One thing is especially certain about actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the last decade or so: She stands out pretty well in the action genre, though this largely depends on the packaging. I prefer her role in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World over her 2020 outing as Huntress in Birds Of Prey any day, though it’s nice to see she’s kept up the habit this year with Netflix’s latest trailer buzz, Kate.
Meticulous and preternaturally skilled, Kate is the perfect specimen of a finely tuned assassin at the height of her game. But when she uncharacteristically blows an assignment targeting a member of the yakuza in Tokyo, she quickly discovers she’s been poisoned, a brutally slow execution that gives her less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her killers. As her body swiftly deteriorates, Kate forms an unlikely bond with the teenage daughter of one of her past victims.
The film is directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan for his second time at the helm since 2016’s The Huntsman: Winter’s War, which I enjoyed. Also starring are Woody Harrelson and Miku Patricia Martineau, along with Tadanobu Asano, Jun Kunimura and Miyavi for the film’s September 10 launch in theaters, and on Netflix.