‘Kitty The Killer’ Review – An Action Comedy That Struggles With Both

When it comes to action movies and especially martial arts films, we tend to focus less on plot and dialogue, at least when it comes to the basics. Sure, the greats in any form of film can do it all. But mostly it’s all about what the film is trying to accomplish. We are not looking for awards-worthy acting performances. Generally, we are looking for bloody, brutal fun and a little bit of comedy for levity. The great thing about the genre is that usually we can get this and it is not limited by language, stylistic choices, or even budgetary constraints. This is not to say that it is easy, and for proof of that difficulty, we have Kitty The Killer.

From director Lee Thongkam, this is a convoluted story, from screenwriters Thongkam, Sorawi Alapach, and Venus Saksiri that struggles to maintain any sort of momentum or internal logic. Essentially, there is a secret organization that runs everything and an even more secret group of assassins to do their bidding. All you need to know is that there are guardians and kitties. Guardians, well, guard the kitties who are vicious female assassins, skilled beyond belief (or so the movie would have us think). The film starts with one of the Guardians, Grey Fox (Somchai Kemglad) being attacked, even with the protection of one of his Kitties, Dina (Ploypailin Thangprapaporn). This leads us to him passing off his powers and responsibility to the goofy office drone, Charlie (Denkhun Ngamnet). What follows is his training to be the new Grey Fox and fighting with a whole gang of Kitties to recover a world-altering device.

Yes, that is a lot of seeming nonsense, but that’s not even close to the biggest problem. The problem in this action comedy movie is the action and the comedy. The action is mediocre at best, with some deeply strange visual choices. In the introductory attack, there are action beats that move from live-action to animated. It’s odd, but it could work. Animation allows characters to perform in ways that would be physically difficult or impossible. But this is the only sequence in which the technique is used. In this way, it feels a bit like they left a storyboard in the film. The rest of the way, despite numerous attempts, none of the action is memorable in the slightest. It is not actively bad, but there are zero wow moments.

The comedy, on the other hand, is particularly painful. Charlie, in his training montage, is constantly joking and it becomes much more annoying than it ever is funny. There is also a weird bit in which all of the Kitties have names that end in -ina. Dina, Mina, Tina, Rina… you get it. As an introduction, it is cute, but throughout the movie, it simply becomes confusing. There is not enough time spent with each of them for each -ina to be worth remembering. The film seems to realize this, as it begins to shoehorn in flashbacks for some, but not all, of these characters. Unfortunately, like most of Kitty The Killer, these moments fail to hit any emotionally powerful moments. 

Now, it is not without positives. Kemglad, as the original Grey Fox, or Keng, is the only protagonist who finds his way around the silliness. His care for his Kitties is apparent, both in current time and in flashback. His final moments with Charlie are affecting and may be the only time his scene partner has without making jokes. Additionally, our pseudo villain of the piece, Nina The Faceless (Ying Donnaporn Sukprasert), does her job just about perfectly, minus the uninspired action. She is intimidating, her vocal work is impressive, and she carries herself as a villain should.

Kitty The Killer is a subpar addition to the canon of martial arts action. There are some interesting, if overdone, ideas at play but it is hampered by a script that thinks it is much more clever than it is in actuality. If they had focused more on the original Grey Fox and his relationships with building up the Kitties, it could possibly have been more than a middling affair. As it is, it will likely disappoint martial arts fans and fail to bring new people into the fold, due to its lack of originality and genuine emotional moments.

Kitty The Killer is currently playing in select theaters and is available on Digital platforms courtesy of Epic Pictures. 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfuSMToEUXQ]