Producers: Doris Pfardrescher, Yusuke Suzuki and Hiroyuki Takase    Director: Kensuke Sonomura   Screenplay: Yugo Sakamoto    Cast: Akari Takaishi, Masanori Mimoto, Mario Kuroba, Hidenobu Abera, Ayaka Higashino, Hiroto Honda, Ryu Ichinose, Sora Inoye, Naohiro Kawamoto, Kenta Kawasaki and Satoshi Kibe   Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment

Grade: C+

Kensuke Sonomura and Yugo Sakamoto, the team responsible for the “Baby Assassins” franchise, create another comic action movie, this time with a supernatural hook. “Ghost Killer” starts with a prologue in which Kudo (Masanori Mimoto), an aging hit-man who’s part of a cabal of assassins, kills his target after a blistering fight but is then shot dead by an unseen gunman.  The bullet casing from the fatal shot is kicked about until it’s picked up by Fumika (Akari Takaishi), a mousy college student.  She’s possessed by Kudo’s ghost, who’s out for revenge. 

There follows a prolonged, basically slapstick exposition in which the solemn Kudo and a hysterical Fumika figure out the “rules” of possession: she sees him while others cannot, and when she touches his hand he takes her body over and can use it to devastate opponents.  That comes in handy when her pal Maho (Ayaka Higashino) is threatened by her brutal boyfriend, and Fumika/Kudo intervenes.  The feminist impulse also comes into play when “they” confront a trio of low-lifes—a giggling influencer Fumika has wanted to interview, his friend and a bartender—in a local dive.

But the emphasis is on the search for Kudo’s killer, which naturally brings emotional bonding between ghost and host, with Kudo coming increasingly to question his dark vision of life and to grow more protective of Fumika, while she in turn becomes more understanding and assertive.

Their quest leads inevitably to the dark organization of assassins to which Kudo belonged, now led by the manic son of its late long-time leader.  After some difficulties Fumika/Kudo will be joined in their mission by Kagehara (Mario Kuroba), a laconic, impassive young hit-man who’d been mentored by Kudo.  A final confrontation culminates in a long, brutal martial-arts battle between Fumika/Kudo and Katsura (Naohiro Kawamoto), who matches the ghost move for move.

Sonomura stages the fight sequences expertly, using the relatively small spaces in which some are set particularly well, and he has fun switching between Takaishi and Mimoto as they go on.  He and his actors are less successful with the comedy, which they pitch at a very high level that winds up feeling juvenile.  Of course, that’s pretty much a function of the possession premise, which is fundamentally silly, especially as it’s depicted to start the plot running, the bullet casing being kicked about randomly by passersby before Fumika picks it up quizzically. 

“Ghost Killer” is hardly a movie with wide appeal, but devotees of Japanese action comedy will probably enjoy it–especially the fight sequences–provided they can swallow the supernatural goofiness.