Kate
Perhaps the year’s most derivative and formulaic stuntfest is a lot more engaging than it has a right to be.
Dying to meet you: Mary Elizabeth Winstead
What do you expect from a film called just Kate? Like John Wick, Kate is a pared-back action-thriller about a seemingly indestructible assassin who can slash, elbow and shoot her way through untold legions of hired guns. She is really a female take on Chev Chelios, the hitman played by Jason Statham in Crank (2006), who is poisoned and must keep his adrenaline flowing until he can track down and avenge himself on the man who signed his death warrant. Here, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Kate, an assassin who is poisoned and must keep her adrenaline flowing until she can track down and avenge herself on the man who signed her death warrant. Kate. Crank. Whatever. The difference with Kate is that it’s set against a backdrop of Osaka and Tokyo, which could not be more fashionable. And when she’s not kicking her opponents through shoji doors and paper walls, she’s shattering handsome glass architecture with a Uzi or two.
Kate, directed by the French visual effects artist Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter's War) actually looks terrific, and could almost be forgiven for the plagiarised plotlines and banal dialogue for the fun it has with its visual pyrotechnics. This is trash cinema of the highest order, with colourful torrents of expletives and creative blood-letting that makes one question the logic of its 15 certificate. One can almost imagine Quentin Tarantino squealing with glee when Kate’s reluctant teenage accomplice Ani screams at her: “fuck you cancer bitch!” You can’t blame Ani (promising newcomer Miku Martineau), as Kate is a complete mess, bleeding from the nose and sweating profusely. Then, on closer inspection, Ani concedes that Kate’s adornment of blood and scars is actually pretty awesome. You know kids.
Like the recent combo of Jason Momoa and Isabela Merced in Sweet Girl (another unimaginative title), Kate and Ani make an engaging and unusual partnership in the face of increasing odds. Luckily, the film doesn’t take itself remotely seriously, even when dishing its histrionics with a straight face. And the film’s final shot will probably mean more to Tokyo residents than most Netflix subscribers, even though Kate was largely shot in Bangkok, Honolulu and Los Angeles. In an age of increasingly extreme martial choreography, the production adds a few of its own incredible stunts, while Winstead, vomiting and bleeding like a stuck pig, cuts a strikingly androgynous, Ellen Ripley-like figure with all the right moves. You could do a lot worse than watch her kick the sushi out of Tokyo on a Saturday night.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Tadanobu Asano, Miyavi, Michiel Huisman, Miku Martineau, Jun Kunimura, Woody Harrelson, Mari Yamamoto, Kazuya Tanabe, Hirotaka Renge, Amelia Crouch.
Dir Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Pro Kelly McCormick, Bryan Unkeless and Patrick Newall, Screenplay Umair Aleem, Ph Lyle Vincent, Pro Des Dominic Watkins, Ed Sandra Montiel and Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir, Music Nathan Barr, Costumes Audrey Fisher.
87North Productions/Clubhouse Pictures-Netflix.
107 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 10 September 2021. Cert. 15.
