GHOST KILLER Haunts With A First Teaser For Kensuke Sonomura’s Festival Latest!
Leave it to a surprise in my DMs to find out that Kensuke Sonomura has been keeping more than busy aside from his dealings over in Bad City and with the Baby Assassins franchise and Kenji Tanigaki’s upcoming The Furious. Monday morning over in Japan saw the first teaser trailer revealed for Ghost Killer, something I only wish I knew about sooner with this also being the latest co-production between Well Go USA Entertainment and Rights Cube. What?! Now how’s that for a partnership?
What’s more is that Sonomura’s Ghost Killer marks the latest graduating lead role for actress Akari Takaishi who takes the reins alongside actor Masanori Mimoto who continues to be a fixture in Sonomura’s work since 2019’s Hydra. And, Baby Assassins franchise helmer Yugo Sakamoto is the man with the pen for the film’s script with Sonomura shepherding the winning action direction, and with a World Premiere now slated for next month’s 19th edition of Fantastic Fest, here’s hoping a release date stateside isn’t too far off!
Peep the programming notes below from Fantastic Fest’s Austin King, and check out the teaser!
Fumika (Akari Takaishi) is a young woman with the problems of many young millennials: a crappy job market, unaffordable housing, friends with bad boyfriends, and an occasional possession by a professional assassin. OK, so maybe that last one is a little unique. As Fumika struggles to handle her own problems, she gets to know Hideo (Masanori Mimoto), the ghost of the assassin following her around. The young woman decides to take revenge on the gangsters who killed her spectral friend and deal out some justice of her own along the way.
If you’ve been paying attention to Japanese action over the past two decades, you know the name Kensuke Sonomura. As a stunt performer and action director in almost 70 feature films, as well as several television and video game projects, Sonomura has made an impact on many of your favorite action movies. For Fantastic Fest alone, he’s been the lead fight choreographer for six titles, including this year’s BABY ASSASSINS 3. Fantastic Fest 2024 is delighted to present the world premiere of Sonomura’s feature, GHOST KILLER.
While I’ve written about Sonomura’s action style at length, allow me to wax poetically once again. He films action in single takes, with a particular focus on the stunt person and their ability to implement choreography involving two performers in a duel. You will see much of this here, as Sonomura’s characters frequently get revenge on one person, using the fights as catharsis and a showcase for the performer’s ability to fall, roll, and execute difficult blocks and punches, accompanied, of course, by Sonomura’s trademark twirls.
As the de facto action director on all three BABY ASSASSINS movies, he is good at making you believe Akari Takaishi, in a very different role from Chisato, can do complex action even if she is not experienced. The director smartly edits between Takaishi and veteran stuntman and co-lead, Masanori Mimoto, to keep the scenes dynamic and consistently moving to highlight each performer’s skills. Sonomura is sure to have a long career as a director and action director, so be sure and be here to say you saw GHOST KILLER first.
Special thanks to Preston Downey for the heads-up!
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
No replies yet
Loading new replies...
Join the full discussion at the PopGeeks.com - Books, Film, Video Games, Animation Discussion →