Perhaps more graphic, although non-sexual acts of violence could portray this.Īccording to an introduction to the trailer by Samuel L Jackson, Kite was filmed in Germany. If it is solely about drug abuse, then there absolutely needs to be changes to allow the story to have the same devastating, shocking, emotional impact. Perhaps sexual abuse could still be part of the story, we just may not see it. What about the rape scenes? From a very short scene with Samuel L Jackson’s character and the youthful Sawa, it appears to be replaced with drug abuse, although this is not necessarily bad. So far the most fun aspects of the anime are replicated to an admirable degree. Funnily enough, it looks less gory than in the animated version. The choreography for the fighting appears to be the same. One of the more disgusting shots, where one man loses his lunch, is also left in. In the bathroom scene, the level of detail shown when a character is stabbed is replicated exactly. The swearing is cut down significantly, although not eliminated, which makes it less off-putting to casual action movie goers. Another given positive of live action film is that one doesn’t have to worry about distributing a budget to accommodate how much characters move. It was also the highlight of the animated piece. Everything you may want to see in an action movie was there: hand to hand combat, guns, explosives, and more. The animation of Kite exceeded in these action scenes, especially with hand to hand combat. It is easier to show violence than sex in the film, so one can imagine, and hope, that with the over the top violence watered down, the action scenes will provide the same, perhaps greater, measure of entertainment when compared to the original. This is an understandable choice as it makes the material more believable, although perhaps less fun. The live action interpretation has a lot less blood, although the basic acts of violence appear to be left intact for the movie. In the elevator scene the anime had exploding heads, and unrealistic proportions of ketchup colored blood flying everywhere. Two scenes are exposed which are almost shot-per-shot replications of the original: the elevator and bathroom scenes. An example of the off putting color composition in the original animeįrom the trailer, and the few sneak preview scenes on Youtube, a number of conclusions can be drawn from what is presented about the film so far. What Kite improves upon compared to others of its time, like Wicked City, is by having an interesting story and sympathetic characters. To some, its graphic nature is what brings forth enjoyment. Kite brings everything uncomfortable to the extreme and is an enjoyable film if the viewer can ignore all these things. The entertainment industry loves action and sex, so why not put the two together? Within the first few lines the f-bomb, c and b-word are dropped, which gives an immediate idea of what to expect. The same could be said for the violence and gratuitous swearing. Kite is a difficult yet equally important film to watch as it displays the gory, highly sexual aspects of anime that gave it a bad reputation back in the 90’s. The shock value of the elements of sex and nudity in the 1998 anime could have been what created its “cult classic” status. At least on paper the production appears to be in good hands. He has directed some highly acclaimed, although unheard of, films like Jerusalema, The Zookeeper and Hearts and Minds. David R Ellis was originally chosen to direct the live-action adaption but sadly passed away, so Ralph Ziman took up the role.

Unless you are in the mood for that style of hentai (anime porn), I would highly recommend to stay away from the uncut version as it disrupts the seriousness of the narrative and brings the level of content to overkill. It is highly distracting to say the least.

And since it was between a teenager and a grown man, Kite was banned in several countries. What makes up the extra 10 minutes of the longer version? Explicit pornography. It was originally a set of short films (OVAs), but was combined together to create the 50-60 minute feature. Kite by Yasuomi Umetsu is what would happen if Stephen King and Quenten Tarantino got together and made an animated feature. In order to make any judgments about the quality of the live action film, it is worth investigating what made the original Kite popular (often called a ‘cult classic’), and contrast the footage presented so far to the anime. If the trailer did not make this obvious enough, Kite tells the story of a high school girl, Sawa, who works as a crime fighter, and the people she meets along the way. There are so many unenthusiastic groans from news sites, YouTube comments and message boards, one could almost hear them off screen. The trailer for the upcoming live-action adaption for the 1998 anime short film Kite has received a lot of negativity from the internet at large.

Movie kite 2014