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Kate | 2021 | R | – 4.9.8

content-ratingsWhy is “Kate” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence and language throughout.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene and some partial nudity, many scenes of battles between a woman and many armed men with people dying from gunshots, and stabbings, a few scenes include people being injured and killed by explosions, we see the worsening condition of a woman after being poisoned, an injury in a car crash, a child being trained in assassination techniques, and over 30 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.


A 24-year-old assassin (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is an orphan recruited into a Japanese assassination society at a young age by a handler (Woody Harrelson). When she asks to retire, her handler assigns her one last target, a Japanese crime boss, but she soon realizes she has been poisoned and has only 24 hours to live. While seeking answers and revenge, she also becomes the protector of another orphan (Miku Martineau). Also with Tadanobu Asano, Jun Kunimura, Michiel Huisman, Miyavi and Kazuya Tanabe. Directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. [Running Time: 1:46]

Kate SEX/NUDITY 4

 – In a close-up, we see a woman wearing a black bra (cleavage and a bare abdomen are visible) as she bounces up and down and we see a man’s bare arm and the top of his head as they appear to be having sex.
 A woman is shown wearing a bra and underwear (we see her bare shoulders, cleavage, abdomen and bare thighs). Several men of all ages sit in a bathhouse, each covered only with a cloth around the waist, covering their crotch. In a dark dance club, several women wear thin-strapped tops that bare their shoulders and arms. In several scenes, a teen girl wears a micro-mini skirt and thigh-high hose that bare upper thighs. A man wears makeup and removes his robe to show heavy black tattoo designs on his upper chest and arms, and tattooed text covering his entire back.

