WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

ebiros2 Sky High is a occult sci-fi starring Yumiko Shaku. She is murdered on the day of her wedding by Tatsuya Kudo (Takao Oosawa) and Rei Miwa (Kanae Uotani). Kudo and Miwa is collecting six hearts from women who used to be the keeper of gate of death to bring back Kudo's fiancé back to life. She reaches the gate of death and its keeper Izuko (Eihi Shiina) gives her three choices: To be reborn as human again, Roam as a ghost, or avenge death to anyone they choose. She's given 12 days to roam the earth before she makes her mind up, so she goes back and tries to stop the killing by Kudo (in spiritual form). Her fiancé Kohei Kanzaki (Shosuke Tanihara) is a detective, and is trying to find who killed his fiancé. He meets Sayuri Endo (Aya Okamoto), and Kazuo Kishi (Hiromasa Taniguchi) who are reporters and camera man working for a magazine. Kishi is psychic and can see Mina (Yumiko Shaku) and conveys her message to Kudo. Kudo first is skeptical, but later believes what Kishi is saying, and together they go off to stop Kudo.Yumiko Shaku can play a part of ordinary intellectual woman, but she excels in playing a lead in sci-fi movie. This one is no exception, and she plays her rather unlikely part in a cool and convincing fashion.Shosuke Tanihara kept on reminding me of Leon Lai of Hong Kong cinema. The two really looks alike.Yumi Kikuchi plays the part of a medium who can exorcise spirits and understands the working of an underworld. She knows what Kudo is up to and helps Kanzaki plan a counter attack on Kudo.Based on a comic by Tsutomu Takahashi, this movie is an offshoot of a TV series that ran for two seasons between 2003 and 2004 in Japan. Yumiko Shaku plays the role of Izuko in the TV series as well.

Cimmerian_Dragon Ryuhei Kitamura's films seem to be built entirely on the strength of his visual style. Unfortunately, neither I, nor anyone I know, find that style all that interesting. His fight scenes always manage to look stiff and artificial (not fantastic, just artificial), yet he always shoves them in front of plot. I figured I'd had enough after checking out Versus, Alive, and Azumi, ready to write Kitamura off as a perpetual B-Movie factory.Just by chance I happened upon a cheap copy of Sky High at the local FYE, and the synopsis piqued my interest. I'm glad I picked it up, because it corrects a lot of the problems that have continuously plagued the director's work. He restrains himself from the campy action scenes of the aforementioned films, instead presenting competently staged fights that didn't entirely leap beyond plausibility. Best of all, the movie actually has a complete plot, and not one that seems regurgitated from a 70s martial arts exploitation flick. For the first time, I found his story to be engrossing and actually cared about his characters.This film has bought Ryuhei Kitamura a new respect in my eyes, because I know now that he can make a real film. I hope he continues on in the direction displayed here, and resists relapsing into cliché.

scobbah I'm a big fan of Kitamura Ryuhei and he ain't disappointing anyone with this one either, all though this one probably ain't my favorite by him. What you get here is as usual an original plot who at first, reading on IMDb, seemed a bit difficult but as soon as the movie went on it weren't hard to keep up with the plot development. I saw someone who really ranted about this piece, but I guess it was another Hollywood fan because Kitamura is, as always, bending the borders a bit and I do understand if the inveterately Hollywood fans will find this "controversial", by judging the camera work, plot, scenes e.t.c. The scenery in "Sky High" is lovely! What I perhaps lacked here was the more "diffuse" plot development, it was a bit too straight for me (yet good but I wanted more). It's a 7/10 and any Kitamura fan should see this!

The Spectacular Spider-Man It's like a cross between Ghost (the Patrick Swayze movie) and Highlander. Basically, Sky High concerns a young woman who is killed on her wedding day. She finds out what happens after death, which leads to all sorts of mystical mayhem, including sword fights, babes, otherworldy warriors and some really nasty bad guys.It's directed by Kitamura of Azumi fame. And it's much better. It has much more plot, and relies far less on action. It's not really an action movie per se, but the last twenty minutes is almost pure sword action. The fights have more drama because they are actual duels, and the heroines are in danger, unlike Azumi in which the heroes just hacked down legions of bad guys without a scratch.More to the point, it's a gripping plot that unravels perfectly and offers a number of twists and some outright shocks. Visually it's almost what you'd expect a supernatural thriller by Bryan Singer to look like: slightly downbeat, sober, with a blue sheen.There is quite an ensemble for the movie, and the main hero figure changes throughout. At the end of the movie it's arguable who the main villain and hero were. The main actress is Yumiko Shaju of Princess Blade, and she acquits herself well. The bad guys are pretty damn evil, and for some reason most of the cast is very attractive young women.The main problem with Sky High is the name. It just doesn't fit at all, and is of course, the same as the Kurt Russell superhero comedy. It's a great film, it really kept me gripped. Don't expect loads of gore or violence; Kitamura proves here he can tell a strong story.