‘High-Kick Girl’ opens in Japan

BLACK BELT planner and SHAOLIN GIRL producer Fuyuhiko Nishi makes his directing debut with karate actioner HIGH-KICK GIRL starring newcomer Rina Takeda and Tatsuya Naka (BLACK BELT). The film, which continues the latest trend of reintroducing real karate action to Japanese cinema despite the short-skirted schoolgirl motif, opened to theaters May 30th in Japan.

Takeda portrays a 17-year-old karate student refused her black belt by her sensei (Naka) in spite of her ability to best her male counterparts because she hasn’t mastered her basic kata. Angered, she quits and joins a rebel group of street fighters who decide to target her sensei. Using karate fundamentals, her sensei proceeds to wipe the floor with these ruffians, ultimately showing his wayward student the value of a solid karate foundation.

“Japan Times” film critic Mark Schilling gives HIGH-KICK GIRL only 2.5 out of 5 stars but for reasons that should make martial arts purists want to see this movie all the more. In his online review he states that the film lacks the showiness of Sonny Chiba’s karate films and the panty-flashing camp action one might expect from a Japanese action movie about a high-kicking female fighter in a schoolgirl uniform. Instead, Schilling suggests that it delivers the same hardcore and realistic karate action that BLACK BELT did. Sounds good to me.

U.S. residents looking to get a taste of what HIGH-KICK GIRL has to offer can check out BLACK BELT on DVD, released late last year by Media Blasters. You can also see some of the moves on display in the following promo video.