Good start, but then it gets ruined

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This film had a low budget but a lot of meaning. It looked like something you would see on TV, but in full you can really tell it is a movie. The film shows an interesting version of heaven and hell. The pearly gates are not really pearly either. They are the Gates Of Rage and you have three choices. Be reborn, curse someone until they die or wander around like a ghost all your life. Kind of has the heaven effect with some reincarnation added. You would expect the special effects to be high, but all you get are some interesting sparks added to some cool sword fighting scenes. The cast is interesting. There are only really about four characters worth mentioning although all the side ones do have personalities. Yumiko Shaku does an OK job and has a cool fight scene, but that is about it. Shosuke Tanihara is a detective trying to avenge his dead girlfriend played by Yumiko. He shows the most emotion in the film. Then the "bad guy" is played by Takao Osawa which was probably my favorite performance in the film. Takao had an evil sidekick played by Kanae Uotani. She had some of the best fight scenes. She really had the look for her character also. This film is like a fantasy and a horror piece put into one. You have death and you have magic. The story was interesting, but was missing pieces. Overall, it was fun to watch though.

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.

Although this isn't like 'Versus' or 'Azumi', it plays along the same sort of line with the action and story. The performances from the cast is intriguing; some are brilliant, full of life and inspiration, while some are undemanding, dragging the film along in a slow pace. The action's incredibly exhilarating, filled with impressive sword fights and stunning magic effects but this gets sadly overshadowed by the film's slow pace and some uninteresting characterisation.Overall, this is a visually adequate but slight action thriller with a good amount of action to make this overly bearable for fans of the 'Kill Bill' series.

Let me get this out of the way now. I am a huge Ryuhei Kitamura fan. I think I have now seen all of his movies (Heat After Dark, Down To Hell, Versus, Azumi, Aragami, Alive...... and even Battlefield Baseball, which he sort of had a hand in), and though enjoyed them all, I found Sky High to be one of his best. This definitely sits in my top 3, with Versus and Azumi.Anyone familiar with Kitamura's films will recognize his style immediately. Fantastic cinematography, digitally assisted effects, hyperkenetic fights, and story lines that at best can be described as complicated. He seems to weave a mythology into most of his work, and it all seems very new and interesting.In any case, Sky High really got to me because the world he spins here has really defined rules, and they are played to the best of their limits. We know that the death of one character will cause a chain reaction in both the living and spirit world, and that was really intriguing.The film has flaws, to be sure. It's a little long, and sometimes you can predict what's coming next, but it's still very good. This is the kind of movie that looks good enough to have a very wide theatrical release (except for the demon at the end, what was with that?) and do well once word of mouth got around.Anyway, highly recommended viewing. Can't wait to see what Kitumura will do with Godzilla: Final Wars.