Karate Girl aka KG

[GeneChing]

Rina Takeda is back and I still haven't seen High Kick Girl.

Karate Girl (KG) theatrical trailer - Rina Takeda martial arts movie

Official website

Rina's latest is called The Kunoichi: Ninja Girl.

Obviously, I got to catch up to this girl.

[GeneChing]

This was my first Rina Takeda flick. She's a Shorin-Ryu black belt who has done a series of 'girl' MA flicks: High Kick Girl! (2009), The Ancient Dogoo Girl (2010) & Ninja Girl (2011). She's also in Dead Sushi. KG is a classic revenge flick with some major black belt fetishism tossed in. Some villains try to steal a sacred black belt, kill Rina's dad and kidnap her sister. Years later, she's working at a movie theater and makes news by thwarting a crime (this gave me flashbacks to when I worked in a movie theater because it was just like that ). The villains see her in the news, realize they have the wrong belt and mayhem ensues.

It's remarkably tame in terms of ultravi. Not too bloody. No nudity. In fact, Rina wears some tasteful sports shorts under her short Harajuku dress, unlike the typical peek-a-boo panties for most Kogal perv films. You never really learn what the villains do that is so villainous, except the initial belt stealing crime, and that they all live in some sort of industrial hideout with oppressive cement walls and huge pipes. There's this underlying theme of traditional Karate versus modern - expressed in several digs at Kata, which is ironic because Rina's Kata is where she really shines. She has beautiful traditional form. As for the fights, like Jeeja, she's very acrobatic and gets off flying triple kicks, but the sense of impact is sacrificed. They look more like love taps than something that could knock a villain out. She manages some long single-shot multiple opponent choreographed sequences, but the villains wait in line to get knocked out and the effect is unconvincing overall. But still, Rina has a charismatic presence and I might check out more of her flicks when they come to Netflix. She really just needs a better director and cinematographer.

There is a sword versus numbchuk fight. It's got nothing on Bruce's sword vs. nunchuku in Fist of Fury.