K.G. (aka Karate Girl) (2011)

[kingofkungfu2002]

Go DADDY !!!!!!!!!!!

Sincerely, from JAPAN WITH LOVE ...

[Guest Markgway]

That gif should be banned.

I watched it 412 times and am sure I saw a schoolgirl's underwear.

Sick filth.

[One Armed Boxer]

I don't want to throw anymore oil on the fire but....LOOK WHAT TAKUMA SAID IN THE GOLGO 13 THREAD!!!

one of the coolest things to come out of Japan since school girls, and it has plenty of them, too.

[kingofkungfu2002]

Oohki7DKo_M

[daisho2004]

This movie definitely looks like a sequel to High Kick Girl which I did like except for the slow motion rewinds every 30 seconds I just hope they don't do that with this movie! Still looking forward to it.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Yep! Can't wait for this. Ditto on the use of constant slo-mo but it's still looking good to me.

[Takuma]

ok, as a response to my own boredom I wrote a bit about the topic. I wasn't necessarily even planning to post this but what the hell, maybe someone would like to read it. This is not aimed at anyone personally and I’m not even expecting replies to this as the topic was already discussed and closed once. I will not go into the negatives much as this post is too damn long already… this is only intended as a few points about the one side of the truth (that co-exists with the other).

Enjo kousai (compensated dating)

25-30%? Statistics on this have been a bit hard to come across, the last one I saw was from late 90’s and stated less than 10% of Japanese girls have engaged in enjo kousai. More recent stats would be appreciated.

Also, enjo kousai does not stand for teenage prostitution. Most enjou kousai girls do not have sex with their customer. Typical enjo kousai involves restautant evening or karaoke. But some girls do have sex with the customer.

Hostess clubs are a little bit similar. Some of these girls make a fortune by chatting about everyday stuff with the customers and never meeting them outside the club dinner table. I don't think this kind of concept exists anywhere in western countries and can be difficult to understand for some foreigners. In Japan, however, where societal traditions have often minimized non-formal chatting between men and women, it's indeed popular.

Paedophilia

A word constantly misused by people who don’t know what it means. As Mark pointed out, it refers to sexual interest towards pre-teen age children, that is 12 and below. You don’t see many 10 year olds doing enjou kousai in Japan, yet the two terms are so often used together.

Underage

Here we’re probably talking by various definitions without realizing it. The age of adulthood in Japan is 20. The age of consent is 13, but prefectural differences exist and the age could technically vary between 13-18.

School uniform

A seminal part of Japanese pop-culture and everyday life. A common and convenient, sometimes even fashionable wear required by most schools. It’s the most common sight on the streets. Used in pop-culture in pureness/innocence context, as well as in sexual context (an anything in between). Foreigners often have difficulties telling the two apart.

Moreover, in sexual context the school uniform itself has become a sex symbol that is no longer strictly related the person wearing it, or her age.

Kogal

A lifestyle related to consumerism and turning school uniform into fashion wear. Started as a sort of rebellion movement among girls. A sort of party girl life style but more about fashion and streets than attending a “party event”.

Casual (non-kogal) uniform wearing is popular too, or in other words, normal. Foreigners sometimes have a funny way of considering school uniform wearing girls in Japanese movies something else than an everyday sight borrowed from real life.

Kawaii (cute)

The Japanese cuteness worshipping is unique. It’s everywhere from TV ads to university campuses, and even in people’s behavior (there’s a huge amount of what foreigners would consider “3D anime girls”, that is, normal real girls who have (unconsciously?) adapted anime type behavior for their everyday life. Or, is it teh other way round?

Yes, kazukashii (はずかしい) (embarrassing), kawaii (かわいいい, with a minimum of 3 i’s) and heeee (へえええ, with a minimum of 4 e’s) (an expression of slight surprise, similar to “really?”) are some of the most common words you hear.

