Kate Review
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Summary:
Kate is a trained assassin, and her current mark is Kentaro. Kate is a master at her craft; however, she only has one rule: no kids. During this assignment, a little girl appears alongside Kentaro and Kate is forced to take the shot. 10 months later, Kate’s newest assignment is to kill the head boss of a yakusa clan. Before she is able to make the kill, the poison slipped into her system prevents her from hitting her target. With only 24 hours left to live, Kate does all that she can to take revenge.
Characters:
Kate is an assassin who has been killing in Japan since she was young. She has been carefully trained and mentored by her handler Varrick who she has a close bond. After a job where she kills someone in front of their child, she decides that she no longer wants to be an assassin. Ani is the daughter of a former crime boss and she first meets Kate when Kate kidnaps her to use her as a bargaining tool. Ani is a teenage girl who is angry at the world and is nearly killed by her own family so she doesn’t know who to trust.
Kate Review
Kate is exactly the film I thought I was going to get from the synopsis that I read and well sometimes that can be great I found this time around that the film was not as good as I hoped. To start with the best aspect, I thought that the action was awesome. There are many fight scenes sprinkled in throughout and each one is unique with each one has vastly different settings and the fights all went down quite differently. I liked the ticking clock element added to the story as it gave the whole thing a sense of intensity and dread because we don’t know how long until Kate dies from the poison. The story being set in Japan was also a good addition as it gives it something that makes it immediately stand out as not being in North America and so a different culture that western audiences don’t necessarily know. The acting is also quite good with Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate being excellent at demonstrating a stoic fighter whose been doing this for a long time while also showing her genuine fear and pain as she is dying. Miku Martineau as Ani is a really good partner for Kate as she has a tragic story similar to Kate’s but she has this upbeat and don’t care personality that gives her a good dynamic with Kate. Woody Harrelson is great as always though he is in it less than I thought. So on paper, this sounds like a great revenge film with a new element which sounds great but my problem is I didn’t care for the characters.
Like I said they were well acted but I don’t think the script and the film give you enough information and depth to care about the characters. Kate is in constant peril and is dying from poison but I still didn’t feel invested in her character and therefore I didn’t feel engaged as much as I should be. Ani is the only character I kind of cared for and that’s partly because she was a kid so I automatically was rooting for her to survive.
All in all, this is a solid action flick with tons of spectacular fight scenes and some intense moments that I would like a lot more if I cared a lot more for these characters. If you’re looking for one of those action films where one person kills a bunch of people for revenge then this is right up your alley and I would say check it out.