I just watched these two films. Both were heavy on the fights,both were light on character depth. High Kick Girl was almost comedic in the plot(I won't spoil it though),but someone in the script dept was trying to convey a theme of the importance of practicing karate for the right reasons as well as why katas are impotant. Being a Silat practitioner myself,I was moved more towards Merantau,but the story,cinematography,and even the characters' demeanor was very influenced by "Ong Bak" and other films coming out of Southernmost Asia. Still,the Silat comes through,especially the idea that you must be prepared to fight more than one opponent. The fight scenes are all intense,but in High Kick Girl the heroine is seen in a room filled with bad guys,and she's fighting one of them at a time while the others are literally standing in the background as if waiting for a number to be called. If only it were as simple to survive in the big city:in both movies the crimelords have no guns!
