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Action cinema is a vista filled with all manner of talents both in front of and behind the camera, delivering a vast array of delights ranging from fights and gun battles to vehicular carnage and epic stunts. There’s something for everybody, and for those who like exquisitely crafted fights in otherwise small, genre-fluid films, there’s stunt performer turned choreographer turned director Kensuke Sonomura. If you’ve read my action coverage in recent years then you’ve already seen me praising both his directorial efforts (Hydra, 2019; Bad City, 2022) and his work as action director for films like Nowhere Girl (2015), John Woo’s Manhunt (2017), the Baby Assassins trilogy (2021-2024), and more. And now you’re gonna see me celebrate his latest feature, Ghost Killer.
A fight erupts in an otherwise empty alleyway as one man is attacked by many. Kudo (Masanori Mimoto) handles the multiple, knife-wielding attackers with bursts of precision, speed, and power, but when it’s over he’s felled by a bullet from behind. College student Fumika (Akari Takaishi) knows nothing of this when she finds a discarded shell casing on the ground, but the discovery connects her to the now dead assassin by forcing his ghost to stay within fifteen feet of her. Scared, incredulous, angry — Fumika runs an emotional gamut before finally agreeing to the one thing the undead killer wants. She’s going to help him get revenge.
Ghost Killer sees Sonomura once again shifting up his story and sub-genre aspirations — Hydra is a tiny tale of an ex-assassin, Bad City is more about world-building and celebrating Japan’s V-cinema releases — by delivering an action/comedy this time around. It’s a tone that fits him well, thanks especially to Takaishi’s playful talents with physical comedy, and it makes for a fun, low-key time. Of course, just as with those other two films, it’s also punctuated with some truly stellar fight sequences.
Kudo is a ghost, unable to affect the living world, but when he and Fumika “touch” he’s able to inhabit and control her body. Think Carl Reiner’s All of Me (1984), but with blistering, beautifully choreographed and executed fights. Takaishi doesn’t reach Steve Martin’s mastery of physical hijinks, but she still delivers big laughs shifting between personalities and control. Her comedic beats are somewhat toned down here compared to the Baby Assassins films, and she strikes a good balance between a flesh and blood character worrying about life and romance and an occasionally possessed badass. Similarly, while her own fight prowess has steadily improved across three Baby Assassins films, Sonomura knows when to tag her out for Mimoto.
Watching Mimoto fight is a truly sublime experience as, much like Saori Izawa in the Baby Assassins films, he’s a perfect muse for Sonumura’s rapid-fire, constantly evolving choreography. Hits and kicks unload at a ridiculous rate with dodges and grapples equally ubiquitous, and all of feels as spontaneous as it does precisely targeted. If you appreciate great fight choreography, then you have to love this combination of talents. Related, Hydra fans, in particular, should be stoked for this fight reunion between Mimoto and the always impressive Naohiro Kawamoto.
Those familiar with Sonomura’s two previous directorial efforts know that his approach to downtime between action scenes is just that, downtime. Rather than use these scenes for narrative momentum or exposition dumps, Ghost Killer and screenwriter Yugo Sakamoto take the opportunity for character beats and musings on life, death, and the circumstances that have led to this moment. Observations on honor, loyalty, and how assassins are just dogs following their masters’ orders share headspace with conversations about how shitty men can be, and all of it comes with equal doses of humor and sincerity. The approach is more than a bit of an anathema to Hollywood fare, and as such it might leave some viewers clamoring for something different. It’s their loss, though, as these moments hold interactions both warm and humorous for those with an adult’s attention span.
The rules of the possession are a bit flexible, and the unfolding plot is pretty straightforward, but Takaishi and Mimoto are an undeniably fun pair ensuring that we’re along for the ride regardless of what’s happening on screen. Ghost Killer is a small film, more Hydra than Bad City, but it’s a good time punctuated with action brilliance. Here’s hoping this group of extremely talented friends and co-creators continue their action-forward journey for a long time to come. I’d say to double feature it with Ninja III: The Domination (1984), another film about a dead killer inhabiting a young woman’s body, but I have no idea which should be watched first — the goofy, over-the-top bombast of the Cannon film, or the more intimate but endlessly impressive fight mastery of Ghost Killer? Honestly, you can’t go wrong either way.
Ghost Killer had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024.