“Ghost Killer” Theatrical Poster

Director: Kensuke Sonomura
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Mario Kuroba, Masanori Mimoto, Sora Inoue, Akaka Higashino, Naohiro Kawamoto, Hidenobu Abera, Naoto Kuratomi, Satoshi Kibe
Running Time: 105 min.

By Paul Bramhall

A lone figure in the darkness of a deserted marketplace alley faces off against 3 masked attackers, fending them off set to the rustle of their clothes, the shuffle of their footwork, and a flurry of quick, precise strikes. Within seconds the choreography on display can be identified as the work of Kensuke Sonomura, an action director who’s been active since the mid-2000’s, acting as the action choreographer on the likes of The Machine Girl and Deadball. However it was with his 2019 directorial debut Hydra that he really cemented his distinctive style – one that dials back action scenes to their purest form, absent of any kind of soundtrack, and relying purely on the movements and sounds of the performers onscreen to create a sense of conflict and danger.

It’s a style that’s immediately recognizable in the same way that the Jackie Chan or Donnie Yen style of choreography comes with its own distinctive DNA, and Sonomura has found a muse for his onscreen mayhem in the form of Masanori Mimoto. With a choreographer-performer relationship dating back to the likes of 2010’s Alien vs. Ninja and 2013’s Bushido Man, it made sense that Sonomura cast Mimoto as the lead for his directorial debut, and he’d crop up again in Sonomura’s sophomore crack at sitting in the director’s chair with 2022’s Bad City. They say third times a charm, and in 2024 Sonomura has returned to the role of both director and action director with the release of Ghost Killer.

The lone figure that opens Ghost Killer with the marketplace fight scene is also Masanori Mimoto, and after disposing of the trio of assailants, he finds himself on the wrong end of a bullet. Playing an assassin for hire, his untimely death sees him harbour a grudge, one that prevents him from entering the afterlife until justice is served. Thankfully an opportunity arises to do exactly that when a college student discovers the casing of the bullet that delivered the kill shot, which allows Mimoto’s spirit both to communicate with her directly, as well as (and more significantly) possess her body, providing a vessel for his considerable fighting skills. Played by one half of the Baby Assassins, surprisingly Sonomura has chosen to go with the non-stunt performer of the pair, and cast Akari Takaishi as Mimoto’s only way to continue communicating with the world of the living.

It’s a familiar setup, riffing on the likes of Hong Kong’s Where’s Officer Tuba? and Taiwan’s Kung Fu Student from the 1980’s, transplanting the dynamic of a martial arts savvy ghost possessing an unexpected member of the living to the streets of modern Japan. While it’s Takaishi who takes top billing, Mimoto can essentially be considered a co-star, since there aren’t too many scenes when he’s not by her side or being called into action. Takaishi isn’t the only link to the Baby Assassins trilogy (and now a TV Mini Series as well!) though, as apart from all of them featuring Sonomura’s action direction talents, it’s also their director Yugo Sakamoto who’s penned the script for Ghost Killer (one of the funniest lines has Takaishi suggest to her roommate that they could “…watch those three shitty movies we talked about.” – a clear in-joke referencing the Baby Assassins trilogy).

The result is one that makes Takaishi’s struggling college student feel like a not-too-distant incarnation of her Baby Assassins character, and how much you enjoyed her character in that series will be a strong indicator of how much you’ll enjoy Ghost Killer. Living in a state of perpetual exasperation even before she realises there’s a ghost following her around, her frazzled state is one we spend the majority of the 105-minute runtime with, and if your sense of humor isn’t in tune to the constant outbursts of flusterment, it could come across as a little grating. Much like Saori Izawa provided the counterbalance in Baby Assassins, its Mimoto’s sardonic hitman that takes on the same role here, strolling around with a blood-stained sweater where he got shot, and reluctantly coming to accept that his hitman days are over.

Their relationship acts as the anchor to Ghost Killer’s tried and tested plot of an assassin who’s been wronged by the agency he provided his services to, heading to the inevitable confrontation between former (well, actually dead) employer and those he used to work for. Able to possess Takaishi’s body by clasping hands, soon she’s putting the beatdown on her friend’s abusive boyfriend, and confronting cinnamon sniffing influencers with a tendency to spike girls drinks to take advantage of them. The fight that takes place within the confines of a small bar against the latter also acts as one that sets the rules for the possession plot device, with Mimoto realising he needs to keep his opponent in a choke hold 30 seconds longer than usual due to Takaishi’s “skinny arms”.

It’s a smart angle to take possession trope from, with a lethal hitman having to adjust to applying his skillset in the body of a female college student, but it’s not one that Sonomura sticks with. By the time we get to the finale, an uninspired shootout sees the scene alternate between having both Takaishi and Mimoto appear onscreen, however when it comes to the inevitable one on one, Sonomura wisely givens centre stage to Mimoto. It’s a decision which will likely split audiences down the middle, and I can imagine for anyone watching Ghost Killer who doesn’t have a vested interest in the talents involved, the sudden departure from one of the most interesting plot points will likely seem like a criminal oversight. For those that do (and if it wasn’t clear already, this is the category I fall into!), then the fact the decision means we get a rematch between Mimoto and Naohiro Komoto makes any narrative misdemeanours forgivable.

The finale of Hydra gave us an uninterrupted 4-minute showdown between the pair, and here it ups the ante by stretching their fight out to 7 minutes. Their rematch serves to once more show why Sonomura is one of the best fight choreographers working today, with the fight seamlessly transitioning between knife work to empty handed strikes and grappling, and while the finish doesn’t have the same sense of catharsis as their confrontation in Hydra, it still delivers. Sure, it makes no sense whatsoever that it’s actually supposed to Takaishi who’s on the receiving end of Komoto’s blows, but then again if the rules were being strictly adhered to, the fight would probably have been over in 2 minutes.

