Hai kikku enjerusu

At one point in Hai Kikku Enjerusu one of the girls cries, "I am not Bruce Lee!" and next "I am not Jackie Chan!" It is easy to be indignant or sarcastic when hearing these words from the mouth of a 11th grade Japanese girl in school uniform. By then though, it would not be an exaggeration to say that what one assumes would be an artificially sweetened exercise in Japanese teen romp has actually begun to convince the viewer with its martial arts action.

Picture a Japanese high school and its film club. Half a dozen cute girls have their teacher's permission to use the unused facility for their one-camera action-fantasy featuring the heroine Dragon May. The teacher, who also plays something resembling a zombie, has other ideas, the students are getting in character and the director is looking too earnest when trouble befalls and a band of underworld thugs swarms in looking for cash that has been stashed on the premise. The confrontation that ensues should by all rights be cheesy and candy-coated - what with two dozen yankis with metal bars and batons against high school otakus - but gradually the action sequences in general, and the high kicks and punches in particular, begin to come across as convincing. How is that possible in a film with more pantie shots than three Sion Sono films put together? Someone once said, "talk about beauty and the beast, she's both." Kanon Miyohara (the heroine 'Sakura' - more recently in Sion Sono's high school girls' science fiction film, Tag) is a karate champion and has been practicing martial arts since the second grade. Japanese-American actress Mayu Kawamoto (Asuka) is a karate black belt with a championship trophy from a Russian competition to her name. Hyogo-born Kaede Aono (Maki), again, is a black belt and also a model in Japan. She started training in karate in the first grade and subsequently obtained her black belt at age 12. This explains why the action seems as realistic and pain inflicting as it does. Less successful is model and singer Nana Shirai's facial and presentation approximation of Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. There are several behind-the-scene clips as the end credits roll if anyone needs more convincing of the girls' martial arts.

The premise is hard to believe, but with Highkick Zombie on Vine and 2009's High Kick Girl (or 'Hai Kikku Gâru') enjoying some success the convincing blows, punches and kicks could only add further legitimacy to the collection.

This is one of those movie that's really just kind of a cute nice entertaining movie to watch. I enjoyed it a lot.

Ain't gonna lie. Its a little silly at times. A bit far-fetched. The acting could have been better at times. But its also true it was a very fun movie with some decent action. High school girls battling a lot of tough guy criminals while they sort of are making a movie for their school film club. That's the movie in a nutshell. Several of the girls have real-life martial arts skills including a black belt which makes much of the action appear real. Their acting is good enough to make you care about their characters. The bad guys & gals come off as, well, bad! There's even some drama. So in short, just watch it!

This is just a goofy, fun movie! The actresses look like high school girls and not 30 year old models. The bad guys are sufficiently flamboyant and steal from Unleashed and Kill Bill. The fighting is not very believable but if you go into a movie called High Kick Angels expecting realism I don't know what to tell you. Still, you can tell the girls have some martial arts skills. The movie is family friendly unless you're hyper sensitive about violence. I've watched it several times and it is still enjoyable. If you enjoy foreign action films give this one a shot.