Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

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.

If you want 100% realistic fighting, then "High-Kick Girl!" is the movie for you. This is not a perfect film - what martial arts movie is? - but what gets it by is the fact that all the fights in the film, as I said before, are 100% realistic and used no wire-work or CGI (and if they did, they did a damn good job of concealing it in post-production, but I don't think that's the case here)."High-Kick Girl!" is a 100% total Karate kick-fest. It's been awhile since there have been any significant showcases for this beautiful Japanese art stateside, but this flick delivers the goods. Kei Tsuchiya (newcomer Rina Takeda) is a teenage Karate brown belt who displays some incredible fighting skills, yet her master Matsumura (Tatsuya Naka) won't promote her to the coveted black belt rank because he feels she isn't ready for it.To get her "kicks," Kei has earned a reputation on the streets as the notorious "black belt hunter," challenging the highest-ranking students at Karate dojos all over town and taking their black belts as trophies. Through a friend, Kei manages to get an audition for the Kowashiya ("Destroyer") group, a gang of martial arts-trained thugs who control much of the city's organized crime. Kei passes her test by drubbing a group of schoolgirls but is unaware that she is being used as bait to lure her master into a trap. But Kei learns too late when it turns out that the Destroyers have a grudge against Matsumura and are going to use her to draw him out of hiding."High-Kick Girl!" was co-written and directed by first-timer Fuyuhiko Nishi (from his own novel of the same name), and it's an impressive debut. He chooses to use wide-angle shots to capture all the action to give the impression to the viewer that all the fighting and acrobatic stunts are indeed real, and no CGI, wires, or camera trickery was used to enhance them. Also worth noting about the fights themselves is their authenticity: many times it looks as if Rina Takeda and company are really going at it by using full-contact fighting. When someone gets punched (or kicked) in the head, it looks and sounds like it really hurts. It definitely adds to the realism that the movie seems so desperately hard trying to achieve, especially in a genre where realism often takes a backseat to the fantastic (and damn-near impossible). (Most impressive about this particular aspect of the picture is the fact that there's no blood or outlandish gore whatsoever, despite the high-impact intensity and violence of the Karate fighting sequences. Additionally, there's no sex, nudity, or gratuitous shots up Takeda's skirt. And did I mention how strikingly attractive some of Takeda's female sparring partners are?)All of this is a plus in a genre that for a while there, seemed to be on the CGI bandwagon in the wake of "The Matrix" (1999), its sequels, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000). One last thing is that the fights take up pretty much the entire movie. There isn't a whole lot of time wasted on character development, phony theatrics or dramatics, or unnecessary plot devices. For martial arts movie fans wanting a not-stop fight-fest, this is the movie for you.The problems arise with the uneven script and the director's choice of including slow-motion replays of all the coolest fighting sequences. This is something that hampered the enjoyment of the otherwise fantastic "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" (2003) and Tony Jaa was wise to abandon this trend for his next feature "The Protector" (2005). The reason it's so unnecessary is because it ruins the tone of the fighting sequences and draws them out, trying the patience of the viewer. The most significant low point of the picture, however, is that Kei starts out as such a high-kicking Karate bad-ass - she's arrogant, yes, and undisciplined and has earned her bragging rights, but she's still a bad-ass - but when she is taken hostage by the Destroyers, she suddenly becomes limp, secondary, and a damsel-in-distress to Matsumura's extremely humbled and disciplined one-man army who has come to try and rescue her.I guess that even with these discrepancies, "High-Kick Girl!" still ends on a good note where Kei has learned a valuable lesson about her experiences and Karate's underlying philosophy about how real power rests in the art's katas ("forms") and not the fists (or legs, for that matter), and that patience and discipline are treasured above all else. Rina Takeda has a great future ahead of her, if she ever chooses that route. Despite her strong skills and being a strikingly attractive young woman (yeah, she's definitely a cutie, in the eyes of this poor male) - and perhaps being the first female martial arts star from Japan since Etsuko Shihomi of the "Sister Street Fighter" films in the mid-'70s - "High-Kick Girl!" is equally Tatsuya Naka's picture, since the stoic, disciplined Karate master becomes a major force in the film's second half, a sort of yin to Takeda's yang.Karate is a strikingly (no pun intended) beautiful art, which I think was perhaps the point of this movie and why the director went to such extreme lengths to showcase the fighters' abilities when duking it out on-screen. Of course, if his script had been better and the film's protagonist wasn't relegated to a secondary role in the third act, this film would have been perfect viewing for any martial arts movie fan.7/10

