Girl

Dustin, an amiable guy, is in love with Alexis, a coworker. When she tells him she just wants to be friends, he hires his roommate Tank, a fast-talking, amoral scoundrel who has a side business: men whose women have dumped them hire Tank to take their ex-girlfriends out on the date from Hell, to drive the women back into their old boyfriends' arms. He takes out Alexis who, against her better judgment, decides she needs some randy fun, so Tank is in a quandary: take Alexis up on her offer, or stay true to his friend. More complications ensue as the wedding of Alexis's sister approaches. Tank seeks advice from his father, Dustin pursues Alexis, and questions of self-worth need answers.

The 16-year old girl Harriet Vanger disappeared without a trace, on September 29th 1966. Nearly forty years later a journalist by the name of Mikael Blomqvist gets an unusual assignment. Hes contacted by the industrial leader Henrik Vanger, who wants him to write the history of the Vanger family. The family chronicle is just a cover for the real assignment: to find out about what really happened to Harriet. Mikael who recently been indicted and convicted on counts of slander, feels that he need a break from his job on the Millennium magazine take on the job. He gets help from the young and troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Together the odd couple starts to dig in the past of the Vanger family and meet a darker and bloodier history than the ever could have imagined… (Courtesy of the pocket book Män som hatar kvinnor, by Stieg Larsson, taken from the back of the book.)

Alexandra is a student from a small town in Ljubljana and she has a single-minded plan to conquer the world. Working as a prostitute, she gets her life heading where she wants it to, but an accidental death has her wrestling with new feelings of fear, loneliness and responsibility.

Based on a series of true stories posted by Ho-sik Kim on the Internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend. These were later transformed into a best-selling book and the movie follows the book closely. It describes the meeting of Kyun-woo (Cha) and an unnamed girl. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate (somehow) the girls abuses.

Kei (Rina Takeda) joins a karate dojo and quickly proves herself to be the most skilled fighter amongst all her male peers. However, her sensei Matsumura still refuses to give her the coveted black belt until she learns all the kata (forms). Too impatient to wait any longer, Kei hastily joins a fighting group called the Destroyers. The Destroyers don't care about anything but fighting and earning money, and this suits Kei just fine. But when she finds out their true purpose – to destroy Matsumura – she decides she must do whatever it takes to put a stop to them.

Fuyuhiko Nishi's "High Kick Girl!" is a sometimes interesting throwback to 70's martial arts films like "Gekitotsu! Satsujin Ken AKA The Street Fighter" and "Onna Hissatsu Ken AKA Sister Streetfighter" but ultimately fails to provide enough thrills or drama to keep viewers entertained. What we are left with is a plot-less and somewhat boring film whose only trump card is watching cute new comer Takeda Rina kick-ass quite impressively.
Takeda Rina is the latest in a wave of cute, martial artists breaking into the movie scene. In the last couple of years we saw the debut of two similarly lithe and deadly cuties in Luxia Jiang (star of "Coweb" and winner of Jackie Chan's "The Disciple" HK reality show) and Jeeja Yanin (Thai martial arts phenome and star of "Chocolate" and "Raging Phoenix"). Takeda certainly has the skills of an up-and-coming martial arts star being a 1st degree (Ichi Dan) Black Belt in Karate with the Ryukyu/Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do Genshin Kai. With her tall lanky frame and long legs, Takeda's specialty seems to be high kicks to the heads of opponents, earning her the movie's title.
Takeda's impressive high kicks and cute face however can't save this "one trick pony" of a movie which suffers under the weight of a weak story and some terrible acting.