Despite ending on a strong note, as the end credits rolled there’s an undeniable feeling that at 105 minutes, Ghost Killer is a tad overlong. The 75-minute runtime of Hydra feels like the perfect sweet spot for Sonomura’s directorial talents, with Ghost Killer’s mid-section suffering from a lack of narrative thrust that makes the time start to drag. While as an action director Sonomura is a master at being able to inject tension into the fight scenes, when it comes to doing the same for the more dialogue driven and dramatic elements of the story, for the most part these scenes come across as flat and pedestrian. Much like in Bad City, the runtime would have benefitted from leaving some of the more superfluous characters on the cutting room floor in favour of being leaner, in this case an apprentice hitman played by Mario Kuroba (Hard Days, Sadako DX) could easily have received the chop.

Despite Akari Takaishi receiving top billing, Ghost Killer feels more like it belongs to Masanori Mimoto. It’s his character that ultimately gets a narrative arc to conclude his story of a ghost with a grudge, while Takaishi’s character serves little purpose beyond acting flustered and delivering some rather laboured attempts at comedy. If you’re able to sit through the latter, then you’ll be rewarded with some of the best action of this decade from the former.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10

The post Ghost Killer (2024) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Baby Assassins 2” Poster

AKA: Baby Assassins: 2 Babies
Director: Yugo Sakamoto
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Joey Iwanaga, Tatsuomi Hamada, Atomu Mizuishi
Running Time: 101 min. 

By Paul Bramhall

I confess I wasn’t the biggest fan of Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins, concluding that the 2021 production “will likely only appeal to those action fans who are willing to wait (or perhaps skip forward) to see Masanori Mimoto unleash under the choreography of Kensuke Somomura.” However I’m all for giving 2^nd chances, and there was just enough potential in the first instalment to make me curious enough to come back for more.

Sakamoto certainly hasn’t been resting on his laurels in the short timeframe between the original and the sequels release, with his seeming ambition to create an assassin’s universe of movies and shorts continuing to grow. Since the release of Baby Assassins he expanded his short The Legend of the Strongest Hitman: Kunioka into a feature length production, and the end result was an entertainingly meta-take on the genre. The story sees Sakamoto cast a fictional version of himself, one who decides to find inspiration to help finish the script for Baby Assassins by following around a real hitman, and the chaos that ensues. Blurring the lines further, 2022’s Green Bullet focuses on six girls being trained to be assassins by the same Kunioka, essentially creating 2 parallel hitman universes – the one Sakamoto created (Baby Assassins), and the one he’s projected himself into! Expect some multiverse madness if we ever get a Baby Assassins 3!

Baby Assassins 2 sees the return of the 2 teenage slacker assassins played by Akari Takaishi (My Happy Marriage, Single8) and Saori Izawa (A Janitor, Re:Born), who since the original has notched up the notable credit of being the stunt double for Rina Sawayama in John Wick: Chapter 4. Sakamoto is back both on director and script duties, and subverts expectations from the get-go by instead choosing to focus on a pair of male assassins. Played by Joey Iwanaga (Lion Girl, Enter the Fat Dragon) and Ultraman regular Tatsuomi Hamada, the opening scene sees one of their hits go awry when their target, who they were expecting to be alone, turns out to have the company of 4 acquaintances. A frantically scrappy fight breaks out as 2 go up against 5, with the pair getting the job done, but not without incurring a few cuts and bruises.

When it turns out they assassinated the wrong guy, the fact that they’re not members of the Assassins Guild means they basically did the job for free. Tired of being freelancers and knowing that the Guild’s membership is full, after hearing a rumour that openings are created when members bite the dust, the pair hatch a plot to off a pair of assassins who are in the Guild, and it’s Takaishi and Izawa who find themselves as their targets. That’s essentially the plot, however much like in the original, it’s not so much the plot itself that provides the narrative thrust, as it is the more mundane daily struggles of Takaishi and Izawa that are expected to deliver the entertainment value.

There was a self-aware level of intended cool and forced quirkiness in Baby Assassins that I found particularly grating, which combined with the fact Takaishi and Izawa’s defining characteristic seemed to be their laziness, felt like there wasn’t much left of redeeming value outside of the action. Thankfully Sakamoto has struck a much more satisfying balance with the sequel, especially in the pair’s characterisation. Takaishi is still loud, but it no longer feels obnoxious, and Izawa here is much more vocal, and therefore feels more like a real character, a stark comparison to her monosyllabic mumbling in the original (and let’s face it, any change that makes you sound less like a female version of Steven Seagal is a plus).

The pairs predicament is essentially the same as before, having been suspended from active duty by the Guild after preventing a bank robbery (getting involved in non-Guild approved hits is a big no), they once more find themselves needing to resort to part-time jobs to sustain an income. While in the original their job hunt came from having to start paying rent once the Guild’s financial assistance stopped on their 18^th birthdays, which served to hardly make them the most empathetic protagonists, the sequel goes for a much more relatable issue – they’ve forgotten to pay the gym memberships they signed up for 5 years ago and only went to once. Much like the original it’s these detours which make up the crux of the sequel, as Iwanaga and Hamada stalk them in the background, a narrative decision that means the 2 pairs don’t meet each other until almost an hour in.

However this time the blasé approach to narrative structure is much more effective. Iwanaga and Hamada’s hairbrained plan to kill another pair of assassins just to get into the Guild is portrayed like any other workplace scenario where employees hope for a promotion. The only difference is in their line of work it involves killing, a fact which is more amusing when it becomes clear they’re not actually all that good at it either. Played off against Takaishi and Izawa attempting to hold down a job dressed up as animal mascots, the idea that Iwanaga and Hamada would rather be in their position becomes increasingly ludicrous.

