High Kick Angels (2015)

High Kick Angels (2015)
Japanese title: ハイキック・エンジェルス
Translation: High Kick Angels

Starring: Kanon Miyahara, Kaede Aono, Risako Itô, Mayu Kawamoto, Hirona Nagashima, Chisato Morishita, Nana Shirai, Shingo Koyasu
Director: Kazuhiro Yokoyama
Action Director: Hiroyuki Yoshida

Considering the over-the-top nature of a lot of the Japanese movies I’ve seen recently, it is almost refreshing to watch one that could be described as “martial arts fare for the whole family.” Obviously, the adults would have to put up with a handful of shrill teenage schoolgirls, plus ignore the occasional panty shot of actress Kanon Miyahara whenever she’s throwing a kick or swinging a bo staff. Other than that, however, this film is a perfectly harmless way to spend an hour-and-a-half.

A cinema club at a Japanese high school has secured permission to make their student film—a kung fu movie—at an abandoned high school. We’ll eventually learn that the school was closed down following a scandal in which the principal embezzled a whopping sum of 1 billion yen over the course of his career. But for now, let’s focus on our teen action heroines.

The leader of the bunch is Sakura Yamanami (Kanon Miyahara, Black Fox: Age of the Ninja and Kamen Rider Amazons) – codenamed “Dragon May” –who is the action junkie of the outfit. She thinks she’s Bruce Lee, despite having no formal martial arts training. Asuka Kondo (Kyokushin black belt Mayu Kawamoto, of Girls in Trouble: Space Squad – Episode Zero)—codenamed “Tiger Yui”--is a bit of a scaredy-cat, but has genuine karate skillz. The diminuitive Miku Harusawa (Hirona Nagashima)—codenamed “Snake Yin”—is a crybaby who can fake fighting because of her ballet training. Finally, there is Fuyumi (Risako Itô, Bleach and Kamen Rider Build), the film club’s writer, photographer and de-facto director.

After filming a fight scene involving zombies, in which Sakura overenthusiastically face-kicks the film’s club’s supervisor, the girls are taking some time to rehearse and prepare the final fight scene. According to the script, Dragon May’s big showdown will be with a female thief named Angelica, whom Fuyumi cast her childhood friend and national karate champion Maki Akagi (Kaede Aono, of Asura Girl: A Blood-C Tale) in the role. Maki is a bit of a loner, but Fuyumi apparently convinced her after a year’s worth of pleading.

While the girls are waiting for Maki to show up, the school is visited by several land cruisers full of black-clad ruffians led by karate guy in a white-on-black suit (professional MMA fighter Shingo Koyasu) and a lady in sexy red leather jumpsuit (the credits refer to her as “J Rose,” and she’s played by Chisato Morishita of Kamen Rider Ryuki). J Rose also has a personal bodyguard in the form of a young lady named J Girl (Nana Shirai), who wears a sailor suit and a dog collar on her neck. These bad guys are after a bunch of flash memory drives that have been hidden in the school. Once found, the drives reveal the location of the embezzled money I mentioned earlier. And of course, this puts the thieves on a collision course with our Angels, who will have to use their amateur action movie skills to save the day!

The movie initially takes the “this is real life, not a movie” approach to the action, with Maki looking down on her “co-stars,” especially Sakura, for thinking that they can fight their way out of the situation. But as their situation gets more and more dire, the film goes for a more uplifting “Be brave! Be creative! Be yourself!” message, and thus a girl with no real training can Bruce Lee her way through a dozen thugs armed with aluminum baseball bats. It’s best not to read anything into the story and enjoy a bunch of a teenage martial artists kicking butt. More importantly, this is writer Fuyuhiko Nishi’s (director of High Kick Girl!) valentine to Hong Kong action cinema, especially Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Those two are frequently mentioned by name throughout the film, and you can tell that Kanon Miyahara’s fights were inspired by Jackie Chan’s comic-violence style of action. Heck, at one point, the girls are discussing the Dragon May-vs-Angelica fight, to which Sakura says that it will be as intense as Jackie Chan vs. Benny Urquidez! As a love letter to the best of Hong Kong and the spirit of low-budget filmmaking, I found the film endearing.

As an actual movie, however, it’s just okay. Obviously, youngsters have been outsmarting armed villains for years in these sorts of movies; even Home Alone 3 had our hero beating known terrorists. I think we needed less whining and crying from the girls, especially Miku. I’m sure the actress was hired more on account of her kawaii factor, but the filmmakers could have written her to become a ballet-kicking badass a lá Michelle Yeoh, instead of just a damsel in distress. I do applaud DTV horror director Kazuhiro Yokoyama for avoiding the unnecessary Instant Replay that ruined much of High Kick Girl!

The action was provided by Hiroyuki Yoshida, who has worked as a stuntman in Japan (Princess Blade and Godzilla Final Wars); Hollywood (Keanu Reeves’s The 47 Ronin) and Hong Kong (Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen). Yoshida also has ample experience doing motion capture and action direction for video games, too. His work here is a little uneven. Kanon Miyahara’s fights are, as I said, similar in spirit to Jackie Chan movies in terms of pacing and speed, but her inconsistent. Sometimes she does a nice spin kick while jumping off a wall, but often she does weak, knee-level kicks. She gets a promising gimmick fight with Nana Shihara, who fights with a recorder (the instrument) and does some neat choreography. Their final rematch, however, is a total gyp.

Much better is Mayu Kawamoto, who mainly does handwork in her fights, but does it with speed and authority (despite her character being a bit of a crybaby). She does some nice exchanges of punches, blocks, joint locks and knee smashes in her fights, and her kyokushin training is obvious. The flashiest moves goes to Kaede Aono as Maki, which makes sense within the narrative. Aono does all of the actual high kicking, including a nice 180º vertical round kick to the head. She also fights MMA fighter Shingo Koyasu twice over the course of the movie, too. Her flexibility is impressive, although her fights range on the level of an old Van Damme movie in terms of speed and pacing. In other words, her fights are more impressive for her moves rather than the choreography in which they are inserted.

If I were to judge the so-called “High Kick Trilogy”—the other two films being High Kick Girl! and KG: Karate Girl, I would put this in the middle. I liked KG: Karate Girl the most of the three. For all of Rina Takeda’s talent and earnest intentions of High Kick Girl!, the directing flaws really get in the way. This one has its heart in the right place and some fun, if unremarkable fight scenes. Fun for the whole family!

This review is part of the "Oh, the Insanity! Oh, the Japanity!" series (click the "banner" below):