Karate Kill

Kurando Mitsutake's "Karate Kill," a low-budget action movie shot in Japan and the United States with hardly any digital assistance, is an old-school throw-back, right down to the retro poster that prominently features the worked-out body and deadly left fist of mononymous star Hayate.

If you like what you see in that poster, there’s a damned good chance you’ll enjoy Kurando Mitsutake’s KARATE KILL. To be honest, this writer was more or less sold by the title. My expectations, going into the film, were that a person or persons would be killed and that Karate would be involved somehow. The film delivers on that promise in spades.

2nd Screening at BiFan Film Festival in Bucheon

Karate Kill debuts in Bucheon at BiFan Festival 2016

We loved the hell out of Kurando Mitsutake's Gun Woman, so it's hardly surprising that his follow-up movie Karate Kill is among our most eagerly anticipated new movies in 2016.

Back in 2009, I caught a little movie called Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf at a beer-soaked midnight screening at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas. I was tipsy, but I was also blown away by this super fun slice of retro exploitation fun from a director named Kurando Mitsutake.