MURAKUMO: GHOST AGENCY Teaser: Welcome Back, Hoshimi Asai!!!

I often look back at the films I’ve watched in the last four decades of my life, and wonder about where the stars of some of those films are now. One such film is Versus, the once-shining beacon of director Ryuhei Kitamura’s former production label, and a film that founded my adoration for the “Asia Extreme” wave of the early two-thousandsies.

With several of those films stars continuing onward in the years since, I ever only hoped that would included actress and martial artist Hoshimi Asai, who has otherwise kept busy in her career in action direction. The same goes for the proliferation of the craft online handed down to her by her father and Karate legend Tetsuihiko Asai, although it’s only now that her recent return to action stardom has begun surfacing.

For this, we turn to Murakumo: Ghost Agency, the latest debut from writer and director Mitsunori Harada who previously collaborated with Asai on Toshiyuki Kakihara’s Phantom Pain (2022). The film follows Asai in the role of Rinko, a martial artist and ex-cop who stumbles upon a human trafficking ring in a case that could bring her closer to finding her daughter seven years after her disappearance.

Asai is still well in her prime for the martial artist and screen fighter she is, and thankfully we get a taste of it in the teaser that went live a little over a week ago. The film also joins Asai on screen with Mitsuki Koga of Shinobi: Heart Under Blade and Bushido Man fame, along with Takahide Kitagawa and Ryuji Shirakawa, academics in Systema and Aikido, respectively.

Murakumo: Ghost Detective opens in Japan on July 28, and I can’t wait to see this film for myself. Catch the teasers below!

Lee B. Golden III

filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com | Web

Native New Yorker. Lover of all things pizza, chocolate, pets, and good friends. Karaoke hero. Left of center. Survivor. Fond supporter of cult, obscure and independent cinema - especially fond of Asian movies and global action cinema. Author of the bi-weekly Hit List. Founder and editor of Film Combat Syndicate. Still, very much, only human.