High-Kick Girl
Year: 2009
Director: Fuyuhiko Nishi
Rating: 5/10
Rina Takeda, who is the star of the 2011 Karate Girl, made her debut in this
film. This is very close to what I expected Karate Girl to be - kind of cheesy,
it has that tacky low budget look, the action choreography is generally pretty
awful, often in slo-mo (when it should have been sped up) and if there is
a good move, we get to see it again as it replays hits throughout. Still
it is martial arts without wires utilizing "actors" with knowledge of karate.
To some degree looking at both films - because they are clearly connected
in spirit (and actors) if not in plot - they are almost karate enlistment
films as they teach moves and its philosophy - karate is for protection,
not attack.
Rina doesn't quite get that last bit yet. She is a student to her sensei
Matsumura, played by Tatsuya Naka, who plays her father in Karate Girl and
in the real world is a karate expert who has won tournaments. Rina enjoys
going around to different dojo's in her short school skirt (maybe the same
one as in Karate Girl) and challenging the entire dojo in order to get their
black belt. Her nickname is The Girl who Hunts Black Belts. She does pretty
well - though most of her opponents are hacks - until she comes up against
the real deal. The Destroyers - the villains in this piece - want revenge
against Matsumura and so kidnap Rina and invite him to save her. In a gym's
basketball court.
The last 30 minutes of the film is him kicking heads, breaking arms and punching
guts (our Rina is literally put on the sideline which sort of defeats the
purpose of why most of us came) - he is clearly good but much of it is sloppily
shot. It would be nice to have had a HK action choreographer over to do this
but they probably could not afford the plane fare. As he wades through the
bad guys, Rina just says in amazement "he is using the practice forms he
taught" to do this. Lots of bad women in this one getting in on the act -
one gang of Grade B martial artists fight Rina and then a few good ones -
one in particular who somersaulted through the air to crush people - are
impressive.