As expected Sakamoto has once more brought onboard Japan’s busiest action director to choreograph the fights in the form of Kensuke Sonomura, clocking in his first gig in a year which would go on to see him also choreograph Tak Sakaguchi in One Percenter. While the fight action is far from constant, what’s there is all top shelf. The opening scrap that sees Iwanaga and Hamada tussle against 5 attackers in the confines of a cramped unit feels like it’s straight out of a Korean gangster movie in its frenzied desperation. Special mention should go to one of the comedic highlights, which sees tensions boil over between Takaishi and Izawa while in their mascot suits, the result of which sees a tiger versus panda throwdown in the middle of the street. The scene may actually trump Jean Claude Van Damme fighting a penguin in Sudden Death as the greatest mascot fight committed to film (although is there any other competition out there!?).

As in the original for the finale the heavy lifting is placed on the shoulders of Izawa, who this time swaps out Masanori Mimoto as an opponent for Iwanaga, an actor who has a legitimate action pedigree shown off in the likes of Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter Part 1 – The Final and Dancing Karate Kid. The one on one delivers the typical Sonomura flair and is satisfyingly lengthy, only really let down by an odd creative choice that interrupts the flow and doesn’t quite work the way it was probably intended. However it’s a minor gripe, and both Izawa and Iwanaga give it everything they’ve got with more feigns that you can shake a stick at, leading to a conclusion that I enjoyed didn’t fall into any typical Hollywood trappings, staying true to the premise of the characters.

Not everything is smooth sailing in the sequel, with any time a gun fight breaks out the inability for anyone to shoot each other, even when apparently shooting at point blank range, inevitably feels slightly off. It may have been forgivable if they were playing any other role, but considering we’re supposed to be watching assassins it makes the issue all the more glaring. There’s also a contender for the most pointless post-credit scene ever, consisting of a conversation that harks back to the kind of self-aware quirky banter that plagued so much of the original, and adds precisely nothing to the experience. Thankfully though there’s always the option to walk away before the scene plays.

All in all though Baby Assassins 2 improves on its predecessor in every way, with the addition of the male assassins being a welcome one, especially Iwanaga who conveys a natural charisma and screen presence that’s often missing from these mid-budget productions. In my review for Baby Assassins I’d debated of what the chances would be of seeing Izawa show off her talents again in the near future, so to only have to wait 2 years again to see her in action is a welcome surprise. Breezy and occasionally bloody, the result is a sequel that’s well worth checking out.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6.5/10

The post Baby Assassins 2 (2023) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“One-Percent Warrior” Theatrical Poster

AKA: 1%er
Director: Yudai Yamaguchi
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Kohei Fukuyama, Harumi Kanon, Taro Suruga, Togo Ishii, Sho Aoyagi, Itsuji Itao, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Keisuke Horibe, Ohji Hiroi
Running Time: 85 min.

By Paul Bramhall

One-Percent Warrior offers up a welcome reunion of 3 of Japan’s most prominent names in action cinema, director Yudai Yamaguchi, star Tak Sakaguchi, and choreographer Kensuke Sonomura. The last time the trio crossed paths in the same capacity was on the 2011 Sushi Typhoon double whammy of Yakuza Weapon and Dead Ball (which saw Yamaguchi remaking his own Battlefield Baseball from 2003, also starring Takaguchi), so it feels like cause for excitement to see them unexpectedly reunite 12 years later.

Things have changed a lot in the time that’s passed. Yamaguchi has mainly stuck to TV work, with his occasional ventures back into filmmaking coming with such inspired titles as Chin-Yu-Ki: The Journey to the West with Farts. Tak Sakaguchi famously retired from action filmmaking in 2016 with Re:Born, and subsequently proceeded to turn up in so many action movies since that we’re already into double figures, including 2020’s Crazy Samurai Musashi (which used a 77 minute one-take fight sequence he shot in 2011 from an abandoned Sono Sion project) and most recently Bad City. Notably it’s Sonomura who directed Bad City, his sophomore directorial feature after 2019’s Hydra, who has really come into his own as a fight choreographer since last working with the pair. His stellar fight work is on display in both of his directorial efforts, as well as the likes of Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins and its sequel.

Their latest collaboration takes a decidedly meta-approach to the action genre, opening with a series of interview clips and behind-the-scenes footage (from what appears to be Re:Born) that blurs reality and fiction, with several of the talking heads espousing the virtues of the action movie star Sakaguchi plays. Sakaguchi gripes to the camera about how there’s no realism in action scenes these days, and so to counter it he’s made his own style of onscreen combat called ‘Realism Action’. Since his last hit with Birth 10 years ago he’s been developing his existing martial arts style of “assassination-jutsu”, and the result is the creation of the enigmatic sounding wave technique. Remember when I referred to Sakaguchi’s martial arts style in Re:Born as a “crinkly clothed samba”? That’s the wave technique, and here he not only reveals how the technique can be used to dodge bullets (finally!), but also how it even has its own one-inch punch!

With such a hardcore approach to filming action though Sakaguchi has become devoid of disciples, with only one sticking by him, a loyal apprentice played by Kohei Fukuyama (High & Low: The Worst). When his latest bad guy gig turns sour because the lead can’t keep up with him (in a hilarious scene that’s obviously sending up the action in the Rurouni Kenshin franchise), Sakaguchi decides it’s time to film a “100% pure action film”, and so he and Fukuyama end up in an abandoned old zinc factory on an island to start scouting locations. It’s while there that they’re interrupted by a gang of yakuza, who’ve kidnapped the daughter of a rival yakuza boss who recently passed away, knowing that he hid a sizable stash of cocaine somewhere on the island. Threatening to kill her if she doesn’t reveal its location, Sakaguchi soon realises it’s a chance for him to step into the role he believes he was born to play, and tells Fukuyama to “Film the whole thing.”

