Junko wasn't like the other girls; she had to grow up away from playmates, away from boyfriends, away from everyone except her mother. The reason was that Junko is a pyrokinetic: she can start fires with her mind. And if anybody messes with her… hooboy.

Crossfire (or Pyrokinesis, as its Japanese title more accurately translates) is a decent action thriller centered around Junko and her deadly abilities. Someone is killing young girls in the city and videotaping the act; when it happens to the little sister of Junko's new boyfriend, she's convinced she must use her powers to put the killers out of business - permanently, as in 'nothing left of them but a couple of charred skeletons.' A pair of smart cops become interested in the sudden fire-related events happening in their city, and soon track Junko down. But it turns out she didn't get all of the killers; and the ones who are left go gunning for her…

I usually don't care much for movies that can be described as 'thrillers.' Many of them - the American ones, at any rate - are entirely too predictable; or if not predictable, the plot twists turn out to be too neat, or too obviously contrived. Crossfire was good in that it became more involved as the plot wove on; storylines that started out cheesily enough - like the new boyfriend Kazuki's sister being one of the early victims - eventually played out neatly, but not too neat (see above). There was always plenty of suspense and action, and the majority of the special effects were very good (only in a few places did it look too CG).

The copy I have was released by 'Unit World Movie Inc.' and is erroneously labeled 'Ross Fire' on the cover. It features both English and Chinese hard-coded subtitles, and the subtitles are excellently written. Foreign films subbed by someone barely literate in English can be a serious drag, and thankfully that's not the case here. I'm ashamed to say it, but I've had the DVD for this film for at least a year or more; I thought this was going to be a cheesy horror movie (I don't care much for horror either), and avoided it for quite a while (as I also did with Iron Monkey, a Chinese martial arts film). What a dope! This was really enjoyable. I recommend it to anyone.