Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

kevin_crighton A detective hunting a serial killer is left devastated when his bride to be is murdered on their wedding day. As with all the victims, her heart was removed. As he hunts down leads to find the killer, His bride, Mina, finds herself at The Gate Of Resentment. There she is faced with 3 choices. Go through the gate and be reborn, become a ghost, or take revenge and kill, and end up in hell.....Ryuhei Kitamura, who directed the action packed Azumi, tones down the violence here, but still stages some impressive action sequences. The cast are all impressive.But what really gets you about this movie, is the emotional content. Based on a Japanese comic book, there are twists in the story which do come as a surprise. And the love portion of the story works well, both for the detective Kohei, and his bride Mina, but also the bond between the killer, her boss (who needs the hearts for a ritual) and the boss's sick wife. Not everything is as clear cut as it would seem to appear here, and this is a refreshing change.Although I've not read the comic book, as a movie it is very impressive, with a lot of imagination. If only writers and directors in Hollywood and the west could come up with ideas this imaginative.This is a movie worth checking out.

geniusshikamaru I do not understand why this movie is rated so low here on IMDb. Maybe it is unknowingly associated with the Disney kiddy movie by the same name, not to mentioned that 7 out of 8 videos. On the page for Ryuhei's film are actually from Disney's, someone should get that corrected.The movie is about a madman, Kudo, that is trying to summon a demon by way of cutting out the hearts of some girls. One of these girls ends up being the fiancé, Mina, of detective Kanzaki.It is a really good story and plot. It doesn't have plot holes nor is it a vague movie with horror and fighting. This movie isn't really a "horror" movie as I have seen it classified and considered. It's more of an action drama movie. It blends a good story with good action. Something I rarely see.

pdunham-1 I had been looking forward to watching this film for a long time. I read that it wasn't the director's (Ryuhei Kitamura) best film and having seen 'Versus', 'Azumi' and 'Godzilla: final wars'. I think that this is true. The story is quite good, the acting is OK, much of the directing is good, sometimes very good, but surprisingly many of the fight scenes appear little more than opportunities for the antagonists to pose about like power rangers with swords, which had me thinking 'get on with it'. I expect a little bit of this type of thing in Japanese movies (which I am a big fan of), but it was beginning to verge on the annoying , thankfully it didn't spoil things completely. I don't expect none-stop action in Ryuhei Kitamura's movies, but the action scenes don't come close to those in 'Azumi' or 'Versus'.Very often I'll watch a film thinking this could of been a great film, but sadly we ended up with only a good film. 'Sky High' could of been great, but settles for good. One of the things I have come expect from the director is originality, sadly this film had little, borrowing heavily from other films. It was more like a mixture of 'Versus' and 'Ghost' with some other old ideas thrown in. I have seen lots of reviews praising this film (better than Azumi, no, better than Azumi 2, yes) but I believe anyone thinking of watching this film, having already seen any of the director's previous films should lower their expectations, otherwise they may be disappointed. Having said that I'm glad I watched it and I wouldn't want to put anyone off watching this film as the 122 min pass by quickly enough and they may find it well worth watching after all.

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.