This setup basically allows the last hour of One-Percent Warrior’s punchy 85-minute runtime to be one continuous action sequence, as Sakaguchi stalks the corridors and open spaces of the factory, picking off the “retired commandos” that the father and daughter yakuza bosses have brought along with them. The daughter is played by a scene stealing Harumi Kanon, here making her debut as a ruthless psychopath with a prosthetic leg, who’s reason for wanting to bring the late yakuza bosses’ daughter along turns out to be very different than what we’re initially led to believe. When one of the lackeys explains how they were taken out by Sakaguchi, her response is to ask, “Are you telling me Jackie Chan’s here!?”, which sees Sakaguchi being amusingly referred to as Jackie Chan for the duration, despite his plea that he prefers Bruce Lee.

Clocking in a similarly noteworthy performance is Taro Suruga (Hard Days), who plays a fight choreographer working on a “Chinese funded blockbuster” and comes with his own stunt team (the hilariously named Tony Stunts, of whom Hydra’s Masanori Mimoto is a member!), believing that Sakaguchi’s style of action is too demanding to be sustainable. In a way his approach ties into the meaning of the title One-Percent Warrior, which Sakaguchi explains is a reference to the number of students who study their art long enough to become a true master of it. Suruga drops the concept of a one-take sequence after the first attempt goes wrong, deciding to film it in multiple close-up cuts instead, while Sakaguchi refuses to compromise on his vision of making a pure action film.

This is the 2^nd time to see Sakaguchi choreographed by Sonomura in as many years, and for those who didn’t feel they got enough of him in action in Bad City, One-Percent Warrior will definitely scratch the itch. Like the character he plays, Sakaguchi has been constantly developing his action style over the years, from the padded gloves of Death Trance to allow for full contact hitting, to the Zero Range Combat of Re:Born, here is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing his offscreen philosophies transferred onscreen. There’s a couple of group melee’s that stand out, one involving the use of a monkey wrench that marks the first time I’ve seen the intended functionality of a wrench be successfully incorporated into a fight, and the other utilising a flashlight as much to blind as to cause blunt force trauma (setting the latter to the dreamy refrains of Debussy’s Clair de Lune providing an unexpected compliment to the onscreen violence).

The real highlight though belongs to the final one-on-one which sees him face off against Jeet Kune Do instructor Togo Ishii. As a fight it successfully blends Sakaguchi’s distinctive post-Re:Born style with what I like to call Sonomura’s mastery of ‘rustle-fu’ – that is, fights that are allowed to play out minus any soundtrack, and instead rely purely on the sound and movements of the actors to generate excitement. After making quick work of anyone he comes across so far, Ishii gives Sakaguchi a legitimate run for his money as an opponent, and the speed of which they exchange fists and feet with each other brought a legitimate smile to my face. This is Ishii’s first foray into the film industry, and while his bodyguard remains silent, his singular fight scene is enough to leave a lasting impression, resulting in what I’d be willing to argue is the best one-on-one fight of Sakaguchi’s 23-year career.

The final reel of One-Percent Warrior goes in a surprisingly bittersweet direction, offering a take on what it means to strive at being best in what you do, while never straying from the core concept of what drives an action star to be who they are. It may only have a fraction of the budget a production like Ride On had, which offered similar musings on what it means to be a part of action cinema, however Yamaguchi’s latest has a sincerity to it which Jackie Chan’s take on the same theme lacked, making it easy to look past its budgetary limitations. Capturing the viewpoint of an action star in a way which feels far more authentic and intimate, the closing scene is ultimately just as memorable as the fight action.

As an exercise in meta-filmmaking meets martial arts action cinema One-Percent Warrior manages to strike an entertaining balance, even throwing in some welcome humor (a conversation implying the shame of going either DTV or straight to streaming being particularly funny). At one point Sakaguchi is asked “You’re an actor, an action film actor right?” Perhaps now more than ever we can say the answer is yes, with not even his own self-declared retirement being able to stop him from continuing to embrace new ways of bringing hand to hand combat to the screen. To that end, One-Percent Warrior undoubtably delivers.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10

The post One-Percent Warrior | aka One Percenter (2023) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Bad City” Theatrical Poster

Director: Kensuke Sonomura
Cast: Hitoshi Ozawa, Tak Sakaguchi, Masanori Mimoto, Rino Katase, Lily Franky, Katsuya, Akane Sakanoue, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Yasukaze Motomiya
Running Time: 118 min. 

By Paul Bramhall 

On paper Bad City is one of those movies that has all the right ingredients to cook up the perfect yakuza action flick. The sophomore feature from stuntman and action choreographer turned director Kensuke Sonomura following 2019’s Hydra, just like with his debut here he also takes on the role of action director. V-Cinema legend Hitoshi Ozawa (Score, Spare) is on leading man, producer, and writing duty, very much making it somewhat of a passion project for the now suitably grizzled 60-year-old star. We get Tak Sakaguchi (once more billed as Tak ∴, as he was in his ‘final’ action movie Re:Born from 2016) playing a silent knife wielding killer, and Sonomura re-teams with Hydra leading man and Japan’s leading action talent (and in many ways the successor to Sakaguchi) Masanori Mimoto (Baby Assassins, Enter the Fat Dragon) to show off his moves.

From the start it’s clear Bad City is much grander in scope than Sonomura’s debut in the director’s chair. Whereas Hydra was very much a self-contained story with a limited cast of characters and a runtime of less than 80 minutes, Bad City ramps things up in every aspect, creating a sprawling tale of corruption and gangsters involving a plethora of characters which unfolds across 2 hours. The plot sees Ozawa as a former detective who’s been imprisoned on suspicion of murdering the son of a powerful Korean gang boss, played by Rino Katase (of the popular Yakuza Ladies series from the 80’s and 90’s). However there’s more to the situation than meets the eye, with Katase unaware there may be treachery within her own ranks.

