All genres of suspense, terror, and horror will be reviewed by Richard Gary. His address to send preview copies supplied upon request to rbf55@msn.com.
Baby Assassins
(aka Beibî
warukyûre)
Directed by Yugo Sakamoto Rights Cube; Far East Films;
Well Go USA Entertainment; Hi-Yah!
95 minutes, 2021 / 2022 www.wellgousa.com/films/baby-assassins
@WellGoUSA
When I first read the
title, I was confused: was this about infants in diapers who kill people, or
adults who kill toddlers? Of course, in both cases, I was wrong (pretty sure I
would be). I should have known better as this film is from Japan.
The “babies” in
question are two teenage high school girls and possibly future cosplay objects,
Chisato (Akari Takahasi). and blonde Mahiro (Saori Izawa). They are the
innocents who are both about to graduate from assassin school, and are highly
trained to kill. Needless to say, there are some strong comic elements to the
story as they butt heads.
The film is on a
couple of different tiers: first, there is the stereotypical two opposites
needing to work together to survive with fun and merriment, and then there are
the (literally) deadly serious assassinations, where the ladies come into their
own. Like many teenagers, even with their killing expertise, it’s the simple
and every day tasks that are filled with angst (such as adding whip cream to a
meal).
Like “The Odd Couple” (whatever
incarnation), their personalities are different, and yet they overlap in Zinn
Diagram means. For example, Mahiro is Gen Whatever, with a slacker attitude of
not-caring or wanting to be bothered, whose wardrobe choice is PJ bottoms and a
tee (at one point it’s a Lou Reed Transformers one); and yet, she has an
inclination towards philosophy. Chisato, on the other hand, is more focused,
but just as lost in menial tasks. Thing with Assassin School is that, as
implied, they teach killing but not social skills needed for employment or
fitting into society. This is a really interesting added on touch.
Reminiscent of the
series “Dead Like Me” (2003-04), between assignments the women are expected to
hold down jobs that will not bring much attention to them. For example, Chisato,
at some point, works in a small waffle eatery as wait- and kitchen staff, but
is totally out of her element.
Now, 20 minutes into
the film, and we are somewhat familiar with their sitch, enter the credits and
a flashback to them first being thrust together. The commentary on government bureaucracy,
such as taxes, housing and basically not taking care of their own (sound familiar?)
permeates the underscore of the film. This is used both as comedy fodder and
with a figuratively pointed stick.
Another jab of the
elbow in the side is the Japanese tendency for older men to be attractive to
younger women, as I mentioned previously. Be it an assassination target or a
store clerk, the two are hit on mostly by adult men. Creepy; always was, always
will be.
Things get a bit darker
in the third act, as our heroines are at odds over attitudes, and to add to the
mix is confrontations with a Yakuza (must be powerful; he has all of his fingers),
his blowhard son Kazuki (think Sonny Corleone), and revenge seeking, psychotic,
over-the-top enthusiastic daughter, Himari, who seems to be about the same age as
our two killin’ protagonists.
In the first two acts,
there are some decent kills scattered throughout, and somewhere along the way I
made a note for myself, “Increased violence in the third act?” Of course there
is, including one superb fight with Izawa, who has some Taekwondo training, and
a Yakuza. Now, the fight scenes are not overly choreographed to ridiculous level,
with people flying through the air, or stylized like the infamous corridor
scene in the original Oldboy (2003). This is sloppy in a good way, more like
fighting than something sterile in a mainstream release.
I also really liked
this dive into modern Japanese culture. In fact, there are two things discussed
that I had to look up: the first was a food called Oden, which is a fish
cake stew (ironically, I was eating fishcakes while I was watching this… ”it’s
a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it” – Steven Wright. But I digress…).
The conversation about it takes on almost a Tarantino-eque quality, without the
camera needing to swirl around the couch. The other is the use of the
expression Moe Moe Kyun, which apparently means something like happiness
to a level of blushing.
The director does
really well in translating the personality of our two assassins to be likeable
characters, even when they misbehave. He also has a way of showing the mixture
of action and the lull between without getting boring. It is a mash-up of the
mundane and murderous mayhem. Sometimes the action comes as a surprise, which
was quite pleasant, and other times, it builds up. Also, pleasant.
By the end, it kind of
leaves it off as a possible franchise, as the Japanese are wont to do with
police procedurals and gangster mayhem. If this comes to be true, I will enjoy
seeing what happens next with Mahiro and Chisato.
The film is available on the martial arts streaming service Hi-Yah!, and the digital and Blu-ray versions will
be accessible on August 16, 2022.
Versus (aka Down to Hell 2) Directed by Ryûhei
Kitamura Arrow Video;
WEVCO Produce Company; napalm FILMS; KSS; Suplex; MVD Entertainment 120 minutes, 2000
version 131 minutes,
2004 Ultimate edition www.arrowfilms.com www.facebook.com/ArrowVideo/ www.mvdb2b.com
To be clear, there are
actually three editions of this film on these discs, rather than two. The first
is the original 2000 cut at 120 minutes, then the Ultimate Versus, which
is the 130 minutes director’s cut from 2004, and last is VersusFF, which
is a 20 minute version, which I am assuming is for film festivals, given the
“FF” appendage. It does not, however, contain the 45-minute Down to Hell
(1997) which can be interpreted as the demo version of this film before the
real thing, though it is available on YouTube HERE. Still, this is gonna take a while to get
through this sumptuous package.