Cuteness is the most popular phenomenon in Japan and its extent really cannot be understood without personal living experience of Japan. It exceeds all expectations. Western countries, being total foreigners to this kind of thinking, all too often are confused and even make the conclusion that it must be a sex thing or something.

Innocense is a key concept of cuteness. And as mentioned before, school uniform is also a symbol of innocense. Hence, the two are often linked.

Innocent – Erotic

Most western countries are extremely black and white – there’s Sponge Bob and hard core porn, and almost nothing in between. Japan differs radically. Pornography is censored even today, and this opens a far more colorful variety for all sorts of middle forms that can be more or less dirty. One reason for the fetish galore is societal norms and requirements: people are required to be very formal and representative in public (tatemae). The side effect of this is suffocating people driven to relax and be their true self (honne) when no one can see them. Sometimes it goes too (?) far, as the intolerant society is provoking rebellion and counter cultures.

The Japanese are wery used to the over-sexed media and pop-culture, for which reason slightly naughty but harmless stuff often makes its way to movies, anime and everything, sometimes in an ironic/humoristic way. Again, sometimes these receive an over-reaction from someone not so used to the Japanese cultural environment with all its shades.

Mad Café

Cute young Japanese girls dresses as French maids and serving overpriced coffee and chocolate cake. Dirty? Actually, not at all. Maid Cafes are actually very popular among Japanese girls. Almost all of my japanese (university) female friends love maid café.

Cultural differences

It’s a little bit like with foreign companies entering Japan, with the best product, best price, and best service. And then they’re wondering why one buys from them. They make the mistake of thinking western way of thinking can be applied to Japan. It doesn’t work even in business, let alone on other areas of society.

From my point of view Americans and Brits are all paedophiles. The parents can’t even sleep in the same bed with their children. They somehow manage to relate thoughts of sex to sleeping in the same bed. Sick perverts!

And how about Finland? Those people go to sauna naked, and whip each other with tree leaves. S&M activity? Hah. It’s just an old tradition believed to bring health. The fresh leaves will spread health to your back and help you relax just like massage. But it’s hilarious to imagine how this sight might appear to someone who isn’t familiar with the background. Or to someone from a culture where nudity is related to sexuality (what a silly thing to think, if you ask me).

Even western countries that are relatively similar to each other have such huge cultural differences leading to misunderstandings...

Children in movies and entertainment

Japan fascination for junior idols can’t be denied. However, it should also be kept in mind Japan is far more mature than any other country in using children in movies. In Hollywood we only have irritating brats and “child actors”. In Japan, 10 and 12 year olds are playing roles of equal value as Hollywood’s Brad Pitt and coming out with amazing performances. Western countries don’t have this “youth genre” for which reason children in movies are often seen as provocation if they don’t fit into the Hollywood pattern of “brats and silly children”.

The Foreigner’s Japan

Sometimes foreigners re-write the Japanese culture, even language. Ecchi as in referring to naughty but not hentai is a good example. The damn word in its general meaning is English, not Japanese, re-defined by foreign anime fans. The Japanese word ecchi doesn’t differ from hentai at all, in fact, it’s the same word. ‘Hentai’ is often shortened as ‘h’ in Japanese as the Japanese love shortening words. Try pronouncing letter ‘h’ in Japanese… it becomes eicch… that is, Ecchi in written form (the ‘i’ at the end is because it’s impossible to spell ecch in the Japanese katakana system without including ‘i’ there… エッチ).

[AlbertV]

Twitch said that thankfully, they are doing away with the constant slow motion stuff, so we may actually be in for a treat here.

Rina and 13-year old Hina Tobimatsu training for KG (Karate Girl)

BNHD05GAGwI

[IgaNinja]

I hope Rina Takeda becomes the next Etsuko Shihomi, I love both lol

[daisho2004]

Just checking has anyone heard any news of this being released yet? I love Rina Takeda I think she is very talented and I'm looking forward to seeing this and her new movie KUNOICHI.

