19 year old Japanese teen karate champion Rina Takeda is back in another great martial arts movie and this time she’s joined by another young karate expert – 14 year old Hina Tobimatsu.
Rina’s character Ayaka is on a revenge mission after finding her missing younger sister who was kidnapped and brainwashed by a mysterious organisation whose leader killed their father 10 years previously.
This movie is a slight improvement on Rina’s debut High Kick Girl, still think though she deserves a better movie to showcase her talents properly. The fight scenes are fantastic with thankfully the slo-mo repeats that followed each strike on an opponent by Rina in HKG has disappeared making each fight flow much better. Each fight is also no holds barred and more brutal involving hard kicks to the head. Rina’s acting has also improved this time round giving a charismatic and likeable performance in her role.
Karate Girl won’t propel Rina into the A-list of action stars just yet but it’s only a matter of time before something comes up for her. Rina’s fans will definitely enjoy this basic, entertaining and enjoyable karate movie.
Sadako’s Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
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