It has been a long time, but I am back reviewing new films. Well, at least for this week. I am currently in what could be described as a cash flow crisis (i.e., I am skint) and so I am going to watch as many films as close to release as possible, but I am also going to use these reviews as a way to catch up on some films released earlier this year that I may have missed. Trust me, that is a lot. But anyway, onto today’s film and even when I am not purposely watching Japanese films I somehow managed to pick one set there. Kate (2021) follows the titular character (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a super-assassin, who is on a revenge mission against the yakuza after they poison her, leaving her with 24 hours to live.
This is a film very much in the John Wick mould, and it is one of many that have come out in recent years as a result of that franchise’s success. And I will be upfront and say that I am not a huge fan of these kinds of films. The action, revenge genre is not one I particularly enjoy. That isn’t to say that I dislike them either, but I am not a fan of just action for action's sake and this film suffers a little from that. To be fair, the action is fun, especially one particular scene in a club which is a ton of fun. All the action is also boosted by the film’s excessive amount of violence. I get the feeling that it is as gory as it is to offset the shortcomings of the film, but we will get that to later. When it comes to performances, they all fulfil their roles, but no one wows. Woody Harrelson is doing what he always does. I don’t mind as I like Woody Harrelson, but it is the same performance you always get from him. I also tend to like Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and again she is good, although her physical work is better than her character work. This is not something I blame on her too much as I think the characterisations, and script in general, are simplified to a point where they are not engaging or interesting, which ultimately led to me being bored. The script is particularly poor, and the pacing of the whole film is off as well. Things just kind of happen and any obstacle that is put in the characters way is almost immediately solved. The final scene of the film is a great example of this where everything is wrapped up so quickly and it carries no weight to it. I would say it was anti-climactic, but the film never felt like it was building towards a satisfying conclusion anyway.
Visually this film is a bit more of an enigma. It is very much going for that ‘neo-Tokyo’ look that you get in so many other films. You know the one, lots of deep blues, bright whites, and startling pinks that pop and catch the eye while giving the film both a futuristic, clean vibe and a dirty, underground look. It is a look that has been used in a ton of films at this point, but the film implements it well enough. Where the film becomes a visual enigma is in its cinematography and editing. The film is not a visual masterpiece, but there are a couple of shots that I thought were great and they both followed the same template. Both are mid-shots of Kate in the left of the frame and walking away from the camera while the right side of the frame has the visual interest (in these two cases a hologram on the side of a building and a kabuki performance). They are quite simple shots really, but they are visually striking and did stick with me after the film. Unfortunately, what also stuck with me was the editing and that isn’t a positive thing. There are several really odd moments of editing throughout the film where characters seem to jump from one place to another in a split second and it threw me several times. Fortunately, the main fight scenes tend to be edited well. And I can’t possibly talk about this film without talking about the car chase scene. This scene is one of the ugliest moments I have seen in a film in a long time. Across the board it is ugly. The cinematography is horrible, and the fact that it is all CGI that looks no better than a Need for Speed game from the 2000s does not help. The CGI throughout the rest of the film is limited and looks fine, but this scene is so, so ugly to look at.
Overall, I don’t think Kate is particularly good. It hits on occasion with its action scenes and some visuals, but it misses so much with its basic plot and characterisations that I was never able to buy into the narrative and so the action scenes have no emotional weight to them. I can see this not being an issue for some people, and I would say that if you do just like fun, violent action which doesn’t need much plot to drive it you will probably get a lot from this. As for me, it is a miss, and I wouldn’t recommend it overall.
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