[One Armed Boxer]

Just checking has anyone heard any news of this being released yet?

Yeah this movie was just given a limited release in Japanese cinemas on 5th February, I'll be going to check it out tomorrow!

I love Rina Takeda I think she is very talented

In that case, while you wait for the DVD release, you can always buy her new gravure model style DVD, 'AngelRina', which has just been released to coincide with 'Karate Girl', you can pick it up at the Japanese amazon site here - http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%AD%A6%E7%94%B0%E6%A2%A8%E5%A5%88-AngelRina%E3%80%90DVD%E3%80%91/dp/B0043RTCF0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1297392077&sr=1-1

[Takuma]

I was about to comment the previous post, but then I realized I'm talking to a bot...

In that case, while you wait for the DVD release, you can always buy her new gravure model style DVD, 'AngelRina'

Good move from Takeda, I think. I noticed a while back that she had started doing idoling, and this certainly will add to her fanbase, probably giving her karate films a wider distribution, too. And she got her roles just right. Being just idol is problematic, because it tends to kill your future career prospects. But Takeda is primarily a karate girl, so she can go on with her main career as long as she can kick, and support it with idoling.

Karate idol... she must be the first of her kind. If she plays it right, she'll still be remembered after 25 years, like Hiroko Yakushimaru and the other greats. Not that she's anywhere near a match for Hiroko, but she has come up with something original. That can take her far if she plays it right.

I recommend taking a few singing lessons and try recording a song for a film's soundtrack next year. Then limited release on CD with photos of her at the recording studio (that will sell for tons in 2030).

[One Armed Boxer]

I finally got around to checking this out yesterday, after my original plan to watch it on Saturday got waylayed thanks to being stuck in a kareoke box until 5:30am and consuming far too many Japanese spirits to do anything other than just survive the day.

As the friend I was going to watch it with originally had to work, I braved the cinema alone. The main audience memebers seemed to be a peculiar bunch of single middle aged men, some of who I'm convinced hadn't taken a shower since last year...it's hard to say whether this is the type of demographic the Japanese action film appeals to these days, or it's simply the normal Monday afternoon crowd....I'd like to hope it's the later.

On to the movie. first of all 'Karate Girl' is completely different from 'High Kick Girl', that is Rina Takeda is playing a different character from the original movie, making it a whole new story unrelated to 'High Kick Girl'. Gone is the cocky over-confident character from the first movie, and instead we're presented with a character who is completely the opposite, one who has a tragic past and has made a promise not to use her karate skills for fear of the trouble it would bring her (think Bruce Lee in 'The Big Boss'!).

This promise brings the first of the movies problems, this should be Rina's show. However the first 2 highlight action scenes of the movie don't even belong to her, instead we get a flashback sequence which opens the movie of Tatsuya Naka (playing Rina's father instead of teacher this time) taking down a bunch of attackers swiftly and brutally, minus the excessive slow motion from the original movie, and secondly we're presented with 13 year old Hina Tobimatsu, who should really be given equal billing with Rina and plays her estranged sister, kicking the living daylights out of the members of a karate dojo.

Special mention should go to Hina Tobimatsu, as she seems to have been raised on a diet of Hwang Jang Lee movies. At such a young age, this girl kicks, and kicks hard. Ariel kicks, spin kicks, multiple-hit flying kicks, high kicks....this girl does it all, and sells them convincingly.

Rina gets a few brief moments to shine, but to be completely honest she doesn't have a whole lot to do action wise until the finale of the movie, which is a simply bizarre decision from the film-makers. Thankfully she seems to possess what seems to be a rare trait amongst Japanese actors these days....screen presence. Even when not in action, she manages to carry the movie along pretty well.

