It is a performances centric movie

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Adopted at a young age, "Shion" (Makiko Kuno) was raised to be an assassin for a religious cult which also doubles as a crime syndicate. However, during one of her missions a target named "Ito" (Johnny Okara) manages to escape and carries with him photos that could destroy the crime syndicate. As a result, Shion pursues Ito with the intention of retrieving the photos and killing him. However, when she finally corners him, she suddenly has a change of heart and lets him live. One thing leads to another and soon they become romantically involved--and this creates a terrible situation for both of them. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that it had one really good thing going for it—the presence of Makiko Kuno who was absolutely stunning. Unfortunately, there were some scenes that I thought were a bit too graphic--and in some cases simply unnecessary—which ended up hurting the movie somewhat. But other than that I thought everything else was pretty good. That said, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

Plotting and logic are not this film's strongest points: just the usual story of a female assassin (with impossibly good aim) who falls in love with one of her targets and wants to start a new life, but in this line of business "There's No Easy Way Out", as that song in "Rocky IV" said. Basically, "Beautiful Hunter" is an exercise in perversity: of the two main characters, the woman caresses her own naked body with a gun, gets whipped, electrocuted and kills about 20 people, while the man performs oral sex on her to save his life (!), gets shot multiple times and stabbed in the neck with a pen. The female lead is compelling, but this film needed a stronger script to work. By the way, I watched the dubbed version, and the dubbing is surprisingly unobtrusive. (**)

Bred all her life to be an assassin, Shion is the best at what she does. But when she develops a conscience for no reason whatsoever, choosing to go home and masturbate with her gun rather than kill her mark, her clergy bosses ( Yup they're involved in this too, the bad clergy is pretty much a groan-worthy movie cliché now) are none too happy and mark her for death. This flick was somewhat of a chore to sit through and really doesn't make much sense if you think about it. Pure mindless drivel.My Grade: D DVD Extras: Character bios; Trivia game; and Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Beautiful Beast", "Dimension Travelers", "Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars", "Blowback: Love and Death", and Zero Woman: Assassin Lovers" DVD Rom: Photo gallery, Cast info, Script, Production credits and weblinks Eye Candy: Makiko Kuno gets topless multiple times

I saw this movie a while back and it still sticks out in my head. Especially this one bizarre scene where the female assassin is being tortured by the church for betraying them, some weird looking lady takes this electric tazzer like stick, after electrocuting the poor half-naked girl she shoves the electric zapper between her legs, i couldn't tell if she was in pain or having an orgasm, it was the weirdiest scene i've ever seeen in my life. The whole story is weird, all and all i thought could have been better. Get the DVD which is in English, because the VHS is only available in japanese without any subtitles.