Fuyuhiko Nishi's "High Kick Girl!" is a sometimes interesting throwback to 70's martial arts films like "Gekitotsu! Satsujin Ken AKA The Street Fighter" and "Onna Hissatsu Ken AKA Sister Streetfighter" but ultimately fails to provide enough thrills or drama to keep viewers entertained. What we are left with is a plot-less and somewhat boring film whose only trump card is watching cute new comer Takeda Rina kick-ass quite impressively.Takeda Rina is the latest in a wave of cute, martial artists breaking into the movie scene. In the last couple of years we saw the debut of two similarly lithe and deadly cuties in Luxia Jiang (star of "Coweb" and winner of Jackie Chan's "The Disciple" HK reality show) and Jeeja Yanin (Thai martial arts phenome and star of "Chocolate" and "Raging Phoenix"). Takeda certainly has the skills of an up-and-coming martial arts star being a 1st degree (Ichi Dan) Black Belt in Karate with the Ryukyu/Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do Genshin Kai. With her tall lanky frame and long legs, Takeda's specialty seems to be high kicks to the heads of opponents, earning her the movie's title. Takeda's impressive high kicks and cute face however can't save this "one trick pony" of a movie which suffers under the weight of a weak story and some terrible acting.The story is lethargic at best and revolves around Takeda's character Tsuchiya Kei, a skilled albeit brash Karate student who spends her time challenging other Karate school students to test her prowess. She is a student of famed Karate instructor, Matsumoto Yoshiaki (portrayed by real life Japan Karate Association lead instructor and former All Japan Karate champion Taka Tatsuya) who is unimpressed by her abilities and who chides her for exploiting her training.The rebellious Tsuchiya is soon contacted by a mysterious caller who offers her a chance to use her skills and earn money as a "kowashiya" ("breaker" i.e. enforcer). Intrigued Tsuchiya takes up the caller's proposal but before she can start, the caller has her take an initiation to test her Karate. Tsuchiya soon finds herself facing off a number of high school punks in an abandoned building including a group of Sukeban with similar Karate skills. Tsuchiya easily bests the bunch and is soon introduced to the caller who turns out to be Ryuzoku (Sudo Masahiro) a former associate of Matsumoto with a grudge. Ryuzoku is part of a larger mob of other Kowashiya led under the sinister Genga (Amano Koji) who all want revenge on Matsumoto for some unrevealed wrong(it is hinted that Matsumoto was once a part of their organization but left). Tsuchiya learns that this was all part of a trap to find Matsumoto and get revenge on him. Tsuchiya and her classmate are overpowered by Genga and his minions and it is up to Matsumoto to save them but can he fight through waves of Genga's best fighters in time?Even though Takeda is supposed to be the heroine of the story, it is surprisingly Taka who dominates much of the last act of the movie and does the lion share of the fighting. The movie seems like one part action film and the other part a Karate instructional video. There are several odd moments when Taka expounds on how to be a virtuous martial artist and use Karate in a responsible way. The films takes a preachy attitude about Karate and patronizes the audience with its message. While Takeda may be a good martial artist she unfortunately lacks the acting experience to carry a film and while she does an admirable job for a beginner, she is charmless as Tsuchiya and is rather bland as a the Tsuchiya character.Unlike some of her Japanese predecessors like Oshima Yukari, Nishiwaki Michiko, Morinaga Naomi and recent female action star Mizuno Miki she doesn't quite have the fighting versatility or ferocity to really make an impact. Takeda may be on par with 70s Toei action icon Shiomi Etsuko in fighting skills but lacks her acting skills and on screen charisma.Taka is stoic and exudes authority as Matsumoto but is also very boring as the Taka character. The villains suffer the most from character under-development as they merely act as cannon fodder for Takeda and Taka's kicks and punches. It is almost like a video game where one waits for the next opponent to get their face bashed in. Neither Ryuzoku and Genga are interesting as villains save for their stereotypical bad-guy appearances and despite being touted as the badass leaders of this criminal organization are dispatched in shockingly anticlimactic fashion. They don't even put up a decent fight.Some of the earlier fight scenes are pretty decent and the stunt men and women involved definitely should get some credit for allowing themselves to be on the receiving end of some very painful kicks and hits for the camera. Unfortunately the thrill of the fights is undermined by director Nishi's insistence on replaying and rewinding every fight scene in nauseating slow motion. The first couple of times may have been novel but when it is done for every single fight scene it becomes just plain irritating. It takes away from the action in very dumb way."High Kick Girl" is a disappointing action film made on the cheap and which features martial artists trying to act but whose inexperience shows. "High Kick Girl" had the potential to be a Japanese equivalent to the HK "girls with guns" films but failed to live up to those expectations. Perhaps Takeda's next film will be a better showcase for her and allow her more opportunity to act. Maybe she can get her fame through Tokusatsu TV (Live Action Science Fiction TV) although I think she deserves better.