Category: Martial Arts

The official website for KUNOICHI has been updated with a 90-second trailer. The film was directed by Seiji Chiba (Alien vs. Ninja) and stars karate idol turned martial arts actress Rina Takeda.

In the film, Takeda plays a young woman named Kisaragi who is abducted from her Koga ninja village along with three other women (Mayu Onomura, Shiho Fujisawa, and Kotono). The four of them are tied together with a rope and are led through the forest with sacks over their heads. Their captors are Shimotsuki (Mitsuki Koga) and Hizuki (Masanori Mimoto), ninjas from the rival Iga clan who sell the women they capture into prostitution. Suddenly, a mysterious man (Yuichi Sato) appears and releases the four women from their bindings, giving Kisaragi an opportunity to fight back.

KUNOICHI will get a limited late show release at Theater N Shibuya from March 19-April 8.

19-year-old karate idol and actress Rina Takeda will be starring in Seiji Chiba’s upcoming action film KUNOICHI, playing a female ninja who rescues kidnapped women. This marks her third starring film role since making her debut in 2009.

Takeda took up karate at age 10 and went on to win several championships in the following years. She first caught the eye of filmmaker Fuyuhiko Nishi while he was producing the 2008 film “Shaolin Girl”, starring Kou Shibasaki. In June of that year, he contacted her via her blog and soon began training her for theatrical combat. In 2009, she starred in Nishi’s film “High Kick Girl!” In 2010, she co-starred with fellow karate expert Hina Tobimatsu in “KG: Karate Girl”.

In the new film, Takeda will play a female ninja named Kisaragi who attempts to rescue a group of women being held captive. It’s set sometime in the Sengoku period, during a time of fierce fighting between the Koga and Iga ninja clans.

Chiba is no stranger to the genre, having directed many ninja-related films, including “Sengoku: Iga no Ran” and “Nukenin”. The action director is Kensuke Sonomura, who’s previously worked on GANTZ and “The Machine Girl”.

KUNOICHI will begin its late show run at Theater N Shibuya on March 19, 2011.

Sources: Tokyograph, Cinema Today

An English-subtitled trailer for Karate Girl has been uploaded to the film’s official YouTube channel. This is essentially the same trailer I posted back on December 12th without subtitles, so in lieu of cluttering up the site with a new post, I’m just updating and bumping the original.

The film stars Rina Takeda and Hina Tobimatsu as sisters Ayaka and Natsuki Kurenai, the youngest descendants of a legendary Okinawan karate master named Shoujirou Kurenai. As children, they live a happy life with their father (Tatsuya Naka) who teaches them karate. One day, a mysterious group kills their father, kidnaps Natsuki, and steals the legendary black belt which has been passed down in their family for over 200 years.

Years later, Ayaka has moved to Yokohama to live the life of an ordinary teenager under a different name. Meanwhile, Natsuki’s captors have turned her into a killing machine. Eventually, they discover Ayaka’s whereabouts and pit sister against sister. With the teachings of her father still in her heart, Ayaka must do whatever it takes to save her sister and get revenge against the group that tore their family apart.

“Karate Girl” is co-distributed by CJ Entertainment Japan and T-Joy with a nation-wide domestic release set for February 5, 2011.

MovieWalker has released a 43-second teaser for Karate Girl via YouTube. I’ve fixed the aspect ratio a bit to be closer to 16:9 because the original version is a little wonky.

Not all that much has detailed information is available on this one yet other than a few vague promotional blurbs and tweets reiterating the mantra “No wires, no CG, no stunts!” and the tagline which translates roughly to “A girl’s revenge, born in Yokohama”.

It doesn’t seem like this is an actual sequel to High Kick Girl, and no one with the production seems to be suggesting that it is. It looks more like a spiritual successor with a bit more emphasis on Takeda, who was at the center of all the promotion and publicity surrounding that film only to have Tatsuya Naka showcased in the climactic battle scenes.

The only plot info available thus far has been a little blurb from a casting call for extras posted back in September. Apparently the story revolves around a black belt which once belonged to a legendary karate master named Soujirou Kurenai and has since been passed down through generations of his family. 200 years later, a battle over the belt begins in Yokohama.

High Kick Girl screenwriter Yoshikatsu Kimura is the director of KG, with Fuyuhiko Nishi stepping aside to produce and promote. Hopefully this switch means less obsessive use of Ong Bak style instant replays after every remotely dangerous move.

“Karate Girl” is co-distributed by CJ Entertainment Japan and T-Joy with a nation-wide domestic release set for February 5, 2011.

Update (11/3): Movie Walker posted more info on the movie a few hours after they uploaded the trailer. In the interest of centralization, I put the updated plot info on the movie’s main page.

Update (11/4): Replaced teaser with the 1080p YouTube version recently uploaded to the official KG channel.