Hai kikku gâru!

This is a very low budget film that is flawed in many ways; however has some redeeming properties. For the non-martial arts practitioner this may not be enjoyable. For a martial artists, or martial arts fan there is actually some very good karate techniques and fight scenes in this movie. It also has some great looks at Karate training and Kata/Forms training. The story is original and the actors do an adequate job considering the budget and scale of the film. The biggest defect is the lack of engagement of the well executed techniques in most of the fight scenes. There are numbers of scenes which are direct trade-offs and copies of Tarantino's Phenomenally exciting "Kill Bill 1&2". I do respect the film makers' attempts here and I respect the martial artist more. I wouldn't go out our my way to recommend this one but I would catch it if I was looking for something off the beaten path.

No pun intended - I like low budget movies. So you may not be on board with my score or my general view of the low budget movie at hand here. You may not like the fighting and stunt work it presents. I do think it has hits and misses (yes more puns - or is it puns-es? As in punches - get it?).

There seem to be quite a few moments where people wait to be beaten up - but suspend your disbelief and go with the flow and you may actually have some fun with this. And not just at the end/during the end credits and some outtakes (in the vain of Jackie Chans movies), but throughout the movie. This is not the best martial arts movie - it does not claim to be. But if you have a heart for them - give it a go.

Usually I start reviews with a plot summary, but it is not necessary. The title says it all. It's Japanese, but don't worry about having to keep up with the subtitles. None of the dialogue is worth reading. All of this movie is, is lousy fight scenes and training in between.

Now I could write about the acting, the directing or the production design etc. but I'm not, they are all lousy. Instead I'm going to write about the fighting, because when it comes to a movie like this, that is what is important. The fights are mildly entertaining. They are obviously fake. Very few of the attacks look painful. In a few shots it visible that the punch or kick doesn't make contact, yet the actor still acts like he is in intense pain. All of the fights are rather one sided and feature basic fighting moves. There is nothing amazing in this movie. No dangerous stunts or amazing attacks. Sure there are high kicks, but they are all replayed and disrupt the flow of the scenes.

Now I would like to touch on the camera work. I usual don't notice the camera work in movies, but it was terrible. There are jump cuts, shakiness and odd angle that make the fight scenes even more unpleasing. There also long pause to create drama, but only create yawns.

There is one good thing I can say and that is that the movie is inspirational for teenage girls interested in karate. The main character is someone that girls can relate to. She is also a good role model. At the beginning of the movie she is disobedient. Then over the course of the movie she learns to respect her teacher. It does teach some morals for teenage girls. It also show the amount of discipline need to learn karate.

Over all I give the movie a four out of ten and that is generous.

Tsuchiya is a karate student that gets entangled with some bad people in "High-Kick Girl!". Cue lots of kicks followed by lots of kicks. Afterwards... more kicks.

The story is non-existent. Tsuchiya likes to pick up fights with random karate students till she gets in problems with a group whose leader has some history with her teacher. All of this is just an excuse to throw one fight after another in front of the viewer.

So far, so good. Martial arts movies can be lots of fun with a flimsy plot as this one ("Ong-Bak", I am looking at you). The acting is wooden (especially one-expression Tatsuya Naka, but we are not here to see characters have feelings but kick and punch). But "High- Kick Girl!" also fails in the aspect a martial arts movie should shine: the fights. Yes, we have lots of fights and fighters of all sizes and colors. Sadly, the direction is really really poor and the set pieces totally wasted. On top of that, our friend Fuyuhiko Nishi, the director, has a penchant for slow motion fights where he shows us not once, not twice, but three times the same kick or punch, till our eyes starts rolling. Because it is a constant, not once or twice to highlight a specific move.

Too bad, because Rina Takeda's Tsuchiya is fun to be with.

First off the movie "Chocolate" absolutely demolishes this movie in the amount of action and REAL martial arts skills displayed. As soon as I saw the length of the previous review, (overly long and just too-detailed)and the fact that the review disses an obviously superior film like Chocolate. I suspected that the review was planted...Oops I meant biased as is most times the case.

High Kick Girl is another in the long line of overall slightly disappointing girl karate movies, all with great promise, all ending in mediocre results.

Part of the issue is that JeeJa Yanin star of Chocolate is a real martial artist of amazing skill, and when it comes down to it, lesser skilled "actresses" just cannot cut the mustard when the action starts, even if fast camera edits/cuts attempt to simulate a fast paced frenzy. Sorry but this is no substitute for REAL talent, although I am sure there will be plenty more pretty Japanese school girls to see fighting in the future, (if poorly).

As for High Kick Girl itself...do you like slow motion? you better because every scene with some martial arts kick is repeated over and over again, there are also scenes that have little to do with the plot added as well as other scenes where the action just stops. you'd think the DVD has a glitch in it. I think the director realized there just isn't much plot and tried to stretch the film out to a still short 85 minutes. High Kick Girl not terrible, but a poor choice.