As for the action, the big question will obviously be did they learn from the mistakes they made with 'High Kick Girl'? Thankfully the answer is yes, as slow motion is used sparingly to just replay an impressive kick here and there. All the other performers are on top of their game as well, including Richard Heselton, who plays the wheel chair ridden villains main henchman and looks to be a tonne of pure karate muscle. The final fight involves Rina & Hina joining forces to defeat him (this isn't a spoiler by the way, it's obvious).

The only problem I had with one of the main sequences is that when the 2 sisters take on the bad guys lair at the end, Hina charges down a corridor taking on multiple attackers in a fantastic long take which really makes you appreciate her skill, whereas Rina is confined to a bunch of quick edit shots taking on various attackers...for example run up a wall and kick one bad guy, cut to consecutively spin kicking 4 bad guys, cut to kicking another bad guy...these shots are actually in the trailer, but I thought they'd appear differently in the final movie.

All in all though 'Karate Girl' is a step forward for Japanese action cinema, actually looking at all the performers in the movie, and considering they are all native Japanese people, I would be willing to argue Japan actually has the most talented pool of screen fighters in Asia at the moment, more than Hong Kong & Thailand....it just's a pity that they are working in a film industry that really doesn't know what to do with them. In that way, we should be thankful for movies like this one, where they all get to show their stuff...here's hoping 'Kunoichi' is another step in the right direction for Rina Takeda.

[KUNG FU BOB]

Ah One Armed Boxer, that's music to my ears- especially coming from you, as I trust your movie opinions completely. Great writeup/review! I felt like you brought us there man. Can't wait to see this, as I really enjoyed HIGH KICK GIRL despite all the slow-mo and the R1 releases "hearing impaired" only subtitles.

[John]

Yes, kazukashii (はずかしい) (embarrassing), kawaii (かわいいい, with a minimum of 3 i’s) and heeee (へえええ, with a minimum of 4 e’s) (an expression of slight surprise, similar to “really?”) are some of the most common words you hear.

That's "hazukashii". Typo?

Cuteness is the most popular phenomenon in Japan and its extent really cannot be understood without personal living experience of Japan. It exceeds all expectations. Western countries, being total foreigners to this kind of thinking, all too often are confused and even make the conclusion that it must be a sex thing or something.

But it can be and certainly is when the frame is festooned with the undergarmets of said "kawaii" characters.

@One-Armed Boxer: Do enemies still stand completely motionless so that they can be KO'd instantly? I reckon they trained for "recreation" lmao.

[Takuma]

That's "hazukashii". Typo?

oops, yeah. 'k' is too close 'h' in my keyboard

But it can be and certainly is when the frame is festooned with the undergarmets of said "kawaii" characters.

It's a bit of a matter of opinion, but personally I'd claim that most of the time no. Kawaii refers not only to cuteness, but purity. It's a word used to refer to cute animals, cute kids, cute teddy bears, almost anything that is cute and innocent. Hence, by my definition anything going towards ero is almost automatically anti-kawaii. You can see this in idols and their careers. Most fans would be terribly upset if their kawaii idol ever did a sexy nude photo. Even a sexy bikini photo might be streching it in case of some girls. Appearing in a nude photo / scene is considered a career suicide.

(notice: do not confuse with gravure idols, who make a living with suggestive bikini and semi-nude photos. They don't have anything to do with "kawaii")

If you ask a fan if he would like to have sex with his idol, he will probably tell you "no, I just want to hug her". Is that what he would really do given the change? Maybe not, but that is what he wants to believe. I was like that when I was younger, too. Never even once had dirty thoughts of Aya Ueto, haha. But lots of photobooks, posters etc. Whoa, I still should have those in some locker...

It's part of the game, and it's a game quite unknown to greater public outside Japan. But there are foreign geeks, too.

And of course, differing opinions can and do exist. We're not talking about dictionary definitions here. Especially, there's a lot of anime that try to combine ero and kawaii. It's easier to do with animated characters who are "two dimentional" and can manage what is almost a paradox. Real people are too complex and not good enough actors to do this.

