High Kick Girl [DVD] [2009] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

High Kick Girl

Starring: Rina Takeda ,Tatsuya Naka

Directed By: Fuyuhiko Nishi - 2009

This is one of those films i have been waiting to see for a while ,but the Japanese import was like £60.00 to buy ,so i waited till a US RELEASE of the film before investing a lot less.

Now as with all films that you wait for in anticipation ,we are often let down more then Not.But i can rightly say that 'High Kick Girl' was worth it.

Rina Takeda a real life Karate champion stars in this film as Kei a high school student and Karate Student under Yoshiaki Matsumura .Now Kei is a Brown Belt and longs for her Black Belt.She does not understand why her Sensei will not grade her ,so she goes around challenging the Black Belts at local schools and beating them .

Her Teacher Yoshiaki trys to explain it's not about fighting and beating people but spirit and patiance .He makes her practice forms as her base but Kei see's it like a punishment,not fully understanding the essence of Karate.

Still purturbed she still wants to prove herself to her Sensei.Now mysteriously Kei gets a phone call from a man asking her to come and join The Destroyers ,who are a group of Martial artists who for a price will do your dirty work or any other criminal activity.

Thinking this is her chance to prove herself she goes along ,only to be met by more young girls who confront and fight her ( it's so much fun watching these young school girls beat the stuffing out of each other )

Thing is it's all a ploy to kidnap Kei and get her Sensei to rescue her .The Destroyers want to kill him and getting to Kei they have their chance.

When Yoshiaki hears what has happened he acts on impulse going to the rescue of Kei .

Now this is the guy from the film 'Black Belt or Kuro Obi' his name in real life is Tatsuya Naka and he is one of the guys behind Japans Karate Association.

Even though the film starts off with Kei being the star ,in the end when her Sensei has to rescue her .It's Yoshiaki that gets all the glories.Having already confronted a Destroyer at a riverside ,the two battle within the river amongst the rapids and what a brilliant and hard hitting fight it is ,with each blow landing it's target with a resounding force.

From here on Yoshiaki must go to the Destroyers hide out and confront the gang head on ,all members and the Big Boss are from Yoshiaki's past and they want revenge.It's Now Yoshiaki must infiltrate the building and come face to face with the Destroyers all at once .

After going down the route of asking for his Student's release and this failing ,he has to fight the Destroyers head on and what a battle it is.The only weird thing is our once powerful heroine Kei is reduced to a hopeless young kid who does barely any combat to help her Sensei ,and apart from a couple of Blows it is left to Yoshiaki to entertain us.

In the end Yoshiaki is triumphant and Rescues Kei.Back in the Dojo Kei is humbled by her Sensei who fought for her life ,even more so when she realized when fighting in combat how the motions of the forms transformed in to the fighting art that devastated the Destroyers.Starting afresh from White Belt she must go through her belts again to gain her Black Belt ,but for the right reason and not to fight.

What i must say is Do Not listen or take heed of other reviews that hen pick at the film for having to many slow mo scenes and repeat views of combative scenes .These are here to show you the technique and the power ,and it does it to perfection.

Though short at 80 minutes ,the film is a Blast to view and if you liked Kuro Obi you will love this .Rina Takeda is brilliant as the arrogant little girl who kicks Butt and each of the blows are so hard hitting that they hurt to watch.

But then Don't take my word for it 'Check out the Outtakes at the end

Dated : 27-08-2010 The Snake

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If you're looking to see a good martial-arts fight film I recommend you look elsewhere right now. I saw the trailers for high kick girl a long time ago and was really impressed by real life karate expert Rina Tekeda. However what they don't show you is that virtually the whole films martial-arts sequences are set in slow motion. And if you happened to miss that intensely frustratingly slow sequence all too often they showed it again in a double take.

Slow-motion shots and double-takes are fine when used in moderation, especially after watching a jaw-droppingly awesome move you can't believe you just saw. But what you have here in high kick girl is just ridiculous. You lose the flow of all the fights sequences, the impact and how impressive some of the practitioners performing in this movie actually are.

It's actually sad seeing some of the out-takes at the correct speed and it looks so much better. The simple fact is that if this film showed all the fights sequences in real time instead of dragging out virtually every martial-arts scene. High kick girl would probably be 45 minutes long and all the better for it. Yes that's how much they dragged out the fight sequences to make the film in the region of 80 minutes, if I recall correctly.

All in all there are tons of better movies out there and as great as Rina Tekeda looks, this film has been ruined in post production. I recommend looking elsewhere and buying something much more entertaining from Amazon.

However if this film is ever released with all the fight scenes intact played at the proper speed that would be worth seeing!

What a suprise,i thought this was going to be a bad buy but its very well done for a low budget japanese film.This isnt a fake fighting/school girl showing her nickers type of film,for starters the leading lady or should i say girl is very good at Karate.In the extras you can see her training and her kicks are both powerfull and fast.All the fights are well filmed and with full contact.The first fight in which Rina takes on a Karate school is fantastic,you will have a smile on your face when you see her kick butt with real power,speed and skill,very much like Hong Kong films of the 90s and Thai films of recent years like Chocolate. This dvd is region 1 so its lucky i have a multi region player.