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Fantastic Fest 2024: Ghost Killer Review
Image Credit: Well Go USA
Loading...Directed by: Kensuke Sonomura
Written by: Yugo Sakamoto
Starring:
Akari Takaishi – Fumika Matsuoka
Masanori Mimoto – Hideo Kudo
Mario Kuroba – Riku Kagehara
Ayaka Higashino – Maho Iida
Hidenobu Abera – Masaki Katayama
Naoto Kuratomi – Narumi
Satoshi Kibe – Katsushige
Ryu Ichinose – Ryusuke
Running Time: 105 minutes
Not Rated
Akari Takaishi is having a stellar year on the genre film festival circuit. The actress delivered the first of a one-two punch at Fantasia Fest as she reprised her role opposite Saori Izawa as young killers for hire in Yugo Sakamoto’s thoroughly enjoyable Baby Assassins Nice Days. It’s a trilogy that has showcased her talents at action and comedy, allowing both her and Izawa to carve out niches for themselves as up-and-coming fan favorites.
The second of those punches, Ghost Killer, allows Takaishi to show more range. Kensuke Sonomura’s supernatural action film, which screened at Fantastic Fest on Friday, casts her as a very different kind of character, but one where she’s still able to use those same talents in an engaging two-protagonist story of crime organizations, engaging characters, and rapid-fire action sequences.
As the film opens, we find ourselves in an alleyway where a man (Mimoto) is fighting three knife-armed opponents. He dispatches them all, but as he sits down to smoke an unseen shooter puts an end to him with a single bullet. The spent bullet shell makes its way by happenstance on the steps leading to the apartment of Fumika (Takaishi), a young woman who is trying to make ends meet.
After a long night of at a bar dealing with the boorish behavior of a man that she’s trying to make career connections through, Fumika returns home and finds herself face to face with the bullet shell. She picks it up and continues to her apartment, having a brief conversation with her friend Maho about Maho’s abusive boyfriend. When she gets inside, she is shocked to find the man’s ghost in her home.
Fumika learns in short order that the ghost’s name is Hideo Kudo, and he was a hitman for a crime organization. They also learn that when they hold hands, he can possess her. After initially running from the notion of being possessed, she finds some use in it when she has a chance to protect Maho. Fumika and Kudo strike up a deal to avenge Kudo’s murder so he can be exorcised, an agreement which drags Fumika into conflict with some highly dangerous individuals including Riku Kagehara (Kuroba), a cleaner for Kudo’s now-former boss and a potential ally.
Ghost Killer comes with a strong pedigree behind the camera. Sakomoto’s script will carry a familiar tone for those who enjoyed Baby Assassins; it has the same sort of natural dialogue in how Fumika interacts with Maho and her growing dynamic with Kudo.
There’s a more serious tone here befitting the darker elements of the script; Fumika must deal with some pretty terrible people even before she’s delving into the underworld for Kudo’s revenge tour. Takaishi shows a softer side to her performance but is also fully capable at handling the action scenes once she lets Kudo possess her, a transition simply but effectively managed without the need for expensive visual effects.
She also once again proves adept at establishing strong on-screen chemistry, this time with Mimoto who gives a fine turn as the hardened killer. There’s a subplot about how Kudo’s interactions with Fumika are softening him, and he handles that arc quite adeptly. The relationship between the two, exacerbated by the ghostly elements, lets them add some needed moments of levity to the story. Takaishi is giving a double performance due to Fumika sharing her body with Kudo, and the role switching comes off seamlessly.
Sonomura has an extensive resume as a stunt director and previously delved into crime action thrillers with 2022’s Bad City starring V-Cinema legend Hitoshi Ozawa. He also served as the action director for the Baby Assassins trilogy, and the working relationship reaps benefits here. The action scenes are energetic and punctuated by sweeping camera moves. A bar fight scene in particular lets Takaishi cut loose, and Mimoto gets to show his ass-kicking chops more than once as well.
If there’s anything that could have benefited from a little extra time, it’s the supporting characters. Ayaka Higashino and Mario Kuroba make their mark as Maho and Kagehara, as they have enough time on screen to get us invested in their roles. The overall villain doesn’t get much of a chance to make a big impact though – in part because the mystery of Kudo’s death is a secondary subplot at best – and the rest of the characters are largely just bodies for Fumika (or Kudo as Fumika) to work through.
But in the grand scope of the film, that’s only a minor complaint. Sakamoto and Sonomura know that the real appeal here comes both in how Takaishi and Mimoto relate to each other and in the action. Those strengths keep the film bouncing along toward a satisfying conclusion. Ghost Killer makes me hope that this cast and crew will continue working together, as they haven’t yet missed a shot.
Fantastic Fest takes place in Austin, Texas from September 19th through the 26th.
