Karate Kill (Kurando Mitsutake, 2016)

[Takuma]

Kurando Mitsutake (Gun Woman) is currently filming his new movie, Karate Kill. Stars Hayate, Asami, Mana Sakura (AV star). Planned for 2016 release.

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/karatekillmovie

Mitsutake mentioned a little bit about the movie before in an interview

 

I can't disclose the title yet, but the new feature is going to be a martial arts movie. It's a project that was offered to me out of the blue. I didn't develop this one like the other ones, but they're letting me write the script so it's going to be my vision, my concept.

This amazing martial artist from Japan was presented to me, and my mission is to make him a movie star. He's amazing, he does karate, but it's a karate that no one has seen before. Kind of a dark side of karate, a pure assassination karate and I'm super excited.

- http://twitchfilm.com/2015/05/interview-samurai-avenger-the-blind-wolfs-kurando-mitsutake-on-his-journey-from-japan-the-usa-and-ba.html

 

 

Edited September 27, 2015 by Takuma

[ShaOW!linDude]

I'll be interested to see this. Hope it has some killer choreography.

[Takuma]

Let me re-post the missing content:

 

Mitsutake interview at Fangoria:
http://www.fangoria.com/new/bifan-2016-director-kurando-mitsutake-talks-karate-kill/

A few quotes

About filming the fight scenes ( [...] means I've omitted sentence(s))
"In movie fighting, we always stress safety first. So say there is a punching scene, you wouldn’t punch at their face, you would punch to the side. But because Hayate is the real deal, he prefers that it actually comes at his face, because he’s 100% sure he can dodge it. But the stunt people’s instinct is to punch to the side, which is where his face is going to go when he dodges! So that was a difficult adjustment. We had to ask the stunt people to actually go for his face. Which I think made our fights a little more realistic."

About producer Kubo discovering star Hayate
"...when they came to Yubari Fantastic Film Festival in Hokkaido, Japan, Hayate didn’t have his own hotel room. [...] So Hayate couldn’t find a place, and Kubo said “Fine, you can crash on my couch. [...] So when Hayate told him, “I’ve been doing Karate for twenty years,” he said, “Okay, show me some moves.” [...]

So when Kubo saw it, he was like, “Holy shit, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen! I need to make my next film starring him.” Then, at that time, at Yubari Film Festival, GUN WOMAN was playing. Kubo came to watch it, and was like “Holy shit, who’s this crazy director? Ah, maybe he should direct Hayate.”

Hah, I was in Yubari at that time. I was actually sitting next to Dean Harada, the composer of Gun Woman and Karate Kill, in the Gun Woman screening. And I was in the Danger Dolls screening too, at a time when no one knew who Hayate was...

[Takuma]

I saw this yesterday in Tokyo.

The good news that is I can't imagine anyone getting bored with this. There's almost nothing but karate, violence, and boobs. It's also shot on much better quality digital video and has better lighting than Gun Woman. And don't be fooled by the Japanese R15 rating; that just means that there's no necrophilia or full frontal nudity. It's a strong '18' by any other country's standards.

The bad news is that in some ways, it is a step back from Gun Woman. While Gun Woman really  benefitted from its genius plot concept, this one is more of a standard "save the kidnapped sister" affair, although with a semi-interesting "gore for online junkies" theme. Cinematography is also less innovative, there's frequent CGI blood in gunplay scenes, and Harada's score is weaker. It feels like a DTV film.

Hayate is alright in the lead; he's one of those guys whose muscles are bigger than his charisma. Impressive karate, solid choreography, and quite clearly captured on camera, but unfortunately Mitsutake is no martial arts aficionado. He should have exploited the martial arts angle more, with more fights, more training scenes, more philosophy. Now it is, as he said, like Dirty Harry's Magnum .44: a frequently used tool.

Fun movie, but I expected more after Gun Woman. I might see it again next year (!) when it lands a theatre in my neighbourhood to see it with adjusted expectations.

Asami, Hayate, Mitsutake

[Takuma]

JP BD coming March 3.

BD/DVD dual + soundtrack CD. No subs. The film is spoken about 60% in Japanese, 40% in English if I recall correctly.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01N47LRSO

[One Armed Boxer]

2 hours ago, Takuma said:

JP BD coming March 3.

BD/DVD dual + soundtrack CD. No subs. The film is spoken about 60% in Japanese, 40% in English if I recall correctly.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01N47LRSO

Tempting....very tempting.

It's been 5 years since I left Japan, and a long time since I gave up buying unsubbed Japanese movies,  my Japanese language skills got pushed out of my brain by the need to learn Korean (it's an in-law thing ).  However with a 60/40 language ratio, and no sign of a western distribution deal yet, this may call for an exception.

[ShaOW!linDude]

I don't understand why Japan doesn't make their initial releases subbed. Surely they know there's an international market for many of their films. And then it takes forever for one to come down the line. Rurouni Kenshin is a prime example. It took what? Almost 3 years before it finally got a legit US release a few months ago. Who knows how long before 2 & 3 do? Come on already!

(Hmmm, apparently those were hitting the store even as I wrote those last 2 lines.)