When the head of a conglomerate with links to the underworld (played by Lily Franky – Yakuza Apocalypse, As the Gods Will) announces he’s running for mayor, he partners with one of Katase’s underlings to green light a residential area for redevelopment into a casino resort, a plan that Katase’s son was opposed to. Knowing Ozawa was heavily involving in bringing down the Korean gang before, an ambitious prosecutor organises for him to be released on temporary parole, partnering him with a trio from the violent crimes unit – played by Katsuya (Midnight Swan, The Blood of Wolves), his partner played by Masanori Mimoto, and as with so many of these movies, the obligatory female newbie, played by Akane Sakanoue (Your Eyes Tell, Back Street Girls: Gokudols).

While these tales of gangster backstabbing, usually both literally and metaphorically, were once a staple of Japanese cinema, from their heyday in the 70’s through to their V-Cinema rebirth in the 80’s and 90’s, there’s little doubt that it’s been Korea which has picked up the slack in the 21^st century. It’s worth mentioning because it’s more recent Korean productions that feel like an influence on Bad City more so than Japan’s V-cinema era. The plot plays out like a mix of 2017’s Asura: City of Madness and 2021’s Paid in Blood, with Ozawa’s relentless cop coming across like a grittier, less humorous version of Ma Dong-seok’s one-man wrecking ball from The Roundup franchise (or as one character puts it, he’s “foul mouthed, violent, and has no sense of propriety”). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and few would disagree that any yakuza flick which opens with a bathhouse slaughter isn’t off to a strong start.

The initial momentum though isn’t one that Sonomura is able to maintain for the duration of the significant runtime, an issue mainly derived from the fact there’s simply too many characters in the mix. Ozawa makes for an effective anchor, and whenever he’s onscreen his gravelly voiced presence and weathered features serve to propel the plot forward. The issue is there’s several scenes that don’t involve him, as we spend time with everyone from the violent crimes unit trio, the Korean mafia, a rival yakuza gang, the mayor, and the prosecutors who are trying to orchestrate everything behind the scenes. In the hands of a stronger director the various factions could probably have been juggled to effectively crank up the tension, however Sonomura isn’t quite there yet, and the result is a stop-start feel to the pacing.

Thankfully Sonomura’s far more competent when it comes to the action side of things, and while we know the combination of him and Mimoto results in magic, Bad City marks the first time for him to collaborate with Tak Sakaguchi in the capacity of choreographer and performer since 2011’s Deadball. Sakaguchi’s silent knife wielding assassin is arguably a scene stealer, and there’s a legitimate argument to be made that he’s playing the same Reborn Ghost character that he portrayed in 2016’s Re:Born. Once more he’s able to dodge bullets, and there’s no doubt that the fighting style utilized is the same Zero Range Combat System. Thankfully the opportunity isn’t wasted for a Mimoto versus Takaguchi showdown, with a brief mid-runtime skirmish giving way to a 2 versus 1 showdown during the finale, as Mimoto teams up with Sakanoue to take him down once and for all.

Incorporated as part of a broader action sequence that encompasses the best part of 20 minutes (and really should have been the finale, however the narrative somewhat shoots itself in the foot by continuing for another 15 mins once it wraps), it’s a sequence which serves as a microcosm of Bad City as a whole. The strength of Sonomura’s choreography style for me has always been the way he’s able to incorporate little moments of hesitancy between 2 opponents that seem perfectly natural, and really serves to add a heightened sense of realism to the fights he constructs. They’re moments that as a viewer make you physically tense up, making you feel like you’re part of the fight yourself, however such moments require the extended takes and sole focus on the scene so as not to dilute any of the tension, elements that we’ve become used to from Sonomura.

Here he tries something different, first with a massive group brawl which sees Ozawa and his crew take on a small army of attackers, and it doesn’t quite hit the mark. The use of a large open space seems to work against the more intricate choreography Sonomura is known for, and with Sakanoue in particular the moves still feel rehearsed, a few beats off from looking like they have a natural flow. The smaller fights the sequence segues into fare far better, with Ozawa getting tangled up in a desperate stairwell brawl, and eventually facing off one on one against Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi (Bushido Man, Tokyo Tribe). Ozawa executes the choreography admirably considering his age, creating the best fight of the movie, however the fact that each individual action scene is intercut with the others (including, most criminally, cutaways to a non-action scene) unfortunately act as a distraction to the flow of the fights rather than complimenting them.

There’s a sense of if a little more time had been taken Bad City would be up there with Hydra, which while much smaller in scale, clearly worked to its advantage when it came to crafting the action sequences. Here Sonomura has understandably looked to scale things up, and by doing so has unfortunately proven the old adage that bigger isn’t always better. However his ambition is admirable, and as a sophomore feature Bad City is far from being a bad movie.

Strip it down by 30 minutes so we get more of Ozawa front and centre, lose some of the more superfluous characters altogether, and give us a face off between Mimoto and Sakaguchi without interruptions, Bad City would be a lean little gangster flick with some of the best action this side of the 2020’s. As it is, we get an enjoyable attempt at a yakuza epic that doesn’t quite match its ambitions, but still delivers plenty of gravelly voiced machismo and punches to the face.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10

The post Bad City (2022) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Baby Assassins” Theatrical Poster

Director: Yugo Sakamoto
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Mone Akitani, Yukina Fukushima, Masanori Mimoto, Atom Mizuishi, Yasukaze Motomiya, Takashi Nishina, Yosuke Ohmizu
Running Time: 95 min.

