As he’s dying, she finishes the job without batting an eye. The skirmishes between Kate and the Yakuza are particularly unsettling for Asian viewers - especially during a scene in which Kate barges into a room and immediately shoots one of the men in the head. Not to mention, a tenacious white woman brutally kill multiple Asian men during the first two acts was extremely uncomfortable to watch, especially as the Asian community is still recovering from mass anti-Asian hate crimes. The film could be forgiven for its tedious and predictable plot if it had some exhilarating action, but unfortunately, the fight scenes are rushed and leave Kate looking more like the Terminator than an actual human being whose body is gradually shutting down. It was also unsettling to find the Japanese-born Ani asking everyone to speak English to her fellow Japanese brethren, as Japanese is widely preferred over English in Japan. Sure, there were serious circumstances that caused this turn, but it's still unwarranted. The characterization of Ani seems more like an adorable anime archetype rather than a traumatized teenager. After Kate saves Ani from rival gangs, the teen turns into a fangirl for the vengeful assassin and follows her around as her sidekick. The most annoying part of this newfound relationship between Kate and Ani is that it feels like the white savior trope. Kate then kidnaps the teen and demands access to her uncle, which Ani sadly is unable to provide. After mass murdering a bunch of his men, Kate is told she can find Kijima through his teenage niece Ani (Miku Martineau). Enraged, Kate pursues every lead to find him. With very little time left, Kate discovers who poisoned her: the head of a clan in the Yakuza, Kijima (Jun Kunimura), whose brother Kate had assassinated a few months prior. Kate could have been the next Atomic Blonde, but instead majorly falls short with its lack of originality and unfortunate Asian tropes. The film has the makings of a good, slick, action-packed thriller with Winstead at the helm, who at the time had just finished DC’s Birds of Prey. With only 24 hours to live, Kate must somehow power through her rapidly degenerating body and battle the Yakuza to get to the man she believes is responsible for her predicament. In Kate, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the title character, the story is just that: an idyllic fantasy of a woman with limited time to exact vengeance against the people who poisoned her. In this fantasy, these femme fatales will stop at nothing to seek revenge against their oppressor, slowly losing their humanity as they get closer to their goal.
There seems to be an obsession with the idea of women being powerful and indestructible assassins going around as of late, with the scripts being entirely written by men.
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