What typically is the final straw to break a foreigner's back is the fact that Japanese pop-culture is indeed overly sexualized in many, but not all areas. In addition, you also have to remember the Japanese can have a very natural approach towards issues like nudity, partly thanks to onsen and bathhouse culture (no, you don't wear swimsuits there). And sex is not a taboo subject in Japan like it is in some other contries like USA and the UK.

Mix all this and you've got something that will quite understandably confuse a lot of people. Even some Japanese people, in fact.

ok, getting back to Rina Takeda or High Kick Girl. This film doesn't relate to kawaii much, nor is Takeda really a kawaii idol as far as I know (I don't actually know her career all that well. Correct me if I'm wrong), even though she is doing idoling. As for the film being filled with undergarmets... call me naive, but I don't see any ero attempt there. The main character is a uniform wearing student. There are 14 million of those in Japan. A high school girl is a seminal part of Japanese (pop) culture just like samurai or geisha. A high school girl is also a sex symbol, among many other things (which include pureness, that is, anti sex symbol), but not in this film.

She fights, it's only natural her pantsu is in every other frame. It's slightly amusing, and a sort of intentional accident, but... I really can't see it as anything more than a harmless "accidental" humor with a slight wink of eye when it happens for the first time (actually, I think there's a character who yells something like "パンツ見える！" "I can see your pants!"). But that's all. I really can't draw any sexual connections here and I'm slightly surprised people have even brought up the topic here. Or maybe I'm just naive.

Sorry for over-long reply And I don't mean to under-estimate your knowledge. I just tried to write my opinions in a way that are easy as possible to read for anyone who might be browsing this thread.

[blue_skies]

I finally got around to checking this out yesterday, after my original plan to watch it on Saturday got waylayed thanks to being stuck in a kareoke box until 5:30am and consuming far too many Japanese spirits to do anything other than just survive the day.

As the friend I was going to watch it with originally had to work, I braved the cinema alone. The main audience memebers seemed to be a peculiar bunch of single middle aged men, some of who I'm convinced hadn't taken a shower since last year...it's hard to say whether this is the type of demographic the Japanese action film appeals to these days, or it's simply the normal Monday afternoon crowd....I'd like to hope it's the later.

On to the movie. first of all 'Karate Girl' is completely different from 'High Kick Girl', that is Rina Takeda is playing a different character from the original movie, making it a whole new story unrelated to 'High Kick Girl'. Gone is the cocky over-confident character from the first movie, and instead we're presented with a character who is completely the opposite, one who has a tragic past and has made a promise not to use her karate skills for fear of the trouble it would bring her (think Bruce Lee in 'The Big Boss'!).

This promise brings the first of the movies problems, this should be Rina's show. However the first 2 highlight action scenes of the movie don't even belong to her, instead we get a flashback sequence which opens the movie of Tatsuya Naka (playing Rina's father instead of teacher this time) taking down a bunch of attackers swiftly and brutally, minus the excessive slow motion from the original movie, and secondly we're presented with 13 year old Hina Tobimatsu, who should really be given equal billing with Rina and plays her estranged sister, kicking the living daylights out of the members of a karate dojo.

Special mention should go to Hina Tobimatsu, as she seems to have been raised on a diet of Hwang Jang Lee movies. At such a young age, this girl kicks, and kicks hard. Ariel kicks, spin kicks, multiple-hit flying kicks, high kicks....this girl does it all, and sells them convincingly.

Rina gets a few brief moments to shine, but to be completely honest she doesn't have a whole lot to do action wise until the finale of the movie, which is a simply bizarre decision from the film-makers. Thankfully she seems to possess what seems to be a rare trait amongst Japanese actors these days....screen presence. Even when not in action, she manages to carry the movie along pretty well.