Kate VIOLENCE/GORE 9

 – Two flashback sequences include a man recruiting a young girl to become an assassin, the girl practicing shooting a paper target and into the camera at increasing ages, and blood splattered over the girl’s face from the age of a young child to her early 20s. A flashback shows a teen girl firing a handgun at close range at an older man at a banquet, and her gun is empty; he takes the gun, many other men laugh, and she grabs a steak knife and stabs him repeatedly in the chest and stomach at an angle where we cannot see the wounds; a little blood splatters onto her face.
 A woman pushes a man through a rice paper door and shoots a second man in the forehead (with blood spurting onto walls), she argues with other men and shoots two in the head (with blood gushing on the floor and walls as they die), she shoots a man who admits he ordered her killed, and his blood splashes onto the camera lens from his head while five more men enter with knives and drop them at the sight of the woman’s gun; the woman’s gun clicks empty and the men pick up their knives and attack, they stab and kill a man already in the room, toss the woman through paper walls three times, and she gets up each time to stab the men in the throat, neck, chest and stomach (we see blood gush), and more men rush in and one throws her onto a coffee table that shatters, she grabs a knife and stabs several of the men (more blood gushes) and stabs the last one up through the throat and out the eye (all the men die).
 A woman enters a house to find a man with a sling on his arm kneeling at an altar, they argue and the man shows her some information, the man turns his back, the woman aims a handgun at his head, and the camera cuts away as we hear a gunshot (the man was not shot). A man takes a teen girl to a high-rise building and argues with his partner while a woman enters the lobby with dozens of armed men who shoot and kill several guards (several men fall dead, some fall off a staircase and glass walls shatter loudly as men shout), a man corners the woman with his handgun and he falls dead, killed from behind and a man holds a handgun to the head of a teen girl.
 A woman fights several armed men in a market with kicks, punches, and a gun; a man falls dead from a roof, the woman punches three men and kicks two of them to the ground, shoots three other men dead as people run and scream and blood flows, she and five men jump over counters and kick and punch each another, and she pushes a man’s face into a hot grill and he falls off-screen, screaming; she breaks a wine bottle in another man’s face and pushes him from a second floor window into a sparking power line, men chase her across rooftops, shooting and missing, she shoots a man in the face (blood flows) and shoots two men below her dead as she wedges herself between two walls, and she runs into a bathhouse (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and a man enters with a handgun, the woman aims her gun at him, says “Boo” and he faints as the bathing men laugh.
 A man tosses a sword at the feet of another man and they enter a glass room where one man belittles the other man, who slashes him across the stomach and cuts off the top of his head in a long shot (we see some blood on the severed neck and head); a small explosion shatters the glass room with fireballs and a woman shoots several men dead.
 A man and a woman fist fight as a teen girl grabs a gun and the woman grabs a knife, the man breaks a bottle on the woman’s arm as she screams and points long scissors at her nose and punctures the skin, the woman breaks two champagne glasses to use the shards as weapons and the girl yells and points the gun at the man, but she shoots a glancing shot across the woman’s face (we see a red cut); the man punches the girl in the face, strangles the woman with a wadded up robe and the girl hits him on the back of the head with a heavy object, leaving a large bloody hole as he dies. A woman in a high-rise lobby stabs two men who fall away, and she kicks another man away; she walks up to a rooftop and shoots a man below with a high-powered rifle, causing the back of his head to spurt blood as his young daughter screams and cries.
 A woman steals a car and drives to a man’s apartment, enters, and punches him in the face as his girlfriend screams; she points a handgun at the couple and threatens to kill them, the man admits to poisoning her, telling her a man who was threatening to kill him, told him it was “just a roofie”; the first woman puts away the gun and in the bathroom, spits blood into the sink.
 A woman on a rooftop at night aims a rifle at a man below, coughs and gags, fires, but misses the target; sweating and gagging, she runs downstairs and drives her car erratically, swerving in traffic as a police car speeds after her with sirens blaring and lights flashing; she passes out and crashes, flipping the car several times until it lands on its roof and she awakens in a hospital with a cut on her nose.
 A woman in a dark club pushes an electrical coil into a man’s face as he screams and punches two other men unconscious, she grabs a teen girl out of the club and hits her in the head, knocking her to the sidewalk, she pulls a gun as the girl runs and the woman chases her through an alley, shoots and hits an air conditioning unit, and the girl stops. A woman gags a teen girl and duct tapes her to a pipe over a urinal; the girl breaks out and runs to find a relative that points a gun at her. A woman runs through an alley and shoots the man dead as we see some blood flow and hear a teen girl scream.
 A teen girl steps in front of a car carrying three men, it stops, she points her finger at the car as if it were a gun, and bullets from off- screen hit two of the men in the head (blood spurts); a woman walks into view with a high-powered rifle, shining lasers at the targets and she shoots out the windows until an uninjured man gets out of the back and sits against the car; the teen girl holds a handgun to his temple and the woman questions him and knocks him unconscious with her rifle butt.
 A doctor tells a woman that she was poisoned with Polonium 204 and has only 24 hours to live. A woman disguises herself as a surgeon in a cap and mask, steals a gun from a man, pushes the gun into a doctor’s ribs, and demands five syringes of stimulants (please see the Substance Use category for more details). A movie shows rocket ships shooting lasers at each other. A woman loses a tooth in a washroom, coughs blood into the sink, and wraps gauze around her waist where we see red scars and cuts. We see a woman’s face cut and scabbed, and her arm is covered with bloody bandages. A man wipes blood from a Samurai sword with his handkerchief. A man sits in a chair with his feet in water where tiny fish nibble away dead skin.
 A teen girl curses at a woman and two men several times in different scenes. A teen girl licks two middle fingers and holds them up in a woman’s face, cursing.

Kate LANGUAGE 8

 – About 33 F-words and its derivatives, 2 obscene hand gestures, 12 scatological terms, 3 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (crazy, stupid, gaijin [half-breed] foreigner, foreigner, thug, useless, monsters, killer, smug Westerner, Terminator), exclamations (shut-up, hey), 5 religious exclamations (e.g. Oh My God). | profanity glossary |

Kate SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman steals five hypodermic syringes of stimulants from a doctor at gunpoint and injects them at intervals into her thigh, and a woman crushes several white tablets and swallows them with water. A man in a bar shakes a cocktail shaker and we see liquor bottles behind him, a glass of wine is seen on a table, a man and a woman sip from glasses of wine, a bottle of wine and two empty glasses are shown untouched on a nightstand, five glasses of whiskey are seen on a table and a man chugs from one glass, and an empty market stall bar has a dozen liquor bottles. A few men smoke cigarettes in alleys as well as an outdoor market and an office and one man lights and smokes a cigarette in close-up, and a woman smokes a cigarette briefly in a lobby.

Kate DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Japanese pop culture, honor, crime families, prejudice against Japanese with Caucasian heritage, bloodshed, murder for hire, death, forced labor/child abuse, power, greedy businessmen, danger, loyalty, betrayal, harsh memories, loss, regret, grief, suffering, revenge.

Kate MESSAGE

 – Not all families are loyal.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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