K.G.

Karate Girl is certainly better than the numerous overrated karate movies starring American or Chinese actresses and actors that have flooded the market throughout the past few decades. The story revolves around a young woman working at a cinema who has a troublesome past. Her father was assassinated and her little sister kidnapped by a group of thugs. The young woman secretly survived, changed her identity and got adopted by another family. When she is filmed fighting two thieves at the cinema and the clip goes viral, the thugs however realize that she is still alive and want to annihilate her.

This movie convinces on several levels. The atmospheric opening scene and multiple flashbacks are quite atmospheric, emotional and violent. The film's locations vary fluidly between beautiful settings and gloomy spaces. This tale of revenge doesn't offer any surprising twists but should appeal to fans of classic martial arts movies from the seventies and eighties in particular.

However, this release certainly isn't without its flaws. The acting performances are at times wooden, repetitive and predictable. The fight scenes lack authentic choreography and look at times unintentionally funny. The film suffers from rather slow pace and repetition and would have been much more efficient if it had been shortened by fifteen to twenty minutes.

At the end of the day, this film is only interesting for fans of female martial arts films and might especially appeal to teenagers. More seasoned genre fans however simply can't overlook the film's numerous significant flaws. Karate Girl is overall passable for some relaxed entertainment on a lazy afternoon but fails to leave a significant mark. Ironically, the footage from behind the scenes during the credits and the music video coming along with the film show better quality than the movie itself.

To start things off in "Karate Girl" (2011), there's a murder and a kidnapping. Tatsuya Kurenai (Tatsuya Naka) is a descendant of the legendary Sojiro Kurenai, an Okinawan Karate master of almost mythical stature/status who was also the founder of the Kurenai-style of Karate - which is so deadly it can easily kill a person with only a single blow. Tatsuya has trained his two daughters Ayaka and Natsuki in this style. At the beginning of the film, Tatsuya is murdered by henchmen belonging to Shu Tagawa (Keisuke Horibe), a vile gangster who wants Sojiro Kurenai's black belt for himself. He not only succeeds in killing Tatsuya, but he also succeeds in slaying eldest daughter Ayaka and kidnapping younger daughter Natsuki.

We later learn, 10 years down the road, that Ayaka (now played by Rina Takeda, star of the similarly-themed 2009 kick-'em-up "High-Kick Girl!"), now 18, not only survived Tagawa's attempted assassination, but is now a Karate master in her own right and is now the only known living Kurenai descendant around. She has been adopted by another family, and is forced to use her deadly skills to stop a pair of purse snatchers at the movie theater where she works part-time. As expected, the footage of her drubbing the thugs is caught on camera and soon goes viral on the Internet.

The news of this catches Tagawa's attention and he soon sends his Karate-trained thugs to deal with her and finally retrieve the coveted Sojiro Kurenai black belt once and for all. Let the martial arts fighting sequences begin!

One thing that really caught my attention about this movie was the amount of detail paid to the underlying philosophy of Karate as simply more than a form of self-defense. Much attention is focused on how Karate practitioners are trained never to strike first, only to react to a threat accordingly – because, as we are later told in the movie, a well-trained Karate expert could very easily kill a person with a single well-aimed punch or kick. It is also clearly explained how Karate could also be used for protection, whether it be a person or an object or an ideal. This is why I feel that this film's director, Yoshikatsu Kimura, made a better movie than "High-Kick Girl!," which I also enjoyed but was ultimately disappointed by its third act.

I did not feel that way with this movie, directed by Yoshimatsu Kimura. Many will complain about the slow pace, but I find that great care was taken in showing that although Karate is mostly about self-defense (OK, that is its primary purpose, overall), there is a lot more to it than simply fighting. I have not seen this much attention paid to the underlying philosophy of a martial art in the movies since, incredibly enough, the American-made martial arts film "The Karate Kid" (1984). I find that when a martial arts movie gives us something more than just fighting sequences and actually tries to show the audience more about the art itself (italicized), it makes the overall experience a lot more enjoyable.

And in terms of fighting, this movie has many. Rina Takeda is a young and highly skilled martial arts actress. It is clear that she is developing into a real dramatic performer, in addition to a young female a**-kicker. She is also an extraordinarily beautiful young woman. She performs many of her own stunts (which do appear to be based on real-life Karate forms), which is about the most authentic thing about her various choreographed action sequences. They are quite extraordinary and beautiful to watch. The action scenes are actually a lot more brutal, too, than they were in "High-Kick Girl!". The only problem is that it suffers from the same predilection (as in "High-Kick Girl!") for slow-motion replays of the fighting sequences, hurting the pace of the on-screen action. Thankfully, this is done only minimally here.

"Karate Girl," I feel, is a better movie than its predecessor "High-Kick Girl!" and is just as ambitious in showcasing both the dynamic fighting and underlying philosophies of Karate. I honestly hope that Rina Takeda is on her way to America soon!

8/10

With the compulsory dramatic intro scene you immediately get to know the villain of the movie and the younger versions of the Karate Girls. Come again two Karate girls. Yes,two of them. And both who actually know Karate. The story is very simple. Yet the director thought it necessary to explain what Karate should be about in almost every talking scene. Even in some of the action scenes there seems to be too much talking. The action scenes are adequate but do look very choreographed. Sometimes far too slow and too much breaks during fights. Since the pace of the movie is quite slow it only makes the movie even seem slower. It surely doesn't help that the movie takes itself far too seriously. Especially when the acting is real bad.It is a shame really that the director failed to put in some real excitement. The trailer for this movie looks promising. But like most trailers they put in the best scenes from the movie in there. So in this case you are better off watching the trailer.

When Rina is fighting, the movie is exciting. The rest is dull, talky and mostly wooden. I recommend fast-forward for everything between the sisters' action sequences, to avoid boredom that can dilute the impact of her artistry. Rina deserves better vehicles.

The quality of Japanese movies in this genre has always been so so at best, but it seems to be slipping downwards in recent years.

Story of this movie is pretty derivative. There's a family of outrageously potent karate masters who in the old age killed any opponent with one blow. The modern descendant of this clan gets attacked by another group of criminal martial artists. The father is killed, and two small daughters survive. About ten years later, the grown up daughter is found by the martial artist gang, and is being targeted again. It's revenge for the girl, and finishing the unfinished business for the bad guys.

The movie has pretty bad action scenes. There's not a hint of moves that shows that any of the characters are who they are supposed to be. The moves don't look real, and this is probably not the fault of the actors, but due to bad choreography. Also, they could have put little more attention to staging the each act. It's reminiscent of cheaply made adult videos in many areas.

The level of Japanese action movies are about where Hong Kong movies were in the early '70s. Compared to the action scenes of say like the "Ip Man 2" there's really no contest.

There are period action pieces coming out of Japan that still holds quality, but ones that are positioned in the modern era has been going down hill.

There are better made movies in martial arts genre, and you'd probably better served watching those.