As for the action, the big question will obviously be did they learn from the mistakes they made with 'High Kick Girl'? Thankfully the answer is yes, as slow motion is used sparingly to just replay an impressive kick here and there. All the other performers are on top of their game as well, including Richard Heselton, who plays the wheel chair ridden villains main henchman and looks to be a tonne of pure karate muscle. The final fight involves Rina & Hina joining forces to defeat him (this isn't a spoiler by the way, it's obvious).

The only problem I had with one of the main sequences is that when the 2 sisters take on the bad guys lair at the end, Hina charges down a corridor taking on multiple attackers in a fantastic long take which really makes you appreciate her skill, whereas Rina is confined to a bunch of quick edit shots taking on various attackers...for example run up a wall and kick one bad guy, cut to consecutively spin kicking 4 bad guys, cut to kicking another bad guy...these shots are actually in the trailer, but I thought they'd appear differently in the final movie.

All in all though 'Karate Girl' is a step forward for Japanese action cinema, actually looking at all the performers in the movie, and considering they are all native Japanese people, I would be willing to argue Japan actually has the most talented pool of screen fighters in Asia at the moment, more than Hong Kong & Thailand....it just's a pity that they are working in a film industry that really doesn't know what to do with them. In that way, we should be thankful for movies like this one, where they all get to show their stuff...here's hoping 'Kunoichi' is another step in the right direction for Rina Takeda.

Thanks for the review one armed boxer. Thankfully that sounds a lot better than high kick girl turned out to be. I must admit I'm a little disappointed to hear that Rina Tekeda doesn't feature all that much (from a fighting point of view) but you do have me intrigued with Hina Tobimatsu. Given her tender years she could well improve dramatically as she develops into an adult and should at least get much stronger. Definitely one for the future!

[Takuma]

R2J DVDs coming June 21st.

Standard Edition (1 Disc)

- Trailer

- Booklet

- CD (1st press limited)

Deluxe Edition (2 Discs)

- Trailer

- Booklet

- Documentary

- Featurettes

- Events (opening day etc,)

- Music Video

- CD (1st press limited)

- Poster gallery

- Cast & Crew files

No subs of course.

Amazon is taking pre-oders already:

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B004RZU2OS

http://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B004RZU2P2

Cdjapan not yet, but you can find the dvds under these links when they add them to the site:

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DSTD-3360

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DSTD-3361

[One Armed Boxer]

@One-Armed Boxer: Do enemies still stand completely motionless so that they can be KO'd instantly? I reckon they trained for "recreation" lmao.

Ha ha...I didn't notice in this one! However I think some people notice this more than others, it all comes down to how much realism you want. I heard the same complaints about it being too obvious that people are waiting to be hit for the movies 'Chocolate' & 'Ong Bak 2'...and while I'd actually agree to an extent, I'd have to say it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the movies in the slightest. But back to your point, 'KG' is a much more solid affair when it comes to the fights than 'High Kick Girl' in my humble opinion!

R2J DVDs coming June 21st.

I'll be in front of Tsutaya when it opens!

Thanks for the review one armed boxer. Thankfully that sounds a lot better than high kick girl turned out to be. I must admit I'm a little disappointed to hear that Rina Tekeda doesn't feature all that much (from a fighting point of view) but you do have me intrigued with Hina Tobimatsu. Given her tender years she could well improve dramatically as she develops into an adult and should at least get much stronger. Definitely one for the future!

Agreed, & I'd have to say the final shot of the movie would make an awesome image for the future of Japanese action cinema, when you see the movie you'll know what I mean!

Just to touch on Takuma's very well thought out and insightful post, and I won't quote the whole thing because it'll take up half the page!

ok, getting back to Rina Takeda or High Kick Girl. This film doesn't relate to kawaii much, nor is Takeda really a kawaii idol as far as I know...A high school girl is a seminal part of Japanese (pop) culture just like samurai or geisha. A high school girl is also a sex symbol, among many other things (which include pureness, that is, anti sex symbol), but not in this film.

