User reviews

The greatest cinematic invention is this: A cute schoolgirl in a short skirt kicking butt. Yep, I'm a sucker for movies like this. All I ask is that there be plentiful exhibitions of well-choreographed buttkicking by cute schoolgirls. "High Kick Girl" provides a lot of this for the opening 50 minutes or so, but then takes a turn for the worse.

There are a number of positives to this film. First of all, there is a ton of fighting here. I didn't actually time the length of the action sequences, but it felt like they occupied more than half of the total running time. This is a good thing. Secondly, the martial arts choreography is 100% realistic. Not one move required the use of wires, and most of the actors gave an impressive exhibition. Thirdly, the lead actress has an intimidating, arrogant persona and it's fun watching her taunt and humiliate her opponents. Fourthly, there are a handful of cute schoolgirl baddies that the protagonist battles with. Fifthly, the camera-work uses a lot of wide shots so that the viewer can see everything clearly. There are also some fairly long sequences without cuts or editing gimmicks.

Unfortunately, there are a number of negatives to this film as well. The biggest problem is the rampant, undisciplined use of slow motion replays. The viewer is shown a strike at regular speed, followed by a replay of that same strike in slow motion. At first this was useful because some karate strikes are somewhat deceptive and fast, but as the film went on the slow motion just killed the fluidity of the action all together for two reasons. First, slow motion replays were shown for very basic strikes (e.g., a straight kick to the gut), which is worthless. Second, the final confrontation uses sequences that are first shown in slow motion, then replayed in SUPER slow motion. This was a major miscalculation on the part of the filmmakers because the scene just drags and drags into mind-numbing boredom. It felt like they were just padding the running time to break 80 minutes. Not good.

Another problem is Rina Takeda's inexplicable turn from intimidating buttkicker to worthless wimp during the middle section. She pummels a whole school of big dudes at the beginning of the film, then goes into a shell and plays victim/hostage for most of the second half. In addition, she was fairly inactive during the finale and only took down one baddie in a not-so-awesome fight. (Tatsuya Naka takes over from there and looks impressive though.) One other thing that bothered me was that this film introduces a really cool, acrobatic schoolgirl villain near the midpoint, only to then completely forget about her for the rest of the movie. This was another terrible decision by the filmmakers that made the final fight even more disappointing because the viewer will automatically expect a throwdown between Takeda and the antagonist schoolgirl. It never happens.

I disagree with anyone who claims that "High Kick Girl" is better than either one of JeeJa Yanin's films ("Chocolate" and "Raging Phoenix"). Yes, Takeda was very impressive and is a talent to look out for if she decides to do more movies, but I suspect that martial arts "purity" will be the only true reason for someone to prefer "High Kick Girl." There's more to action movies than "purity" though, and JeeJa Yanin's flicks have finale's that blow "High Kick Girl" out of the water irregardless of whether or not wires are used. In addition, the storyline to "High Kick Girl" is just as limp (if not more so) than JeeJa's movies, so there's no advantage there either. I guess the reader will just have to watch them all and make up their own mind.

I would still recommend "High Kick Girl" despite its flaws. There's more than enough fun to make it worthwhile.

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.

