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20 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Dark, erotic tale of underaged assassin, 27 December 2004 Author: fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness
Director and storyboarder Yasuomi Umetsu's high octane visuals hang from KITE's basic, unoriginal storyline, but don't let that put you off this pleasing document.An assassin forced to kill and driven into occasional sexual servitude by perverted bosses is the basic set-up of this excuse for subversion (nothing wrong with that).That the assassin looks twelve (despite her concessionary breasts) is why KITE is questionable material in more conservative circles.The shoot-outs are beautifully realized and the sound effects are sharp and effective. Umetsu has a passion for the domino effect of violence as one grisly atrocity begets another until the Tokyo streets and subways resemble a hellish inferno.The erotic sequences, cut or softened in some versions, are as explicit as you can possibly get and gorgeously drawn.The 2004 Kitty Media DVD (the only one to get) is totally uncut, as is a German disc released a couple of year's ago (sans English subs).KITE is juvenile in spots, slow in others, but it's a good animated co-feature if you're thinking of screening Luc Besson's THE PROFESSIONAL for your comrades.
15 out of 17 people found the following review useful: another rare find, 2 April 2001 Author: Pavel Kozyura from Rockville, MD, USA
Solidly built anime and a pleasure to watch. Character development is believable, although predictable. The story feels slightly sketchy and rushed closer to the end. Bonus points for the absence of "will be continued in #2" hint. Absolutely worth watching and owning.
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Exploding Bullets Cause Exploding Pulse Rates, 5 October 2000 Author: Zantara Xenophobe from Illinois, USA
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
NOTE: This review is going to have some crucial spoilers in the second paragraph, so watch the movie before you read this.I really like good anime, but I am usually hesitant to rent it because I often pick out a tape that is really a collection of TV episodes. While they still may be good, they rarely leave you with a sense of closure that makes you feel like you got a good deal out of the movie when it is over. I was a little nervous about renting "Kite" (pronounced 'key-tae') because it clocks at a mere forty-five minutes, which is usually a sign of TV excerpts. I went ahead anyway and checked it out. Boy, did I get a good deal out of the movie when it was over!The movie begins with a jaw-dropping scene of violence: a child molester getting killed by a young girl. You expect something like it is going to happen, but the movie is more graphic than you will expect. But this is a good thing, and it really sends your pulse flying later on. We soon find out that the girl is named Sawa, and she is under the care of a slimy police detective named Akai, who, along with an even slimier associate named Kanie, give Sawa information on people she is to kill; they tell her the victims are all child molesters, but you begin to wonder if they are really being honest with Sawa (which they aren't). Akai and Kanie murdered Sawa's parents years earlier, and over time have forced her to kill who they want her to kill, which she does excellently with a special gun that shoots exploding bullets. Sawa does her job emotionlessly until she meets another young assassin that works for Kanie: a boy named Oburi. When they meet, they begin to consider getting away from their masters, but they find out that leaving is easier said than done, as Akai and Kanie aren't about to let their lucrative business go down the drain.The movie is not for the weak-of-stomach. The exploding bullets create a huge mess, but that seems to make everything all the more real. There is a very violent scene in a men's bathroom that is one of the most exhilarating and exciting scenes I have ever had the pleasure of watching. The dubbed dialogue is very good, as compared to most dubbed dialogue cartoons in which you can just tell something got lost in the translation (although with criminal editing, something is indeed lost). And the animation is terrific, too. My only quarrel is the time. I wish the movie was twenty or thirty minutes longer, enough time to strengthen the relationships between the characters, especially between Sawa and Oburi and between Sawa and Akai. The reason this time is gone is because the company that released the film in the United States hacked out a substantial amount of the film, which was a terrible thing to do. Otherwise, I probably would have rated this film a perfect 10. Nevertheless, don't pass this one by when nosing around in the animation section, looking for an exciting anime. It sure beats the TV show stuff you could end up with. Zantara's score (edited version): 9 out of 10.
