Acclaimed stunt coordinator Kensuke Sonomura has been bringing the action fun with the Baby Assassin franchise. Now he is reteaming with Baby Assassin star Akari Takaishi for Ghost Killer with Sonomura stepping into the director’s chair. The film co-stars Mario Kuroba and Masanori Mimoto, but does the film bring hopeful action or will it be haunted with a lack of it?

 

Ghost Killer follows college student Fumika who stumbles upon the bullet that ended hitman Kudo’s life, causing his vengeful spirit to take hold of her body. Now possessed by a ruthless assassin’s rage and skills, she becomes an unstoppable force, hunting down those responsible for his death. As the body count rises, the line between Fumika and Kudo begins to blur.

 

Being a fan of the Baby Assassins films, I was eager to see Akari Takaishi in action doing something different. Right out the gate, the film kicked into action to set the tone before shifting it altogether in a direction I wasn’t expecting since I hadn’t read the synopsis. The idea reminds me of Ninja III: The Domination but handled in a new way that works way better than it should. The biggest issue with this film is the tone that constantly shifts, making it somewhat uneven at times but still bringing action fun to the forefront.

 

The idea of having them not only communicate throughout allows for this dysfunctional relationship to play out in a fun crazy way. For the action pieces it is bouncing between the girl that can’t fight and his skills when he takes over her body. It’s bringing some great action and fight sequences that are well choreographed and creative to feed into the idea of what’s going on. Sometimes the over-the-top nature of the possession makes the fights sillier than they need to be but still works.

 

As they started bringing everything together it kind of lost me as I felt it