After Prachya Pinkaew's awesome Chocolate, I've been hungering for more female-starring martial arts movies. This one supposedly stars a teenage girl named Rina Takeda. Takeda isn't that bad in the martial arts department. In fact, all the martial artists seem pretty good at karate. But whoever choreographed the fight scenes was extraordinarily unimaginative, and the director is downright awful. The titular girl starts some trouble and gets her friend and herself kidnapped. They are being used as bait by a local karate gang to lure in her karate teacher (Tatsuya Naka). Much of the movie is actually Naka fighting, so the High Kick Girl is regulated to second banana status for at least half the movie (honestly, I guess I'm not too bothered about that since she's not that attractive anyway). The sound effects are even worse than those old-fashioned chop socky movies from the '70s. The film moves at a sluggish pace, with characters standing around staring at each other or their defeated victims for minutes at a time. To make it worse, the film hasn't even a hint of a sense of humor after the opening sequence (the only part of the film that's even remotely watchable). Each challenger from the evil gang is named for us via subtitles, yet only one of them can take more than two kicks before falling down, presumably dead since the final sequence takes place in a high school gym (did I mention the horribly unimaginative shooting locations?) and Naka beats up like 50 people (way less fun than that sounds). The first guy had to have been lying their for 20 minutes, and still he shows no signs of life. And, saving the worst offense for last, whenever there's a karate move that's even remotely cool, which, in the director's mind, is approximately 90% of every move the characters do, we get to watch it again. Sometimes it's in slow motion, sometimes not, sometimes from a different angle, sometimes not. Once in a while, the shot will literally play at normal speed twice in a row. I estimate that the editor padded this POS out another 30 minutes, bringing its grand total up to 81. To add insult to injury, the credits sequence ostensibly is meant to show us bloopers, in the grand tradition of Jackie Chan. But only in one of the shots can you even tell there's a screw-up. Most of the time you're watching the same fairly unimaginative karate moves for the third time!

Don't expect complex plot in this one. It's about a high school brown belt karate student who's unusually strong, and goes about beating up black belts in college, and delinquents in other high schools.

The movie is one continuous stream of karate action from one scene to another. It's not even worth mentioning what the plot of the story is. The karate action is also pretty fake looking as you can see that the actors are not actually hitting the opponent.

A good movie to watch if you have nothing to do on a rainy evening, which is exactly what I did. It's in the genre of mindless entertainment, and as for that it's worth a watch.

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.

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.

Usually I start reviews with a plot summary, but it is not necessary. The title says it all. It's Japanese, but don't worry about having to keep up with the subtitles. None of the dialogue is worth reading. All of this movie is, is lousy fight scenes and training in between.

Now I could write about the acting, the directing or the production design etc. but I'm not, they are all lousy. Instead I'm going to write about the fighting, because when it comes to a movie like this, that is what is important. The fights are mildly entertaining. They are obviously fake. Very few of the attacks look painful. In a few shots it visible that the punch or kick doesn't make contact, yet the actor still acts like he is in intense pain. All of the fights are rather one sided and feature basic fighting moves. There is nothing amazing in this movie. No dangerous stunts or amazing attacks. Sure there are high kicks, but they are all replayed and disrupt the flow of the scenes.

Now I would like to touch on the camera work. I usual don't notice the camera work in movies, but it was terrible. There are jump cuts, shakiness and odd angle that make the fight scenes even more unpleasing. There also long pause to create drama, but only create yawns.

There is one good thing I can say and that is that the movie is inspirational for teenage girls interested in karate. The main character is someone that girls can relate to. She is also a good role model. At the beginning of the movie she is disobedient. Then over the course of the movie she learns to respect her teacher. It does teach some morals for teenage girls. It also show the amount of discipline need to learn karate.

Over all I give the movie a four out of ten and that is generous.

After the gravely disappointing CHOCOLATE (which disappointed to a dull script and some of the most mechanical fight choreography on record) comes this film featuring a schoolgirl named Kei Tsuchida (Rina Takeda) whose martial skills far outstrip her deeper understanding of the art she's learning. The basic gist of the story is that the girl in question, though only a brown belt, can throw down against karateka of higher rank and smash the living crap out of them in process. Seeking to prove how "strong" she is, the girl "hunts black belts" by going from dojo to dojo and challenging the top fighters, utterly decimating all her opponents. This practice does not sit well with her old school sensei (Tatsuya Naka), who advises her that what she is learning is strictly for self-defense and urges her to change her ways. Ignoring her sensei's guidance, Tsuchida accepts an invitation to join The Destroyers, a group of martial arts badasses from various disciplines, who use their skills as thugs and enforcers for underworld interests. Once she passes their brutal "entrance exam," Tsuchida discovers she's stepped into more than she bargained for when the leader of the gang is revealed to have held a major grudge against her sensei for fifteen years and she is now the bait to lure him to a long-delayed confrontation...