Edited January 13, 2017 by ShaOW!linDude

[mpm74]

Coming the U.S. DVD/Blu-ray in May:

http://cityonfire.com/1980s-style-illustrated-poster-for-kurando-mitsutake-karate-kill/

[One Armed Boxer]

5 hours ago, mpm74 said:

Coming the U.S. DVD/Blu-ray in May:

http://cityonfire.com/1980s-style-illustrated-poster-for-kurando-mitsutake-karate-kill/

Now I'm happy I held off...great news! 

@ShaOW!linDude, are you paying attention?

[ShaOW!linDude]

2 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

@ShaOW!linDude, are you paying attention?

I am now. 

[mpm74]

I guess the announcement for the film's U.S. DVD was a bit premature. @One Armed Boxer recently received an E-mail from the film's producer that an actual release date is not officially set (hence, had to pull the article), but the film is still very likely to see the light of day soon.... so I'd hold your Japanese yen for now.

[AlbertV]

Official U.S. DVD/Blu-Ray/VOD release date: July 18, 2017 from Dark Cuts. I got the official word over the weekend.

[One Armed Boxer]

I got through watching this one recently. A lean & mean karate flick, if Sonny Chiba made 'The Street Fighter' today this could well be what it would look like. Check out my full review here -

http://cityonfire.com/karate-kill-2016-review-blu-ray-dvd-hayate-david-sakurai-asami-katarina-leigh-waters/

[Takuma]

4 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

I got through watching this one recently. A lean & mean karate flick, if Sonny Chiba made 'The Street Fighter' today this could well be what it would look like. Check out my full review here -

http://cityonfire.com/karate-kill-2016-review-blu-ray-dvd-hayate-david-sakurai-asami-katarina-leigh-waters/

Good review!

Also, purity award for writing 8651 words without a single mention of the hugely popular Japanese AV actress Mana Sakura

 

Edited June 6, 2017 by Takuma

[One Armed Boxer]

23 minutes ago, Takuma said:

Good review!

Also, purity award for writing 8651 word without a single mention of the hugely popular Japanese AV actress Mana Sakura

 

Cheers @Takuma, & it's a great honour to accept the award, writing a review is all about knowing who your audience is.

[DrNgor]

Great review!

Tossing a nun's salad?...*sigh*...Only the Japanese...(or perhaps Joe D'Amato).

[AlbertV]

I got to see this on Wednesday and wow!!!!

https://worldfilmgeek.com/2017/06/08/review-karate-kill-2016/

[One Armed Boxer]

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with the director of 'Karate Kill', Kurando Mitsutake. A man on a mission to put Japanese action cinema back on the map, for indepth insights into how to punch a Karate black belt in the face, and where the future of Japanese genre cinema is headed, check out the link below -

http://cityonfire.com/exclusive-interview-with-kurando-mitsutake-karate-kill-gun-woman/

[Takuma]

Excellent interview. Thanks!

[KUNG FU BOB]

"Karate mutherf***er!" -yelled by a Texan bar tramp

This was even better the second time around. Time to share my thoughts on this with my forum family.

The lead, Hayate, may be missing the enormous "star charisma" of Sonny Chiba or Bruce Lee, but he is obviously a tremendously skilled real-life karate expert (oh, and he also does some great parkour too), surprisingly competent actor (it's his first acting role), and commits himself fully to the role.

Not recommended as "first date" material people.  This is EXPLOITATION CINEMA with no qualms about it. There's plenty of gratuitous exposed skin and violence, along with over-the-top dialog, characters, and situations.

Unlike way too many other action films these days, the fight scenes (aside from one "inventively filmed" shot that I absolutely hate) are filmed competently so that the we can clearly see what is going on, and appreciate the martial arts techniques on display.

The plot is minimal, but well-handled. Our hero Kenji's sister Mayumi (Mana Sakura) moved to the USA to go to school, and when she stops answering his calls he leaves Japan to find out what's happened to her. The young woman's disappearance involves a sleazy hostess bar run by gangsters, and an online snuff & torture website called Capitol Messiah, created by a Charles Manson-esque psycho (Kirk Geiger) and his gang of murderous, drug-addicted, martial arts practicing brain-washed killers. Kenji will stop at nothing to rescue her, and he is joined by the equally determined, one-handed Keiko (Asami, the unforgettable star of the director's previous film, 2014's  GUN WOMAN) in their bloody quest.

Despite the film's low budget, the filmmakers managed to make it look pretty damn good, and it features excellent lighting, interesting locations, a cool soundtrack (included as a separate disc with the US region 1 Blu-ray release from Dark Cuts), and impressive practical effects (in conjunction with some moments of iffy "we-did-the-best-that-we-could-with-this-budget" CGI blood).

Director Kurando Mitsutake is an unapologetic exploitation movie fan, and has created exactly the kind of film that so many try to make, but fail at. With KARATE KILL and GUN WOMAN he created the kind of movies that Robert Rodriguez's fake trailer for MACHETE promised, but that the actual feature largely failed to deliver. Here, the hero gets thoroughly trashed, but with additional, unconventional training, rises back up for vengeance, the scumbags get what they have coming to them (big time), there's lots of dark laughs and absurd situations, and the movie completely lives up to its title and colorful poster art.

