KITE is a sadistic little film that returns us to a dystopian future where civilization is just a suggestion, and mayhem is the main occupation of everyone, no matter what their official calling. Based on the popular anime of the same name by Yasuomi Umetsu, this live-action rendering is all flashy directing and disjointed plot. That would be the hows and the whys of Sawa (India Eisely) as a teenage killing machine out to avenge her parents by infiltrating a flesh cartel.
The blood flows freely during Sawas killing spree, and she proves a particularly nimble assassin, donning bright wigs, glossy red lipstick, and hiding lethal weapons in interesting places. She can take a punch and respond in kind without batting a heavily made-up eye. Since even killing machines need help when they are underage, Sawa is mentored by her policeman fathers ex-partner (Samuel L. Jackson), who feeds her restricted weapons and keeps her pumped up on amp, the drug of choice in this post-apocalypse. Director Ralph Ziman shoots the film from the point of view of Sawa on an amp trip. Its dynamic. Its kinetic. It does everything to set the mood, yet nothing to tell the story, not that there is a lot of it to begin with. Sawa targets a victim, dons something tight, dispatches him amid fountains of blood, and then starts over again after a bout of melancholia.
Eisely, while saddled with a barely there character, has an appealing quality as the baby-faced killer, giving her all as Sawa deals with withdrawal, confusion, and serious anger issues. Jackson brings his usual intensity, which also classes up the proceedings a bit. Alas, the repetitive nature of the violence ultimately robs it of its shock value, even when its a deep fryer used as an object lesson, or a writing implement being used in a novel fashion.
KITE has a not entirely surprsing twist, but the dialogue with which it unfolds is painfully overwrought, rendering it the most jarring assault on the audience that the film offers.
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