Geisha Assassin   Starring: Minami Tsukui MVM RRP: £15.99 MLA2004 Certificate: 15 Available 05 April 2010

Following her father’s murder Kotono (Minami Tsukui) determines to track the assassin down and extract her vengeance from his flesh, but before she can do that she will have to get past all his associates...

Geisha Assassin (2008 - 1 hr, 18 min, 57 sec) is a martial arts revenge movie written by Isao Kodaka and directed by Gô Ohara. Originally the film was titled Geisha vs Ninja which gives a more accurate impression of the film as the title is only slightly shorter than the plot.

The whole thing plays like some form of video game with Kotono beating one opponent only to be faced with another, this time more powerful than the last each with their own funky moves, and so this short film unfolds.

The film is shot with more style than the budget would assume and Tsukui is attractive enough in the role. It’s difficult to get the measure of her acting skills as ninety per cent of the film involves her beating the crap out of her opponents. The film could have been more fun had it either been shorter, after a while the endless fights become more than a tad boring, or if the film had been shorter and injected with some semblance of humour.

The film's picture is pretty appalling, the colours are weak, streaking of the image is just about every shot, the whole thing looks like it was produced on a pretty cheap digital camera, in most respects this is a grainy minus B Movie.

The disc contains no extras as such only trailers for Geisha Assassin, Dororo and Cutie Honey.

Overall it is difficult to recommend the film unless you’re a fan of cheap martial arts film, but even if you are there are better examples than this.

4

Charles Packer