By Paul Bramhall 

We can blame the John Wick franchise for the action genres current infatuation with assassins for hire. Following a bombardment of assassin flicks in the 2010’s which came after the release of the original John Wick in 2014, now only a couple of years into the 2020’s and there doesn’t seem to be any slowing down. We’ve already had Maggie Q in Protégé, Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Kate, Karen Gillan in Gunpowder Milkshake, and those are just the ones that immediately spring to mind. Even Japan, a country in which the action genre is usually relegated to the low to no budget arena, has thrown its hat into the ring with the likes of 2019’s The Fable and it’s 2021 sequel, The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill, which features a surprising amount of top shelf action.

In 2021 it was also Japan that offered up Baby Assassins, thankfully not a literal title when it comes to either of the ways it could be interpreted as meaning. The fourth full length feature from director Yugo Sakamoto, Baby Assassins further elaborates on what appears to be a kind of assassin’s universe that Sakamoto has created. His previous feature A Janitor also involves a world of assassins, as do his shorts The Legend of the Strongest Hitman: Kunioka and Heaven’s Rush. Here he takes a pair of actresses who play significant supporting roles in A Janitor in the form of Akari Takaishi (Distant Thunder) and stuntwoman Saori Izawa (Re:Born), and propels them into the titular roles that the title alludes to.

Straight off the bat it’s clear that Baby Assassins shares a significant amount of DNA with 2019’s Hydra. Not only in the fact that Hydra’s director Kensuke Sonomura is onboard here as fight choreographer, and its leading man Masanori Mimoto shows up on bad guy duty, but also in its overall tone and approach. Hydra was more of a small-scale slice of life human drama than an all-out action flick, ironically one that also involved assassins, and Baby Assassins looks to capture the same feel. Takaishi and Izawa play a pair of teenage assassins working for an agency that’s trained them to be effective killers, and even provides them with an apartment in which they live together.

With their 20^th birthdays looming the financial assistance the agency provides will cease, so when we meet them their goal is to find normal part time jobs that can subsidise the assassin work. That’s not as easy as it sounds though as Takaishi is a hyperactive extrovert with zero attention span, and Izawa is a laconic introvert with zero social skills. Basically neither of them is able to function particularly well in everyday society, nor do they have any real appetite to, their default being to spend their days slacking on the sofa and playing on their phones between kills.

There’s really not a lot to Baby Assassins beyond the above description. Whereas Hydra’s deliberate pacing felt like it slowly revealed layers of characterisation and a meaningful plot, here everything is very surface level. To enjoy Baby Assassins will largely be dependent on how much you can swallow the self-conscious quirkiness of everything onscreen. A countless number of scenes are dependent on Takaishi’s abrasive loudness played off against Izawa’s almost inaudible mumbling (I think she studied Steven Seagal’s DTV output for her characters inspiration), and if you find the first few of these scenes irritating, it’ll be best to clock out early.

There’s a self-aware level of intended cool to the script which feels too blatant for it to come across as anything other than exactly that, such as when the pair have a casual conversation about what they’re going to eat later in front of their tied to a chair victim, making everything feel a little forced. That’s not to say Sakamoto doesn’t have any good ideas, with the concept of the agency the pair are contracted to being an entertaining one, and the fact that it isn’t explored in much detail actually works in the scripts favour. In some ways its reminiscent of the concept explored in Korea’s A Company Man from 2012, in which So Ji-sub plays a hitman whose role is portrayed like any other white-collar worker. However as fun as the concept is, the unstructured and loose narrative eventually begins to feel like it needs a reason to exist.  

That reason does eventually present itself in the form of an amusingly progressive yakuza leader, played by Yasukaze Motomiya (Tokyo Dragon Chef), and his yakuza offspring. Keen to make the yakuza a more inclusive place for women to be a part of, the kind of “female-centric business” he decides to explore is that of the uniquely Japanese maid café. His visit to one such café is actually one of Baby Assassins genuinely comedic moments, as the hyper-cheerful and attentive maids gradually begin to test his patience in ways which are destined to not end well. Thankfully Takaishi also happens to be on shift in another of her attempts to hold down a part time job, and when she assassinates both Motomiya and his son, it’s left to the daughter to take revenge.

The daughter is played by newcomer Mone Akitani, who’s entire performance consists of screaming her lines in what could best be described as an assault on the ears. Thankfully this semblance of a plot only appears when we’re already over an hour into the punchy 95-minute runtime, and serves up an opportunity for Kensuke Sonomura and Masanori Mimoto to do what they do best. With Takashi loaded up with a machine gun and a pistol brandishing Izawa, the pair descend on Akitani’s yakuza headquarters to shoot pretty much anything that moves. The sequence itself is perfunctory at best, however its saving grace is that it offers up an extended one on one that pits Izawa and Mimoto against each other.

For anyone who’s seen Mimoto unleash in Hydra they should have a good idea of what to expect here, and Sonomura once more choreographs a stand-out fight scene that’s intricate, fast, and brutal. The fight itself doesn’t quite hit the highs of Hydra’s action beats, with the occasional redundant move being thrown in here and there which I couldn’t help but notice, however it’s still head and shoulders above most modern fight scenes. Izawa more than holds her own, and I couldn’t help but think what it would have been like to see her in a Sonomura choreographed fight against Rina Takeda, back when she was still active in the action genre. It always feels a little too enthusiastic to say “I can’t wait to see what she does next” when it comes to action actresses in Japan, so I’ll simply say that if we don’t see Izawa onscreen again for a while, she can be proud of the fight she clocks in here.

As good as the fight may be, it doesn’t earn enough good will towards Baby Assassins to make everything that’s come before it any more tolerable. While Sakamoto clearly has some creative ideas, his ability to bring them to the screen in a compelling way, at least at this point in his career, feels like it’s lacking. There are certainly hints at a brighter future though. Both Takaishi and Izawa’s characters do have moments which illicit empathy, it’s just that far too much of their time onscreen makes them come across as lazy and directionless, traits that they both seem more than happy to wallow in. While there’s been plenty of good (and even great) movies about the slacker lifestyle, here their constant laying around and laboured efforts to do anything else only serve to make the pace drag.

