3ish Shortish Paragraphs: Kate

2021, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter's War) -- Netflix

There was a point in this movie, about a female assassin in Tokyo, where I said out loud, "This is the movie Gunpowder Milkshake wanted to be." But no, that was being a bit too facetious to the screen and to Marmy sitting next to me. This movie, which will have most people saying it is John Wick but a woman given the connection to stunts coordinator Jonathan Eusebio (worked on all three of the Wick flicks) who also worked with the star Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Birds of Prey, is less dependent on an otherworldly style, more so relying on the inherent otherworldliness of Tokyo. In Kate Winstead plays the titular assassin who fucks up a hit after being surreptitiously poisoned, giving her less than 24 hours to figure out who poisoned her, before she succumbs.

The scene I mentioned was just after she flubbed the shot, and is being immediately chased by the Yakuza thugs who work for the Oyabun she failed in killing. The entire movie takes place in Tokyo, but for a brief interlude in Osaka where a hit orphaned a teenage girl; it was Kate's one rule -- no kids. Kate runs into the street, up to a couple of slick kids next to a stylish car, which she takes and launches off, in a scene reminiscent of Speed Racer (which I really have to finish my rewatch of), full of colour and blurred lines of speed and excruciatingly sweet style. It just looked so good, so unnatural, so video game, until it abruptly comes to an end. Afterall she is poisoned, and not all that in control of her body. But for that brief moment, we see what Kate used to be, the clean lines of utter skill, before being muted by the poison. The rest of the movie is that muted tone.

Of note, it is also time for the two The Hunstman movies to be rewatched, as part of my ever desired series from The Shelf.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is not without style, but that may just be our western eyes seeing the unfamiliar back alleys and streets of Tokyo during what is mostly a foot chase. No more cars for Kate. I am not as familiar with recent Japanese crime drama as I should be, considering my Japan-o-file nature, but these narrow alleys full of small bars, pachinko parlours and kiosk restaurants are utterly foreign, pun intended, to the western eye. Kate seems at home though, smashing through doors and falling from heights, taking out thugs one by one, controlled but brutal. You can see the toll it takes on her, even if you miss the dark lines crisscrossing her poisoned body.

As Kate kills her way across Tokyo seeking the final kill, her revenge against who she believes poisoned her, we get more hints that things are not what they seem, to Kate. Varrick (Woody Harrelson, ) is her mentor, her booking agent and creepily, her father figure. This is a trope that I thought this movie was trying to lift from the western adaptation of  Kite, considering the single letter difference, but Marmy points out, it is a common enough trope in Anime, and therefore likely in Japanese fiction. Given the trope, V is likely as much her creator as he is her ... end.

Along the way Kate picks up Ani, the teen age girl from her past, the girl who's family died before her eyes, and is now somewhat raised, somewhat protected by her grandfather's organization, the same one run by Kate's prey. Kate sees her as a tool, but also the single note of regret in her past. Eventually we see a new Kate being created in this world of manipulative men. 

I don't often read fantasy novels for new structures and styles; I prefer reading more of what I am comfortable with. I guess the same mostly goes with my Women With Guns sub-genre, but with film I am less adverse as new and innovative, but I am mostly not expecting it nor disappointed if I don't get something novel from the genre. Kate gives me what I want, with tons of gunfu, an admirable main character and some style to boot. But don't expect it to break any plot or character barriers. It doesn't take advantage of the myriad of plot points to expand on the characters, unfortunately almost everyone is just a trope, not a person. But as I say, I was here for the tropes.