Hai kikku gâru!

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.

I must admit I really enjoyed watching the movie.

I really like the fight sequences done in the film. Without knowing anything but what I see, it feels like a group of people who knew Karate got together and made a cheap karate film. I can't help but to find that cool. If I knew Karate, and knew a butch of other people that knew Karate, I would get my camera and do the same thing.

It was the good type of cheesy. Sure, these guys need to learn how to do some fight choreography to make the fights more fluid, and to make the blows more realistic (A good sound guy could have help with that as well), but when it comes to Marshal arts films, I got to give these guys and A for effort. It was pure enjoyment.

The story was so weak it does not need to be mentioned and I did not get the need to repeat fight scenes in slow motion, which showed us how accurate the technique is, but show us how fake the contact was, but overall it was cool that things like this get made.

My quick rating - 3,6/10. I honestly have no idea if this was an infomercial for a local Karate studio or a home movie. The way the movie focuses on the young girl who is the star is so obsessive it has to be the daughter of someone. But the annoying camera work that consists of more replays of moves than even the WWE packs into their programming makes you wonder what the point really is. And this isn't just a replay from earlier in the flick, this is the exact same move or moves shown a frame or two earlier throughout the WHOLE movie. I have to say that if all the replays were left out, instead of 85 minutes, the flick would've clocked in around 70 minutes. I would go into the plot, but there wasn't one. Basically high school girl kicks butt. Yep, that is it. Back to the infomercial possibility, I suppose this movie could be recruiting for someone and spreading the message of how disciplined martial arts are and great for kids (which is true, btw) but this film does a poor job conveying it. With all the great martial arts flicks out there this is a definite pass up on film.

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.

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.