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If you are unfamiliar with the work of writer and director Kurando Mitsutake, it is time for you to remedy that situation. Kurando has directed four films – Monsters Don’t Get to Cry (2007) , Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf (2009, and Kurando plays the lead as well as doing the writing and directing duties), Gun Woman (2014) and Karate Kill (2016 but just had its United States release on July 18 of this year) and each film is better than the last, as you would expect as he gains experience.

Revenge flicks are like soft ice cream dispensers at an all-you-can eat movie buffet. You can fill up on your dramas and your romances and your high-brow comedies, but what you really came here for is the sweet stuff, and most revenge films tap right into that craving with tons of action, lots of great motivation, and usually some hyper-graphic violence that leap well over the line of good sensible taste.

Karate Kill from Gun Woman director Kurando Mitsutake if everything we loved about that great era of over-the-top action films and more. It’s 1987 again, folks.

For those who love watching movies with long scenes of someone walking in slow-motion during a quick, one-two punch minute of character development...and for those who love heroes in movies that hardly speak a word but rudely ask for help while also antagonizing a fight that surely could have been avoided...and for those who love a good short and sweet film filled with likable characters, gory fight scenes, and sound effects purposely louder than the actual dialogue, look no further, because the movie Karate Kill is exactly what the doctor ordered.

I am a product of the mid-’80s, which means I grew up in the golden age of the action movie. I am not ashamed to say that I will still watch any Jean-Claude Van Damme movie if it is on TV.

Sometimes I long for the action movies of yesteryear. You remember, the action films that were not always preoccupied with global scale plots and an overabundance of CG effects. This is what makes films like the John Wickseries so welcome. Those are films that keep the focus on the execution and entertainment value.

There’s a lot of fun to be had trolling the glorious cultural dumpster fire that is Texas. This state larger than many countries has enough cultural diversity, even accidentally, to provide wild contrast between conservative and progressive, religious faith and unbelief, gay and straight, tradition and change. The deeply individualistic Texans tend to pick and choose which traditions to keep and which to flout.

Awhile back, I reviewed the trailer for Karate Kill, and I thought it looked like a cross between a martial arts film and an exploitation film. The trailer instantly piqued my interest and I have been looking forward to it ever since. Recently, I got the chance to check out Karate Kill. Did it measure up to my expectations? Here are my thoughts.

Since bursting onto the scene in 2009 with ‘Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf’, director Kurando Mitsutake’s films have all run by the same rules and similar themes, mainly those incorporating revenge.

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.