Bullets 'n' Babes

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 ... nd-ba.html

Teaser trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ld0vV7mk4

A bit underwhelming, but I've heard secret comments that the film is good.

Unfortunately I haven't seen the film myself. This is all they showed in Yubari too. Of course the world premiere hasn't been held yet, but I'm really wondering if there was a secret screening in Yubari that I didn't get the word of, since the film is ready and they went through the trouble of flying Mana Sakura there and the only thing she was officially attending was a "Forbidden Zone" (screening section) talk show with Asami (who had plenty of other movies screened in Yubari. Maybe. Or maybe not.

A bit off topic, but in case anyone would like to know, SPL is Asami's favourite movie. Sammo and Donnie Yen are her favourite actors. She especially emphasized how sexy Sammo was in SPL despite his age.

- http://eiga.com/news/20160515/2/

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRBb4LG7AZg

Looks more SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF than GUN WOMAN from that trailer.

Mitsutake interview at Fangoria:
http://www.fangoria.com/new/bifan-2016- ... rate-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...

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

I had dinner with an old friend just before the film. He had brought me a gift and told me to open it.



"Fascinating lolita eros... Mana Sakura photo book"

My face when I open this in the middle of a family restaurant

Well, I have to admit it's a pretty well made and tasteful book and she's quite pretty.

[In case someone is not following, Mana Sakura is a super popular AV star who plays Hayate's kidnapped sister in Karate Kill]

Schilling review:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/201 ... tion-film/

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

US BD and DVD coming May 23, 2017
http://cityonfire.com/1980s-style-illus ... rate-kill/

It will also be released in April by 8-Films, who put out the massive special edition of GUN WOMAN in Austria:



There will apparently be a 60 minute long making of doc called "Behind Karate Kill", the usual teasers and trails and alternate end credits. Unlike GUN WOMAN, only German subs are listed for this one, which probably makes this release useless for most people if it has 60% Japanese dialogue.

A new interview with Mitsutake that covers a good deal of ground:

I believe the current trend for the market is nostalgic marketing – “yesterday once more” type of deal. This trend is clearly visible in indie genre filmmaking for sure. Tarantino started it with “Kill Bill” and “Grindhouse” and Netflix achieved a new horizon of this trend with “Stranger Things.” I dig it and I’m all on board because it’s like me trying to recreate what I loved as a teenager.

I’ve yet to do a full-on horror movie and I’m dying to do one. Hopefully I can get a green light this year on one of the several pitches that I have out there and get started on my 5th feature.

I'm definitely curious what a full-on horror movie from Mitsutake would be like.

HungFist wrote:US BD and DVD coming May 23, 2017
http://cityonfire.com/1980s-style-illus ... rate-kill/

Delayed until July 18th, 2017.

Guro Taku wrote:It will also be released in April by 8-Films, who put out the massive special edition of GUN WOMAN in Austria...

Unlike GUN WOMAN, only German subs are listed for this one, which probably makes this release useless for most people if it has 60% Japanese dialogue.

OK, this is pretty strange. The back cover only lists German subs. Every single webshop lists only German subs. The OFDb lists only German subs. The BD/DVD menus only list German subs. But you can still activate English subs via your remote while the film plays. Go figure. Maybe they will release the same disc in different territories and didn't want to press different discs? Anyway, if you still want an insanely overpriced "mediabook" release of this film, the Austrian release is actually English friendly.

As for the film, I agree that it isn't another GUN WOMAN but it also isn't the return of SAMURAI AVENGER's amateurishness like I feared when I saw the trailer. KARATE KILL is really quite well made on a technical level. There were a few of things I disliked, like the terrible CGI blood splatters during the final shootout and some acting of questionable quality. The internet snuff plot is plenty ridiculous but at least it isn't as bad as what we got with the likes of KILLERS or my personal favorite in that regard, Olivier Assayas' DEMONLOVER. I'll be there for Mitsutake's next film.

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.wordpres ... toshi1.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.