Verdict
Summary
Karate Kill is the best kind of blood-soaked mayhem with a new star in Hayate and lots of limb snapping goodness.
Plot: When a mysterious loner and Karate master Kenji’s little sister goes missing in Los Angeles, whoever stands in his way of finding her will face the wrath of a lethal KARATE KILL!
Review: All Hail Capital Messiah! Kurando Mitsutake’s latest movie Karate Kill is in the vein of 70’s/80’s exploitation movies with the right amount of humour, strangeness and graphic violence. There isn’t anything particularly offensive or shocking about the movie as it’s really just over the top, cartoon bloodshed but it is occasionally disturbing and mostly just a lot of fun.
As with many of the 70’s/80’s exploitation flicks some of the acting isn’t the greatest but that’s really what adds to the film’s entertainment factor.
Our hero Kenji (Hayate) is a new badass on the block with an impressive set of skills providing us with some massively entertaining fight scenes. He doesn’t say much and lets his fists and feet do the talking and that’s just fine by me. I can’t wait to see what he does next and I hope he becomes a big star.
Mitsutake makes the best of his low budget and even gives us plenty of blood squibs and I can confirm that a lot of blood is indeed shed in this movie but more importantly there’s nudity galore too which is always welcome. There is the odd bit of CG but for the most part it’s practical FX all the way.
There isn’t all that much to the story and frankly there doesn’t need to be; it’s all just an excuse for Kenji to bring the pain to anyone who gets in his way and reminds me of some Sonny Chiba style movies. It’s got a bonkers tone to it all and a suitably deranged villain who is unpredictable and pretty nasty.
It’s never dull with action and violence galore keeping the pacing tight and interesting.
Overall, Karate Kill is the best kind of blood-soaked mayhem with a new star in Hayate and lots of limb snapping goodness. If you’re a fan of 70’s/80’s exploitation martial arts movies then you’ll have a blast.