With its loose narrative, bargain basement CGI blood, high pitched yelling, and low frequency mumbling, Baby Assassins will likely only appeal to those action fans who are willing to wait (or perhaps skip forward) to see Masanori Mimoto unleash under the choreography of Kensuke Somomura. It’s really not an action movie, so at the end of the day, it’s both ironic and a little sad that there’s not much to recommend outside of it.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4.5/10

The post Baby Assassins (2021) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Hydra” Japanese Theatrical Poster

Director: Kensuke Sonomura
Cast: Masanori Mimoto, Miu, Tasuku Nagase, Takaya Aoyagi, Takashi Nishina, Satoshi Kibe, Kensuke Sonomura, Tsutomu Uchigasaki, Naoki Hayashida
Running Time: 75 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Ask anyone about the best martial arts movies from Japan during the 2010’s, and chances are the unanimous vote would go to the Rurouni Kenshin trilogy, the adaptation of the manga that spanned 2012 – 2014. The reason for why these movies are so revered is interesting, in that their aesthetic completely disregards the traditional chambara conventions, in which one swift thrust of the sword would end a duel in an instant, and instead looked towards the Hong Kong action aesthetic for their inspiration. This was due to the presence of Kenji Tanigaki as the action choreographer, a long-time member of Donnie Yen’s action team, and while purists may have cried foul, it was also a reminder of how the rhythm and speed of the Hong Kong action style is a joy to watch. Tanigaki isn’t the only one with a love of Hong Kong action though, and at the tail end of the 10’s, another little seen contender arrived in the form of Hydra.

While it marks the directorial debut of Kensuke Sonomura, similar to the likes of Sam Hargrave, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, Sonomura has an extensive background in fight choreography and stunt work. Fans of Japanese action may recognize him as the kung-fu fighter from 2013’s Bushido Man (which he also choregraphed), however for most they’ll have likely experienced Sonomura’s work behind the scenes as the choreographer on the likes of Alien vs. Ninja, The Warriors Way, and most recently on John Woo’s Manhunt. Personally I’m always a fan of when an action director decides to helm a movie, as regardless of how good or bad the final product turns out to be, usually there’s at least some knock out set pieces to enjoy.

However Japanese indie action has hardly had an easy ride. In a country where action is at the very bottom of the list of genres that bring in the bucks, most productions that market themselves purely on their action content usually come hamstrung with a microbudget which would hardly cover the cost of a California roll on a Hollywood filmset. Anyone who’s seen a Seiji Chiba flick will feel like they’ve visited the cave where half of most of his movies seem to play out in themselves, and the fact that it seems a struggle to even properly light it doesn’t do the action any favors. So understanding that Hydra was a similarly budgeted production, regardless of Sonomura and his casts talent, expectations were understandably set low.

I refer to the cast, because Hydra features some of Japan’s best action talent in front of the camera. Masanori Mimoto is probably the hardest working guy in Japan’s action scene, and if you’ve seen even a handful of action orientated Japanese movies made in the last 15 years, chances are he’ll pop up in them somewhere. From the aforementioned Alien vs. Ninja, to playing the yakuza in Bushido Man, the frog (you’ll know what I mean if you’ve seen it) in Miike Takashi’s Yakuza Apocalypse, and alongside Tak Sakaguchi in Re:Born. Mimoto has also dabbled in Hong Kong work over the years, from a minor role in the Michelle Yeoh action vehicle Silver Hawk in 2004, to more substantial roles in recent efforts like God of War and Enter the Fat Dragon.

Mimoto plays the main character in Hydra, named after a small snack bar he works in as a chef. His occupation is significant, as it plays to one of Hydra’s biggest strengths, in that it doesn’t feel like an action movie at all. After a strong opening which sees a character brutally assassinated in the middle of relieving themselves (as messy as it sounds), and a pulsating synthesiser soundtrack which plays over the neon lit credits, Hydra settles itself into a low-key slice of life played out through the microcosm of the snack bar. With the bar acting as a self-contained environment, conversations play out over glasses of whisky between the customers and the 2 staff – the bar owner, played by newcomer Miu, and the waiter played by Kamen Rider regular Tasuku Nagase. Mimoto plays the cook as mostly silent and slightly awkward, but the trio are clearly close, with the added element of Nagase harbouring a crush on Miu.

Sonomura proves surprisingly capable for a first-time director, with a solid understanding of how to create a slow-burn narrative. With a punchy 75-minute runtime, the opening 10 minutes are entirely dialogue free, relying purely on the visuals to tell the story, and for the first 45 mins we spend it mostly in the bar, establishing and understanding the relationships between the trio. Crucially, we learn that Miu was left the bar by her father, who disappeared 3 years ago, and was acquainted with Mimoto. It’s revealed Mimoto used to work for a clandestine group of assassins, their mission to right the wrongs of the world, but due to a promise he made he’s been living a peaceful life as a chef. It didn’t work out for Steven Seagal, and it won’t work out for Mimoto either.

While the plot of a former assassin being brought back into the game is as clichéd as it gets, having been used in everything from ancient China in Wu Xia, to contemporary America in Broken Path, the unassuming nature of Hydra and Mimoto’s performance make it work. Most importantly, the set-up leads to 2 blistering one on one fights that populate Hydra’s final 30 minutes. The action comes with a triple threat of choreographers, with both Sonomura and Mimoto pitching in, along with Naohiro Kawamoto (who, keeping with the Bushido Man theme, played the Bojutsu Master). Kawamoto gets to play the villain of the piece, a rival from a not so righteous group of assassins, and he features as an opponent in both fights.