On the strength of this and GUN WOMAN, I finally purchased director Mitsutake's second feature (in which he also plays the lead character) 2009's SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF, and I will let you guys know what I think of it as soon as I get the chance to check it out.

Please support this release by buying the Blu-ray. It's from a small distributor, and the film is by one of the few independent genre film making our kinds of movies these days. Without us (the hardcore Asian action cinema fans) purchasing titles like this, we will be letting the genre die a slow, excruciating death at the hands of countless downloaders. It's only $16 and a half bucks right now on Amazon for the 2 disc release.  Get your copy now! 7.5 out of 10 stars.

[Takuma]

This praise makes me want to revisit the film. Perhaps I was being too hard on it on my initial viewing...

Meanwhile I can revisit the Mana Sakura nude photobook that my friend gave me as a present

[KUNG FU BOB]

10 hours ago, Takuma said:

This praise makes me want to revisit the film. Perhaps I was being too hard on it on my initial viewing...

Meanwhile I can revisit the Mana Sakura nude photobook that my friend gave me as a present

It's far from perfect, but somehow still exactly what I feel it's supposed to be. Just the fact that I chose to revisit it again so soon, bypassing an enormous amount of other things in my "to watch" pile tells you something about the film's charm.

I'm envious! She is extremely lovely and I wouldn't mind seeing a book celebrating her physical attributes. Great present!

[Takuma]

All the recent praise made me give this another go. I mostly stand behind my original comments, but I enjoyed it better this time.

It's a fun karate exploitation film with solid fights, although it lacks unforgettable highlights. Liked Dean Harada's score better this time. It's "silly-epic" but fits the film. There's a 10 minute seqment in the middle of the film with training & love scenes that is especially good, partly thanks to Harada.

There's still a couple of things that bothered me... the CGI blood in the gunplay scenes, and Mana's escape attempt (come on, we knew from the start exactly how that was going to play out).

I chuckled a bit when I saw Yubari's programming director Tokitoshi Shiota (in reddish jacket) as a strip club customer.
NSFW: https://sketchesofcinema.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/tokitoshi1.jpg

Oh and the stripper (Tia) is the female lead in Colonel Panics (2016), the best cyberpunk film of the decade so far.

Colonel Panics screening in Yubari this year.

Edited April 25, 2018 by Takuma

[Koravec]

Just watched this. Although the trailer hinted at it, I wasnt aware of the gore and subject matter this movie would be dealing with. Characterized as half martial arts movie half horror. I actually considered turning it off as its not the sort of thing I like feeding my brain. 

The gore is pretty gross and unnecasarily, similar to other films in the same vien, and not brutal and interesting like in Riki Oh. 

In regards to this I actually didnt care for the plot. I really disliked the antagonist (group) and hated their appearance (cool villains are sometimes essential). 

However some of the fight scenes were really entertaining. I couldnt make up my mind about the camera doing a front flip whilst in fight scene, however I was able to follow along with what was going on despite that, so I ended up not minding it too much.The end fight was very entertaining and inventive, despite introducing a skilled samurai out of nowhere. The protagonist and samurai master are placed squaring off in the back of a moving semi truck. (upcoming spoiler)

Spoiler

 

And the bastard from an earlier scene reappears as a ghost/figment-of-imagination and reminds him of an insight on how to deflect a sword. This scene was bizarre as it almost seemed to cast that character in a positive light, which was not accurate. This scene also proposes a cool idea. I could see an entire film or anime being based on this idea. Where ghosts of people killed by the protagonist reappear to give useful insight on how to defeat a current opponent based on difficulties faced when the protagonist had to defeat them. 

He now leans into the sword and breaks it in two with his arms, defeats the samurai. He takes the broken sword piece and tomahawks it through the wall and passenger carrier where the driver is, impending straight through his head. 😂 Nice.  

 

 

[ShaOW!linDude]

A mysterious karate master (HM), named Kenji, searches for his sister who was kidnapped by a psycho cult leader who, along with his followers, abuses and kill his victims while streaming the assaults on the dark web. In his search, he meets Keiko (Asami), a former victim that managed to escape, who assists him in his rescue attempt.

I watched this without subtitles but that's essentially the gist of the movie, which really isn't hard to follow. It has a definite sort of grindhouse feel to it. The film is rife with sexual exploitation, many of the characters (especially the villain) are almost bombastically over the top, and the violence is quite gory at times. David Sakurai shows up for a fight as a swordsman, and it's fairly good, but not necessarily a highlight of the movie. The choreography is very good, though there's really no bootwork to be had. No flashy kicks here, and what few there are kept and devastating. I did like the dynamic between Kenji & Keiko. As whole I liked the character Kenji, and Hayate has a good screen presence. He favors Jet Li in speed and stature, but the viciousness of choreography puts Kenji in a league with Sonny Chiba's "Street Fighter" films. And that is basically what I was thinking as I watched this: Karate Kill is the Street Fighter of the 21st Century. But that's me.