Completely spot on, the movies 'High Kick Girl' and 'KG' couldn't be considered sexualized at all. Takuma makes a good point that you do actually need to live or have lived in Japan to have any chance of getting a grasp on the culture, something that I have learnt myself first hand through living here. But trust me, you will see school girls wearing skirts much shorter than Takeda wears in these movies on any given day of the week on the Tokyo metro system...the movie is in no way trying to make a sex symbol out of Takeda, it is simply a representation of every day reality in Japan.

What typically is the final straw to break a foreigner's back is the fact that Japanese pop-culture is indeed overly sexualized in many, but not all areas. In addition, you also have to remember the Japanese can have a very natural approach towards issues like nudity, partly thanks to onsen and bathhouse culture (no, you don't wear swimsuits there). And sex is not a taboo subject in Japan like it is in some other contries like USA and the UK.

Once again completely spot on. Yes, attitudes towards nudity and sex are much more natural in Japan. I would also attribute the nudity element to the onsen (hot spring) culture, it is very normal and popular for families to take onsen vacations together. Yes the men and women are seperated usually, although communal onsens do still exist, however even to me the thought of bathing naked with my father or grandfather is simply too bizarre a concept to get my head around. However in Japan it is very natural, and it has been part of the culture for as long as it's history, hence why there is not that uptightness about nudity that you find in other cultures.

Regarding the sex element, my own personal take on this apect of Japanese culture is that, in my experience, Japan is the only country as far as I'm aware where sex is not somehow integrated into the nations religion. Christianity, Muslim, you name it...chances are sex takes an important role in the religious life. This is reflected in the countries culture, I'm from the UK, and you only need to take a look at any standard lads magazine (FHM, GQ etc.) to see the image of things like one-night stands etc. being portrayed as something which is quite 'naughty' to do.

None of that guilt or those feelings are attributed in Japan, and perhaps that's why sex is a much bigger part of every day culture here. It's in magazines, it's joked about on TV, hell I'm a kids English teacher and I have 10 year old students who know what sex is...it's just part of the culture. As Takuma mentions it's not a taboo subject like in most other countries, such as in the UK most parents feel the responsibility to give their child a talk about "the facts of life" at some point around puberty, as if they're learning some big forbidden secret, chances are in Japan kids will already know what the deal is long before there's even a trace of puberty beginning, that's just the way things are here.

[Guest WuxiaFan]

R2J DVDs coming June 21st.

Standard Edition (1 Disc)

- Trailer

- Booklet

- CD (1st press limited)

Deluxe Edition (2 Discs)

- Trailer

- Booklet

- Documentary

- Featurettes

- Events (opening day etc,)

- Music Video

- CD (1st press limited)

- Poster gallery

- Cast & Crew files

No subs of course.

That sucks! Maybe First Look Pictures will pick it up for US distribution. They have HIGH KICK GIRL. Thanks for posting.

OAB and Takuma - great review and interesting comments below regarding Japanese culture.

[Metalhero]

Can't wait for this, but it's a shame the ausence of english subs.

[BLfan]

Karate Girl is showing at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in London's Prince Charles Cinema on Sunday 8th March 2011. Rina Takeda, the star is also going to be there to have a Q and A session.

[IgaNinja]

anyone know where I can get this film,Ive been searching every week incase its popped up somewhere but nothing. I really need to see it,anyone swing me a PM with details or a link would be appreciated.

[Takuma]

anyone know where I can get this film,Ive been searching every week incase its popped up somewhere but nothing. I really need to see it,anyone swing me a PM with details or a link would be appreciated.

Of course you can't get it yet, as the first dvd release won't be out till next month (see my previous post).

I have it on pre-order, of course.

[IgaNinja]

Of course you can't get it yet, as the first dvd release won't be out till next month (see my previous post).

I have it on pre-order, of course.

ah damn lol,Im jumping the gun abit.