The fights are some of the best I’ve seen since The Raid 2. What’s even more amazing is that they feature one of my pet hates – the ‘soft’ sound effect which mostly sees the sound design use realism over exaggerated hits, an element I usually find problematic, see City of Violence as a classic example. However here it doesn’t act to the fight’s detriment at all, partly because the pace is so fast it’s impossible to take in all of what’s happening on an initial watch, and that’s with no undercranking. These guys move like lightening, and the throwdowns incorporate everything from knife fighting to jiu-jitsu, in some cases even a screwdriver. The exchanges are lengthy in a way which recalls the golden era of modern HK action flicks in the 80’s, but given a contemporary touch that arguably owes a nod of gratitude to the work Donnie Yen did incorporating MMA with the likes of SPL and Flash Point.

When Mimoto goes up against Kawamoto in the finale, it’s an exhaustive uninterrupted 4-minute showdown, and acts as a healthy reminder that it’s still possible to create a fight scene in 2019 that gets the adrenaline pumping. In a way it reminded me of the no frills confrontation in the finale of Revenger from 2018, which saw Bruce Khan go up against Park Hee-soon. If the current trend is heading towards fights which are lengthy, feature long takes, and rely purely on the performers physical skill to pull them off, then count me in.

For some Hydra will definitely be a headscratcher. It’s best approached as a low-key slice of life drama, one that just happens to have a couple of awesome fight scenes thrown in, than an out and out fight flick. The latter will inevitably result in disappointment, but the fact that Sonomura seems to understand how much more rewarding action is when it has a slow lead-up, means that despite its low budget Hydra feels much more like a real movie than many of its indie peers. It may not have been by design that the time spent between the characters in the bar turned out to be more interesting than the plot about assassins, but in a way that makes Hydra a happy accident. A reminder to any action filmmaker that a solid narrative combined with a couple of high-quality action scenes, is always going to trump one which aims to assault the audience with constant action and little else. Hydra comes with a strong recommendation.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10

The post Hydra (2019) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Bushido Man” International DVD Cover

Director: Takanori Tsujimoto
Cast: Mitsuki Koga, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Masanori Mimoto, Kentaro Shimazu, Kazuki Tsujimoto, Ema, Kensuke Sonomura, Masaki Suzumura, Naohiro Kawamoto, Marc Walkow, Yasutaka Yuuki, Takashi Tanimoto
Running Time: 88 min.

By Kelly Warner

Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles kind of surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much from the film — the average ratings are weak, the title is silly, and the plot description is somewhat generic. However, less than five minutes in we’re introduced to a martial arts master with the most cartoonish mustache imaginable – and the master’s key advice to his pupil is that to know his enemy, he must eat like his enemy. It’s pretty obvious from the get-go that the next 90 minutes are about to get weird and that the movie is something far stranger than its title, plot description, and cover art could ever hope to suggest.

Our hero Toramaru (Mitsuki Koga) is something of a modern-day samurai. He travels all over Japan to fight the greatest warriors of multiple fighting styles so that he may take their mysterious, priceless scrolls back to his master Gensai (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi). As the movie begins, Toramaru has returned to Gensai and tells each fight story to his master. Before each bout, Toramaru followed his master’s advice and pigged out on whatever food best represented his opponent’s spirit. It’s silly, but that’s just what kind of movie this is. Toramaru is essentially a copycat fighter: he comes to know his opponents so completely that he adopts their strengths, styles, and favorite foods in order to vanquish them.

We see Toramaru’s fights, travels, and dining experiences through flashback. On his journey he must match up with many diverse opponents, including a blind swordsman, a yakuza knife fighter, a kung fu master, and a gunslinger that loves all things American. Some of the fights are played for laughs, but the others are rather impressive, showing off athletic skill and frenetic energy.

To some extent, the film is little more than a highlight reel of various fighting styles. Beyond Toramaru and Gensai, no other character receives more than a couple lines of character development. Certain actors make the best of their limited screen time – most notably Kazuki Tsujimoto as the blind swordsman – but when their fights are done, the characters are almost immediately forgotten. There’s very little substance to the film and those looking for plot or purpose should look elsewhere. However, if you come in with the right expectations, I think you can potentially find something to enjoy here.

What’s interesting is how director Takanori Tsujimoto (Hard Revenge Milly) plays things somewhat straight at the beginning, then lets his creation gradually go crazy as it passes the halfway point. Understand when I say that Gensai’s cartoon mustache and Toramaru’s all-you-can-eat training are comparatively ‘normal’ to the action we get in the final act. Leading up to the finale, Toramaru must travel to post-apocalyptic Yokohama. It’s not clear what happened to Yokohama, though endless earthquakes are mentioned and the air isn’t safe to breathe. Tanks patrol the highways, the skyscrapers are crumbling, and all gun laws have been revoked. While the locations at the beginning of the film were prettier, one almost wishes more of the movie had this strange, unexplained sci-fi feel to it. At the very least, the Yokohama segments prepare us for the finale, when the director allows his movie to truly go wild. The ending and the action that lead up to it are absolutely batshit and often hilarious. To say that the film went out on a high note would be an understatement. If the whole film shared the same kind of madness as the finale, Bushido Man might’ve been something of a new cult classic.

I wish that the director’s vision was more consistent and that his cast looked more into the production. The film has its share of goofy ideas and well done fights, but too often it feels strangely half-hearted. So while I liked it overall, I was still left wanting more from the film. The performances are one-note, plot is largely non-existent, and many scenes feel flat like they require a jolt of energy. It’s as though they bottled up that energy for the finale, when they would have been better off spreading it around a bit. If only.

There’s not a whole lot to Bushido Man, but it’s fast-paced and entertaining in a silly, cartoonish sort of way. There’s enough originality to the movie that I’m sure it’s going to win over some fans here and there. The film is definitely different and some days maybe that’s enough.

Kelly Warner’s Rating: 6/10

The post Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles (2013) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.