Those keeping track of modern martial arts action know the name Kensuke Sonomura between his work as a stunt director and as a director. If it hits hard, looks badass, and helps move the narrative forward, you can almost guarantee that Sonomura had something to do with it. We’re talking all three Baby Assassins films and One-Percenter (2023), on which Sonomura served as action director, and we’re talking about HYDRA (2019) and Bad City (2022), which Sonomura directed. Last year, during Fantastic Fest 2024, his third film, Ghost Killer, starring Akari Takaishi (Baby Assassins series; The Colors Within) and Masanori Mimoto (Baby Assassins; Bad City), had its world premiere and landed on my favorites list for both story and action. Now, nearly a year later, Ghost Killer receives a home release in physical formats, empowering audiences to enjoy a little bit of that inventive, kick-ass action anytime they like.
For a spoiler-free review, head to EoM Founder Douglas Davidson’s spoiler-free Fantastic Fest 2024 review.
Masanori Mimoto as Hideo Kudo in GHOST KILLER. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
Unfinished business has a way of gnawing at you. College student Fumika Matsuoka (Akari Takaishi) doesn’t yet understand this as, currently, she’s just trying to make inroads with established individuals in the entertainment industry so that she can get a job after graduation. But all of this changes when she happens upon and picks up a bullet casing which creates a connection between herself and the spirit of recently-deceased hitman Hideo Kudo (Masanori Mimoto). The only way to excise him from her is to help him get revenge on the people who killed him. Fumika possesses no fight training, has no special skills of any kind, but when Hideo takes over her body, she’s a killing machine. Together, they must find balance in order to cooperate and survive because those who killed Hideo recognize his work on those who cross Fumika and come looking for her.
Leave it to Sonomura and writer/frequent collaborator Yûgo Sakamoto (Baby Assassins series) to craft an adventure that’s equal parts martial arts action, comedy, and drama in a package that would be a B-movie in lesser hands. The film itself is about Fumika learning to stand up for herself, to find the power within to stop swallowing the bullshit the male-dominated society she exists in so that she can find a career or, to a more significant extent, just live. Her relationship with Hideo is as much about her kindness and desire to help others (as we see her attempt with her friend Maho (Ayaka Higashino) in her abusive relationship) as it is realizing that sometimes one needs to find their line and hold it. Smartly, the script doesn’t make Fumika immediately ok with the violence, making it something she has to come to and acknowledge as necessary in the situation she finds herself in. The second bar scene wherein Hideo has warned her about being drugged, the violence comes because the men keep seeing Fumika as an object for their amusement from the way they move through her before they think she’s drugged and how they react upon believing she is. At no point is Fumika anything to them but an object (an aspect made lighter by the performance of the cast keeping them as dullards), but their true violent nature appears when Fumika via Hideo’s possession defends themselves. In the aftermath, Fumika freaks out, not for the first time or last in the film, because of what Hideo compelled her body to do. It’s a philosophical reckoning for Fumika, one that infuses the whole of the film with a more profound sadness even as the martial arts themselves are deeply gratifying because none of this would be necessary if violence upon women wasn’t so culturally normalized around the world. Between Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins series which centers two young girls graduating high school and becoming professional assassins and Sonomura’s films which frequently feature women in strong roles (both villains and heroes), there appears to be a consistent theme about respecting women and placing them on equal-footing with male counterparts and that holds true here, as well. Especially as the film turns to its darker components with the introduction of hitman Kagehara (Mario Kuroba), his connection as Hideo’s killer, and the organization that both hitmen worked for.
Akari Takaishi as Fumika Matsuoka in GHOST KILLER. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
While the initial review did express adoration for both Takaishi and Mimoto, it feels worth noting that without Takaishi, this film wouldn’t work as well. The character of Fumika needs to be believable in both the natural and possessed states, necessitating an actor who can convey bubbly enthusiasm and proper aggression at the situation as Fumika and a steely focus when Hideo is in control — and that’s Takashi. Look to her introduction in Baby Assassins as Chisato when she’s waiting tables, struggling to construct dessert, and then, once frustrated by her customers, goes from soft acquiescence to disaffected cold and then murders them. We see this frequently throughout the series, an aspect which sets her apart from teammate Mahiro (Saori Izawa), who frequently suffers from ennui unless a fight is upon her. The second bar sequence is a prime example of Takaishi’s skill as a performer that she can be moving her body one way and have her face shift entirely to match the dialogue of the correct personality. It’s the essence of sprezzatura, an Italian term referring to doing something so skillful while making it look easy. This kind of effortlessness requires a great deal of understanding of one’s physicality and material. It certainly helps that having worked with Sonomura on three other projects and Mimoto on at least one, there’s a shared language that enables them to pull off the stunts in conjunction with the narrative needs to keep the character’s emotional journeys intact throughout.
With this being a 4K UHD home review, it’s important to address the on-disc presentation, which is, admittedly, a bit of a conundrum. The sound quality is great, the dialogue coming through clear and crisp and the audio presented without error, enabling the foley work of impact noises to sound robust and powerful. Likewise, the video quality is strong with details apparent in costumes and set design, thereby giving the film a lived-in feel. Where the HDR is strongest is in the bar scenes (first after the intro to Fumika and then after she agrees to use Hideo to protect herself) with the diversity of color in the set popping without creating distortion or sacrificing details on the characters themselves. The conundrum comes from the fact that the bitrate on the disc is constantly bouncing. A little oscillation is normal, but a 4K UHD disc usually has a stable bitrate for the majority of the presentation. Here, however, while it does primarily hover in the range of 60s-70s (Mbps), it frequently dips into and stays within the 20s and 50s. Again, there’s no disruption of picture or sound when this happens, so if you weren’t tracking this, you’d never know. But a max bitrate for a Blu-ray is 40 Mbps, which means that there’s a large portion of this on-disc presentation where you may as well have paid for the Blu-ray and you’d get the same presentation for less.
Akari Takaishi as Fumika Matsuoka in GHOST KILLER. Photo courtesy of Well Go USA.
Unfortunately, despite the press release stating that there’s a making-of featurette included with this home release, nothing outside of the film, scene-selection, and audio setup options are included. With this being the third film Sonomura has directed and released by Well Go, I was excited to have the chance to explore the behind-the-scenes elements of the film. Too few Well Go titles have included bonus features of late and neither of the two Sonomura-directed titles have bonus features outside of an English Dub (Bad City), trailer, or previews for upcoming Well Go USA titles. The best thing about physical media is that no one can take the film from you and you can rewatch it as often as you like. The second-best thing is getting the chance to hear from the filmmakers (cast and crew) about their experience working on the film and what they did to create it. A mismatch between what’s listed and what’s provided does happen from time to time — last year’s Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part One advertised an included film clip that I’ve still yet to discover — however, to call the advertising for and then omission of a feature is a frustration, putting it mildly.
Even on a rewatch, Ghost Killer kicks a whole lot of ass. It’s an absolute shame that there’re no bonus features and it’s frustrating that the on-disc presentation (technically) doesn’t align with the high standards of a 4K; but, overall, there’s little to complain about because at least Well Go is able to put the film on physical formats for interested buyers. Perhaps it’s just a matter of time when a boutique will pick up the rights in 20 years and we can get a whole host of making-of materials. Until then, something on disc is better than nothing at all.
No bonus features included with this edition.
Available on digital July 22nd, 2025.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD September 23rd, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Well Go USA Ghost Killer webpage.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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