Product Details

• Actors: Rina Takeda
• Directors: Fuyuhiko Nishi
• Format: Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: FIRST LOOK PICTURES
• DVD Release Date: March 30, 2010
• Run Time: 81 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002XTBE6A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,077 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

HIGH KICK GIRL - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Real-life martial artist Rina Takeda and her many mini-skirted boots to the head, April 25, 2010

By 

H. Bala "Me Too Can Read" (Just moved to posh Marina Del Rey, CA - where if you drop a quarter, why, you just keep on walking) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Kick Girl (DVD)

HIGH KICK GIRL ("Hai kikku gâru!") is watchable once you disregard the bare-bones plot, that the characters aren't given much backstory, and that the interaction of the cast rings wooden. The slipshod production values inform you that the film was perhaps budgeted on change that someone dug out from under their sofa cushions. There's a whole lot of amateur in this flick, cinema-wise. The karate stuff, that's the real shizzy.

HIGH KICK GIRL is a film of non-firsts in terms of story elements. Kei Tsuchida is a high school girl who demonstrates an aptitude for martial arts, but she's going about it all wrong, or to get all purple-prosy, Kei Tsuchida is straying from the path of righteousness and enlightenment. Kei, still a brown belt, chafes under her sensei Yoshiaki Matsumura's philosophy which stresses the importance of mastering the katas and employing karate primarily for protection and survival. Matsumura preaches: "In order to be strong, kata practice is best." But Kei, impatient and in private, sniffs disdainfully at that. Kei would rather show off her skills. Kei has got her swagger on, all plaid mini-skirt and dismissive demeanor.

Eager to prove herself, she gains a reputation for hunting black belts, crashing rival dojos and challenging (and humiliating) the teachers. She even ends up wiping out an entire dojo. Wise Master Matsumura disapproves, no surprise, and he riffs on that age-old blah-blah-blah about serenity and violence as a last resort and maybe even about the beauty of bamboo shoots by moonlight and such (okay, I'm paraphrasing). Just to show how much Kei takes her sensei's lecture to heart, she promptly responds to a recruitment offer from a shady organization called the Destroyers. The Destroyers are comprised of thuggish martial artists who basically sell their services for money. And so what a shocker it is that Kei finds herself out of her depth.

So, karate isn't the showiest discipline in the realm of martial arts, and yet the big selling point of HIGH KICK GIRL is the realism of the fight scenes. Never mind the thin plot, it just serves as a framing device for what we come to the show for, anyway: the wicked, wicked boots to the head. There are no wire works or CG or stunt doubles, and no actors faking mastery of martial arts. The stars come with bonafide credentials and do their own stuff and take their own lumps. Lithe newcomer Rina Takeda (17 years old during filming) boasts a black belt in Ryukyu Shorin-ryu Karate. The disappointing thing is that she's not featured in more action sequences. She has her best moments when she goes thru a bunch of deadly schoolgirls. Tatsuya Naka, a real karate champion and master, is accomplished as hell and he's got that stoic Sho Kosugi mojo going on. The high-octane final half hour is an action junkie's delight, but it's more a showcase for Naka's sensei-on-a-mission routine, and this would ordinarily be a gripe of mine - because, mind you, the title of the movie isn't HIGH KICK NON-MINI-SKIRT-WEARING SENSEI - except that Naka is pretty impressive when he takes out an army of henchmen and dude isn't even sweating that hard (but again you wonder why the henchmen don't all just bumrush him). Rina does get a chance to wipe the floor with a crazy laughing goon.

If it sometimes seems as if vicious kicks and punches were really landing with full force, that's because they probably were. Pity the poor, achy stunt folks after enduring this gauntlet of getting vigorously smacked around. And just to show that these are full contact kicks and strikes being administered, the camera is generous with the gratuitous slow-mo instant replays, even though some of these action shots really don't deserve the one more time treatment. But some do. Occasionally, there is a display of precision and dynamic execution to savor. But I can do without all the posing and staring at a downed opponent. Surprisingly, the sensei is guilty of this bit of melodrama as much as Kei. But I should've gotten a clue when the sensei was caught earlier practicing by a waterfall. How cliched can you get?

Disappointingly, the DVD special features don't come with English sub-titles, so unless you speak Japanese, you won't really know what the cast says in the interview portions. But these extras are worth checking out anyway for the behind-the-scenes stuff on the action sequences. There's the 28-minute "Making Of" segment; "Rina's Action Techniques" (almost 6 minutes) - Rina conducting demos and going thru workout drills which definitely include sparring; "Naka's Action Techniques" (46 minutes) - Rina and two male voices (I'm assuming Tatsuya Naka and director Fuyuhiko Nishi) provide commentary during the shooting of the fight sequences (you also get to see Rina kick a cigarette off a guy's lips and a water bottle off a guy's dome).