5 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Exhausting Kite DVD, 3 May 2006 Author: Andrei Pavlov from Archangel, Russia
What I like most about this DVD is its extras, especially one of the video teasers of the cartoon - it is done in a very cool manner (without hentai scenes but most bloody shooting is shown). The music is stylish, too. Then goes the title menu - also very neat (soft jazz is playing, Kite lies on the sofa in embryo position, shot from above, the reflections of the passing cars' windows are moving over her). If you skip all the adult hentai scenes, you will get a stylish action movie for the whole family to enjoy. The exploding bullets make it all a blood-fest unsuitable for infants.Here I can speak out about the main imperfection already (the problem of the release in our country and, guess, in all others as well): the DVD must have two versions. It is a short anime after all (I am not speaking about 2 versions for "Titanic" or "The Godfather" on one DVD, please note). The first version is to be ultimately uncut (which is on my present DVD) and the second - excluding all the crazy hentai scenes. It's because of the following inconvenience: to be in a stand-by mode, ready to skip this and that, every time while watching it together with the whole family is exhausting like hell.Therefore, 7 out of 10. Thanks for attention.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Stylish And Violent Anime..., 28 June 2006 Author: EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic
NOTE: This review is based on the chopped-to-sh!t U.S. release...KITE is basically an all-filler, little-substance anime with some semi-twisted pedophiliac undertones. Unfortunately, the copy that I have has all the hardcore hentai material cut out of it, which is extremely disappointing and knocks it down a few notches in my book.Sawa is young female assassin being "pimped" by a sleazy police-detective named Akai and his partner. Along the way, Sawa meets another young assassin, a boy named Obury, who is also being exploited by Akai. The two decide after a few encounters together that they wanna leave "the life" - but find that it's not as easy as it may seem...KITE has a good bit of action packed into it's (U.S. release) 45-minute run-time. Some of it is well-done and "exciting" - some is over-the-top and ridiculous. Regardless, there's plenty of gun-play, explosions, and bloodshed to keep the more hardcore anime fans happy. The exclusion of the hardcore sex material, like I mentioned before - is a huge disappointment to me, but personally - I can't say I liked this one enough to bother seeking out the uncut version. The storyline seemed (as other reviewers have rightly noted...) a bit rushed and the ending was abrupt. The pedo undertones will probably bother some (apparently, in the uncut release there are several graphic sex-scenes involving Sawa - who looks about 13 except for her big-ass titties and is often referred to as "young" - often meaning under 18...) - but being that it's a cartoon, it didn't bother me in this case. Worth a look to violent-anime fans - I SERIOUSLY suggest tracking down an uncut version...6/10 (probably would have been an 8/10 had the hentai material been intact)
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Too short..., 25 May 2006 Author: frozetti from Russian Federation
The film is quite good. It could even be one of the best I've seen,but... I think 50 minutes is too short. Because of it, the love story between Sawa and Oburi looks a little stupid,and after watching it I had a feeling that something was uncompleted. And of course there are lots of logical mistakes. For example: how can a man survive after explosion if he was in epicenter of it? How can he miss the target if he's standing in a meter distance from it? There are also some mistakes with bursting bullets.Nevertheless I can say, that movie is quite good and it's definitely worth seeing. But it's sad to realize that it could be much better. And it's strange that Yasuomi Umetsu still hasn't made the second part.
One of the best adult action movies ever!, 9 March 2009 Author: Ivan Dimitrov from Sofia, Bulgaria
First of all if you have seen Kite I guess that you are at least 18 or you have seen an awfully censored version. The movie begins with a little brutal murder scene and then gets more and more brutal every minutes. Gunfights, murders, child abusing sex scenes - this movie has it all. If you can't take this you better don't watch it, because if you do you will be disgusted and will claim that this movie is only sex and gore. But it is NOT! If you watch full director's edition, you will find how Sawa interacts with people, you will see all of the terrible things that her masters have done and will understand why she is so full of hatred. I don't really think that there was a better way to tell the story. And I don't that there is a better hit-man story, either. Maybe except for Hit-man itself ^^. I don't know why IMDb refuses to show the word hit-man, but so be it.Also if you don't like anime, don't watch this. You wouldn't like it-the art is a little crude, not so polished and the violence will be just way too much for you.
4 out of 9 people found the following review useful: decent fun mindless & entertaining, 21 January 2003 Author: garen from california
this is certainly not the best anime out there, but dont take it too seriously and have fun with the really twisted story and well thought-out action sequences. the ending is very rushed. i had to watch it a couple times until i figured out exactly what happens. its no akira or space battleship yamato, but kite still delivers good entertainment at a decent level of inteligence. on some levels kite reminded me of the professional (natalie portman movie). i've heard some people complain that its too short, but i couldnt imagine this anime being any longer than 50 minutes.
2 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Raped, 27 December 2004 Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach
Spoilers herein.This could have been a good movie. I'm particularly sensitive to the cinematic power of sexual exploitation — after all, that's pretty close to much of the cinematic experience. And child molesting adds great power to the experience.Also, I like Manga's sometimes honest approach to sexuality. Yes, its mostly prurient but its probably better to have sexual exploitation than the often humorous current repression. And anime sometimes goes where film has never gone before (graphic layout metaphors and object boundaries).This film has all that, and still sucks. It has no soul, no graphic identity, no intrinsic pathos. Are we supposed to simply feel abused?(it is a small thing compared to the general complaint about artlessness. But it completely destroys the child molestation bit to draw such huge breasts.)Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
3 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Anime Americans will like, 1 January 2001 Author: tokkichi from Las Vegas, NV
When I first saw this film, it was the edited American version (its missing nearly 1/2 hour), and I instantly fell in love with it. I am a huge fan of anime, but I prefer actual movie format (like that of "Perfect Blue") as opposed to the OVA format (like the "Slayers" series). This movie had an excellent plot, rapid-fire animated sequences, and alot of violence and weapons-play. I personally didn't care much for the animator's style, but that is more than made up for in the fluidity of the frames. Watching the movie in its original Japanese will help answer alot of questions that, due to mouth-syncing shortcomings, were not really addressed. And, although "Kite" (pronounced "kah-ee-toe", if one were to read the katakana on the boxfront... pronouncing it like "kee-teh" will mean something entirely different in Japanese) is missing that 1/2 hour of footage, there is nothing really lost in the plot or motif. Anyone who does not watch this film superficially will put the missing details together by context clues throughout. Overall I say that if you can, get the video in its original Japanese, with subtitles in English if necessary...get the raw feel for the film. However, the full unedited version, if you're interested, is only available in Japan, and Hong Kong, I believe. The video and DVD formats used there aren't programmed to play on American players. So, if you want to see it uncut, you'll have to see it in the country of origin.
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