KARATE GIRL (K.G.) DVD (2011)

SYNOPSIS: Ayaka Kurenai (Rina Takeda) and Natsuki (Hina Tobimatsu ) are the young descendants of a legendary Okinawan karate master. As children, they live a happy life with their father who encourages them both to practice karate. However, one day a mysterious group breaks into their dojo - killing their father, kidnapping Natsuki, and stealing the black belt which has been passed down in their family for over 200 years. Several years later, Ayaka is living the humble life of an ordinary high school student in Yokohama. Natsuki, on the other hand, has been trained as a killing machine by the mysterious group that kidnapped her all those years ago. Soon, Natsuki and the group begin to take aim at Ayaka. Out of love for her sister, Ayaka decides to do whatever it takes to get Natsuki and their family's black belt back from the clutches of the mysterious group...

MOVIE REVIEW:

“Karate Girl” ought to be the most down-to-earth action movie I have seen in recent history. No fancy wire-fu works, no gravity-defying somersaults and no explosions to speak of. All it has is generous display of karate kicks and punches.  

Featuring real-life black belt karate champion Rina Takeda in her sophomore full-length movie, the plotting of “Karate Girl” can be best described as functional. Riddled with clichés and awkwardly passive, the story begins with a karate master in Okinawa being attacked by a group of evil men led by Tagawa Shu who wishes to lay his hands on the master’s legendary sacred belt. During the ordeal, the master is killed while one of her daughters; Sakura is kidnapped by Shu and raised to be a ruthless killer. His elder daughter, Ayaka (Takeda) managed to survive and went on to live with an adopted family in Yokohama with a changed identity. Years later, while working as a cinema attendant, her karate skills are exposed on the Internet arousing the attention of Shu and his gang. It turns out the sacred belt they took is a fake and they are looking for the actual one whom they believed is in the hands of Ayaka.   

Pacing is a major problem in “Karate Girl” apparently as they are too many scenes that are stretchy and utterly boring. Watching a villainous character mouthing predictable dialog can be excruciating and having a karate champion standing around mouthing more pages of dialog is a sin. The action only starts to heat up in the last 20 minutes or so and that is if you are still awake by then. There are pros and cons on settling for some old school action choreography. The good thing of course is watching Takeda’s amazing skills liked leaping and going on disabling her three opponents with her deadly kicks. The bad thing is you can’t help feeling the moves are simply repetitive and lacks certain flair to impress after a while.

Hina Tobimatsu who plays Sakura, the younger sis of Ayaka is another action star to watch out for given her equally nimble moves and Richard Heselton, another judo and boxing athlete plays the typical Caucasian baddie. Admittedly, “Karate Girl” is a poorly executed piece of martial-arts work peppered with too many unnecessary slow-mo moments to showcase the action. Comparing this to “Jija” Yanin’s debut in the Thai action flick, “Chocolate”, Rina Takeda needs a stronger, bolder vehicle to launch her career further. This piece of shoddy work probably qualifies only as an introductory piece in her resume. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD comes only with a Trailer.

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The visual is overall satisfactory while the music soundtrack and background effects are a notch louder than the actual dialog which can be irritating at times.

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee