Beautiful Hunter begins with the disturbing images of a child named Shion, being trained to become a killer-her training ground? A church of all places! In the name of God, her mentor a priest forces her to kill a man to start her process as a hunter and she complies. Seeing a child commit this inexplicable act is awkward, yet it grabbed my attention as the film continued.
Shion gets older, continues her killing ways and really has no life outside of what she was brought up knowing; how to hunt. A team of journalists discovers the organization she works for and takes pictures of the woman and her dastardly deeds. Of course, the journalists are realized and therefore, become prey for the next hunt. Shion kills the photographer's partner, but the shutterbug lives, because she needs his pictures.
Fearing for his life, the Stockholm Syndrome sets in and the dude actually starts hitting on Shion, telling her she is beautiful, despite the fact that she killed his partner. He even says he never had such a scary date before, as he takes her to the locker box where the pictures are stored. Only to have a profound and life altering effect on Shion as she realizes what her entire existence was for, which was kind of cool, because as she puts it, you never see yourself as a killer until you see it in a photo. It no longer looks to her like she's doing God's work, but breaking away is harder than it looks and she has a job to do.
She had to kill the photographer, but the dweeb has other ideas. He starts begging for his life, falling to his knees and grabbing at her, "accidentally" pulling off her clothes and realizing that she is aroused by his actions-after all she has never been touched by a man. So, she lets him live to go back to the church so she can have sex with her gun, literally, as her mentor watches on a surveillance camera. Having finished her sexual deed, she decides she now wants to know what a date is like, and even though Shion killed his partner, he decides to take her out, even after telling her how much his friend meant to her.
So, Shion starts to have fun. She eats meat for the first time, she watches television for the first time and she discovers what true love is, but this angers her boss, who has her kidnapped and tortured in an awkward scene of S&M violence. This all leads to an action packed ending, a showdown between Shion and the priest, a surprising twist that ties up what happened at the beginning of the film, and a moment that will leave a tear in your eye, unless you are a heartless punk. This movie has it all--seriously.
Beautiful Hunter is dopey, cheesy and sometimes over the top, but it has some great action, the lead female is beautiful as advertised and there are surprisingly tender moments to round out the film. You will be shocked, even possibly offended, but in the end, it's a guarantee that you will be entertained.
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