acrobat famed for performing her own death-defying stunts. Leaps from tall buildings were her specialty. Sadly, since retiring in 1987 Shiomi remains a one-off. Would-be successors like Yukari Oshima and Michiko Nishiwaki had to go to Hong Kong to find success and even then never achieved Shiomi's level of stardom in Japan. To date she remains Japan's only female action star. While not as well known in cult circles as Shiomi's other vehicles Sister Streetfighter (1976) and Dragon Princess (1981), The Great Chase ranks among her most entertaining.
Not coincidentally, it is also among her wackier outings. There is an emphasis on Shinobu's flair for flamboyant disguises as she adopts multiple alter-egos: a femme fatale in a glamorous glittery dress, a moustached dandy in a sharp black suit, an old lady with a warty nose who insists her late husband looked like Gary Cooper (!), and a hideous witch straight out Hansel and Gretel that amusingly, if quite understandably, scares the bejeezus out of the assembled macho gangsters with her cackling laugh. Fast-paced with manic comic book energy and an anything goes atmosphere, Great Chase comes across like Toei studios' belated effort to capitalize on the "Jane Bond" craze that swept Asia in the Sixties (e.g. films like Angel with Iron Fists (1966), Temptress of a Thousand Faces (1969) and Operation Lipstick (1968)). However its slapstick humour sits alongside a sobering penchant for sadism (Shinobu is suspended from chains and whipped, multiple supporting characters are tortured to death) along with moments of wild surrealism. It is a mix that is actually characteristic of the output of director Norifumi Suzuki. In Japan Suzuki is largely celebrated as Toei's resident comedy specialist on the strength of his hugely popular Truck Guy franchise and run of teen comedies throughout the Eighties. However his anarchic, irreverent sensibilities extended to a run of 'Pinky Violence' classics (e.g. Sukeban: Girl Boss Guerrilla (1972), Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom! (1973)) and horror films that cross the line into bad taste. School of the Holy Beast (1974) remains a deranged classic while Star of David: Beauty Hunting (1979) is a rough ride indeed). Conversely Suzuki's films have been praised for their exquisite shot composition and cinematography. He made the best looking exploitation films in the world.
Here in The Great Chase Suzuki combines lighting tricks, staccato editing, slow-motion and Dutch angles to create a fever dream action flick, enhanced by one seriously funky soundtrack. True to form his film seesaws from sadism to surrealism to silliness with scenes featuring a cameo from real-life lady pro-wrestler Mach Fumiake (who performs a soulful ballad before grappling an opponent at a yakuza-run nightclub then teams up with Etsuko), the return of School of the Holy Beast's anti-Catholic satire as Etsuko squares off against a cadre of evil, drug-smuggling nuns (including yakuza in drag and a whip wielding mother superior (played by Caucasian actress Jill Bryson, so you know she’s evil!) and non-stop karate battles against various super-skilled henchmen. Somehow all these disparate elements coalesce quite nicely via a surprisingly compelling plot. Through it all Etsuko Shiomi remains a dynamic, charismatic presence (and unusually among martial arts stars: an emotive actor): dangling from a cable car in mid-air, twirling a cute pair of red nunchakus and kicking the crap out of everyone while sporting some chic but practical Seventies action girl outfits.