HIGH KICK GIRL's martial arts are stunning and what deficiencies may exist in some of the acting are more than made up for by the electrifying choreography. Takeda is nothing short of amazing in her role, looking like a Japanese Paris Hilton and exuding just the right amount of bullying arrogance when handing out butt-kickings. The film is briskly paced and never boring, and speaking as a longtime martial artist, I recommend this to anyone who has daughters with an interest in practicing. Takeda is a hero guaranteed to pique the interest of girls and young women, offering a refreshing alternative to the cynical marketing scam that is the Disney Princesses. She starts off as a smug, bullying jerk and learns some serious attitude-adjusting and humbling lessons by the end of the story, so there's more to this than just endless fight scene after endless fight scene (unlike CHOCOLATE). The film is also notable for featuring none of the graphic/sadistic gore and violence one might expect from this, and there's also no cursing, nudity or fetishistic fan service that usually goes along with a Japanese flick whose protagonist is seen in a schoolgirl's uniform for most of the running time. If this were given an MPAA rating, I could see this getting by with a PG-13 at worst, and that solely because it contains wall-to-wall fights, but if we lived in the more permissive era before 1995, I bet this would get a PG. In summation, HIGH KICK GIRL is a tougher-than-usual film for kids that solidly entertains from start to finish and maintains a very moral standard throughout. If all the viewer wants is quality ass-kicking, that's certainly to be had here, but the resolution of the character's arc comes as the satisfying icing on a tasty budo cake. And when watching the DVD, don't miss out on the two extra features focusing on Takeda and Naka's skills and their training for the film's fight sequences. There's also a standard "making of" featurette that, like the other extras, is untranslated, but in the case of the features on Takeda and Naka their physical acumen speaks for itself and delights the eye. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Truth be told, then I wasn't really expecting much from this movie, and with good cause, because this movie failed to deliver anything mentionable.

There aren't all that many Japanese martial arts movies about, and probably with good reason, I assume, as this movie doesn't really do the Japanese martial arts scene much justice.

The story in "High Kick Girl!" ("Hai Kikku Gâru!") is almost not existing. The storyline was so weak that even a blind man could see what was failing to going on here. This was so stereotypical that is was just painful to behold. A classic tale of good having to stand up against evil in overwhelming numbers, and of course emerge triumphant. Kei Tsuchiya (played by Rina Takeda) is learning Karate, but falls in with a wrong crowd, and it is up to her sensei Yoshiaki Matsumura (played by Tatsuya Naka) to save her and bring her back on the path of virtue and righteousness.

Yeah, fairly standard story here, except that there is basically no acting involved in this movie, and what little there was turned out to be stunted and rigid. And to make matters worse, then the dialogue wasn't overly impressive either. This movie is basically just fighting from start to end, and mind you, not overly great fighting or well-choreographed fighting for that matter.

The good parts about the movie was that you could see the kicking actually impacted with people and it was proper kicking, but the punching was half-hearted and weak at best.

Now, one thing that really irritated me in this movie, was the constant desire to show the same scene two times, with either a slightly different angle or in slow motion. What were they thinking? "Yeah, we better show the exact same scene again, in case someone just missed it?" It was frustrating and annoying, and it didn't help further the enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the movie one bit.

And the final showdown scene was just straight out of the generic end of the movie workbook. Here you had one guy against a whole group of people. And of course, the good guy was dressed in white, while the bad guys were dressed in black. In stead of just rushing and surrounding the good guy, and thus taking him down by sheer force in numbers, the bad guys did the classic, stereotypical thing to do. They filed up in line and came at him one at a time in a single-file straight line; and getting beaten up one at a time, of course. And most impressively, was that once the camera panned out, these defeated people littered the entire floor all around, despite them all coming in at him in a single-filed line. Tch, tch... It was just so brilliantly stupid, that you just can't help laughing at it.