HIGH KICK GIRL came out roughly a year after CHOCOLATE, and Rina Takeda reminds me some of CHOCOLATE's Muay Thai-wielding Jeeja Yanin, although Rina isn't as flashy or stylish. But CHOCOLATE had more to offer in the way of depth, so maybe Rina falls short and seems more mechanical because of the lack of story content and an adequate platform from which she could really strut her stuff. I get the definite sense that Rina Takeda is nothing to sneeze at. I know she can clobber the eff out of you and me. I hope to see her in a better film project soon.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Osu!, June 22, 2010

By 

trashcanman (Hanford, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: High Kick Girl (DVD)

So I decided to give this movie "High Kick Girl" a try in spite of it's moronic title. Why? Because I like girls. Girls who kick high are a plus. I expected a cheesy, stupid popcorn flick possibly with a great sense of humor and some sweet action. I got more than I expected, but also less. High Kick Girl is a film with a split personality disorder that aims much higher than you would expect and almost hits all the marks it's shooting for, but in the end winds up only half-fulfilling any of them. Martial-arts fanatics shouldn't hesitate to rush out and see it, but be expecting some major letdowns to go along with some outstanding awesomeness. I will dedicate a paragraph to each personality this film displays and list the successes and failures of each in this review to give you an idea of what this film is and what it should have been.

First and foremost, High Kick Girl kicks butt. Anytime you see a DVD with a Japanese schoolgirl kicking high, you expect nonstop cheese and exploitation. However, what surprised me is how amazingly skilled the cast of this film are. Right from the first scene featuring star Rina Takeda arrogantly walking through the middle of a line of practicing karatekas up to the biggest black belt and kicking him straight in the head before leveling the rest of the school, I thought to myself "this girl is the real deal". Almost like a female Bruce Lee in her skill and fight charisma. And hell yes, there are homages to the fallen martial-arts hero aplenty. The beauty, technique, and power of karate are on full display throughout this film and a lot of it is downright awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, even this simplest aspect is screwed up. You see, the director is apparently a bit of a hack so after shooting these brilliant and hard-hitting fight scenes which were more than great just on their own, he decided he was going to use slow motion in nearly every shot. I would guess that this already short film (80 minutes) is lengthened by as much as 30% based on the ridiculously pervasive slo-mo. Some entire fights are in slow motion, and some use slo-mo instant replay of every single exchange shot-by-shot. They literally interrupt duels in progress in this film to show you replays of what you just saw whether it was impressive or not. Certainly, there were times I really appreciated the replays because it saved me the trouble of rewinding a particularly jaw-dropping move, but I've never ever seen a movie with this much unnecessary slow motion. This is the single worst thing about High Kick Girl.

So what about the exploitation factor? It's about a schoolgrl who kicks high, right? Well, yeah, and there is some pretty hot girl-on-girl violence early on and plenty of beautiful, sexily-dressed martial arts femme fatales to go around. But this is actually quite a serious film so no really overt exploitation is present. In fact, the star of the film -after thrilling me early on and leaving me drooling for more- pretty much sits out the second half of the film while her sensei literally takes over the movie and takes down the bad guys (who all wear black to the heroes' white, of course) while the title character is helpless. Sure, she gets one last fight in, but it's much less impressive then the early skirmishes. However, I did learn how to knock out a guy who laughs off multiple head kicks without even blocking. But there is no big showdown with any of the opposing factor's killer beauties. Double-You Tea Eff. So again, a major strength of the film becomes a weakness in the end. Boo.

High Kick Girl is a true martial-arts film. I was surprised by the film's deep philosophical exploration of karate. It has surely been done before, but I obviously was not expecting it with this flick. What I love about Eastern martial-arts is that they apply not only to combat and self-defense, but to everything you do in life. Lessons learned practicing kendo, escrima, karate, or wushu are transferable to any other form of combat with or without weapons and also in philosophy, business, or any other goal you seek to acheive. The sensei and hero of this piece teaches his students that karate is not for fighting. It is for survival. At one point, the invincible warrior humbles himself and grovels before inferior foes in an attempt to avoid violence. This is damn near unheard of in action films and I applaud it. Having the power to conquer and do harm but being humble and wise enough to choose not to use that power is the ultimate ideal for a true martial-artist in my opinion. This is the one aspect of the film that doesn't manage to contradict itself, but it also does not build upon this as much as it could have as far as allowing the star to grow. While she learns her lesson, it is not from her own experience, but from watching her sensei in action. More participation from the title character in applying the lessons to her own art would have sealed the deal.

Even with it's identity crisis, High Kick Girl is a must-see for fans of martial-arts. The incessant slow motion may have you pulling your hair out, but you'll still want to see this. I'm sorry the direction was awful and the script was half-baked and the title is misleading because this was something that could have been truly special. But as it is, it still has some of the baddest fight scenes this side of Tony Jaa and the heart of a true martial-arts film. Plus it's got a girl who kicks high. And who doesn't love that? For every plus, there is an unnecessary minus so I ended up being very disappointed with the movie, but at the same time if it hadn't built me up so masterfully in the beginning, I wouldn't have had anything to be disappointed about. I wasn't expecting much so even the eventual letdown is a function of High Kick Girl being more than it should have been in the first place given the premise so in the end I've got to recommend it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Karate film, April 19, 2011

By 

epmom (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: High Kick Girl (DVD)

This film is a nice break from all the Kung Fu films out there. Also, it does a slow motion replay of all the good fight scenes. The bonus features are all in Japanese, but fun to watch.