It wasn't all bad though. Aside from having to watch the same scene two times in just about every single fight there was, then there were the occasional impressive fight scene or martial arts move here and there. But in overall, the movie was just a shrug of the shoulders and a shake of the head.

Having seen this, I have readied myself for what's to come when I put on the "Karate Girl" ("K.G.") movie from 2011 next. Will that be just as bad as this 2009 "High Kick Girl!" movie?

"High Kick Girl!" is perhaps best enjoyed as a movie you put on the day after a serious drinking binge when you are nurturing a really bad hang-over and just lay flat on the couch, putting on a movie that requires absolutely nothing from your brain to keep up with.

The DVD cover said "more than just a cute high school girl... she's a master of Karate!" - yeah, I will just let that one simmer for a bit as you watch the movie and judge for yourself.

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.

This is a very low budget film that is flawed in many ways; however has some redeeming properties. For the non-martial arts practitioner this may not be enjoyable. For a martial artists, or martial arts fan there is actually some very good karate techniques and fight scenes in this movie. It also has some great looks at Karate training and Kata/Forms training. The story is original and the actors do an adequate job considering the budget and scale of the film. The biggest defect is the lack of engagement of the well executed techniques in most of the fight scenes. There are numbers of scenes which are direct trade-offs and copies of Tarantino's Phenomenally exciting "Kill Bill 1&2". I do respect the film makers' attempts here and I respect the martial artist more. I wouldn't go out our my way to recommend this one but I would catch it if I was looking for something off the beaten path.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of High Kick Girl; here's the breakdown of my ratings:

Story: 0.25 Direction: 1.00 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 0.75 Enjoyment: 1.25

TOTAL: 4.25 out of 10.00

I know most Martial Art Movie fans don't watch the films for their stunningly complex and engaging storylines, but at least a smidgen of a story is requisite to tie in the kick-ass action sequences.

Regrettably, it appears the writers were out to lunch and knocked this garbage out in their lunch hour, with time left to put away a seven-course dinner. It's a basic story of an impatient know-it-all girl who is too selfish to train for her Karate black belt. Her petulance leads her to join a gang - The Destroyers - whose ulterior motive is to defeat her master by using her as bait. Had the writers only chosen to scoff a burger and fries, they would have found time to strengthen the plot and the characters. And it's this that is the major letdown.

Another is the direction. Now here's the thing, the director had the marvellous notion to reshow the fights in slow-motion. It would have worked wonderfully had he employed it sparingly for all the "Ouch" hits like the laughing insane fighter who takes a blow to the head, and we watch it snap back and bounce off the wooden wall behind him. It looks realistic and painful, and it appears worse in slow-motion. Lamentably, the director uses this gimmick with every fight sequence, which results in the transformation from engaging into tedious. And that is a shame because, other than this, he's a good director. He has a fine sense of style and composition; there are some handsomely framed scenes. I especially liked the stand off's and the panoramic fights.

But we head back into terribleness when we get to the cast. Most of whom don't need to speak; just stand still and look tough and malicious. Sadly most look bored and more bored. And the ones who do speak are hit and miss. These gals and guys were chosen for their skills in the Martial Arts arena and not for being thespians, even amateur ones. The worst of these is Master Matsumara. Granted, Tatsuya Naka can fight, but he is stoic to the point of extremity. No emotion ever passes across his face - even when he gets punched in his mug, nothing changes.

If it weren't for the fights and their choreography, High Kick Girl would be 1-2-Miss. However, the fight sequences are pretty great, and most look realistic. The battle between High Kick Girl and the Strong School Girl is superb. Both have excellent styles and skills, which they demonstrate superbly in the fight.

Therefore I recommend this to the die-hard Martial Arts fans, but only for the fight scenes - you can fast-forward through the rest.

Please feel free to visit my The Game Is Afoot and Holding Out For A Hero lists to see where I ranked High Kick Girl.

Take Care & Stay Well.

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.

Not every movie made is going to be a classic, but I love this movie for the really nice entertaining value.