I am not gonna lie; I
watched the Ultimate cut from Disc 2 first, then for the shorter 2-hour
one, while I did see it, I paid more attention to the commentaries.
As the opening scrawl
tells us, there are 666 (of course) portals between our world and the “other
side,” and the 444th one is the “Forest of Resurrection” (shades of Pet Sematary)
in Japan, where the film takes place. I’m not sure what it is about Japan and
wooded areas, but there are at least two other stories about the mysterious arboreal
surroundings there, including The Sea of Trees and The Forest (both
released in 2016). This story is similar to Down to Hell, but it is quite
expanded and bloodier. The plot(s) also has a lot more depth to it.
Two escaped prisoners,
the star, Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi, who resembles a young Johnny Depp) and
the – er – non-star (Motonari Komiya) meet up with a car full of five yakuza
hitmen and a cute, kidnapped woman (Chieko Misaka) whose presence, naturally,
is more than it seems; her white dress never gets dirty, no matter how much
blood is sprayed or how often she is on the forest floor. No names for the characters
are given. Through a couple of double crossings and some killings, KSC2-303 (for
lack of a better name) and the woman escape into the spooky woods where the hit
men have buried dozens of their victims. Problem is, they are now zombies out
for revenge. Heck, they even have guns (though are terrible shots; the undead
need some practice).
The hit men are quite
colorful and give a nice flavor to the story rather than the typical Vincent
and Jules types, or any of a dozen hulking masses from mafia films. Here, they range
a bit on the hysterical side or are extremely stoic, giving a nice balance. Their
leader (Kenji Matsuda) is nuts and seems to act mostly with his eyes and mouth,
but he is so much fun to watch, strutting and subtly dressing like the Joker in
a green shirt and red tie; whether done on purpose or not, it works. The one I
liked the best is the most impassive (Kazuhito Ohba). Then there is the scared
and mentally unstable one (Minoru Matsumoto) and the bare-armed fighter (Yuichiro
Arai). Lest I forget, there is the one who is too quick on the draw (Ryosuke
Watabe).
Joining the mix are
two coppers from whom the prisoner escaped, the leader (Yukihito Tanikado,
doing his best “Twin Peaks” Dale Cooper) and the other with one hand (Shôichirô
Masumoto), thanks to the result of being handcuffed to KSC2-303. One of my
favorite lines is said by the cop leader who proudly brags that “I grew up at
Yellowstone National Park in Canada.” I am assuming this was an unintentional mistranslation
in the captions, but it amused me to no end.
There is a lot – and I
mean a lot – of action here, including fisticuffs, guns a-blazing and
samurai swords a-swishing. As much as the zombies are there for payback to the
hitmen, they will attack anyone. As a result of the fighting and violence, the
make-up special effects by Susumu Nakatani look great, in a Dead Alive (1992)
cartoony-way; it is easy to tell that this Peter Jackson’s film was an
influence as we get to look through holes in people, total dismemberments, and
there is blood sprayed everywhere (except, of course, on white-clad Misaka).
That the director studied film in Australia indicates that, as well.
Through it all, three
more assassins are added to the action (redhaired Takehiro Katayama, Hoshimi
Asai, and attractive gun-totin’ Ayumi Yoshihara), and to include at least two
more competent women to the cast. And this is all before the halfway point when
the film goes into a completely different and unexpected direction that is both
a WTF moment and a Hell yeah!” one, as we meet “the boss” of all the
hitmen (Hideo Sakaki), who you know from the start will lead to a final
showdown with the prisoner.
The film is insane –
in a good way – on so many different levels. While I would not dub this a
comedy, there are a lot of funny moments, often in a twisted way. Also, there
is a traditional fighting cinematic style that is occasionally used, but director
Kitamura also uses some wild editing, especially
near the end, that plays with the viewers’ expectations on the fights. With all
the wild angles, zooms, close-ups and zombies left and right, the action is
practically non-stop, and even at this length, went by pretty quickly. Even if
you don’t like captions, as this is obviously in Japanese, it won’t matter: the
actions speak louder than the words.
As always, Arrow Video
aims to please, so this Blu-ray is abounding with bonus materials. These appear
across the two discs.
The first extra I watched
on the second disc (there are only two here, most of the rest on the first
disc) was the audio commentary by Kitamura, and members of the cast and crew.
This is different that the one on the first disc, but I must say, watch it at
your own willingness to spend the time. There is about 20 minutes worth of
interesting info disbursed throughout, but most of it is utter nonsense about
their kids, kidding insults to each other, and is just plain blather. I watched
it in double time and read it faster that way (it is in Japanese, with
captions). For most of it I have no idea who said what as there was a large
group and they are not identified in the captions. The most interesting stuff
is comments on the new material. Speaking of which, the second 18-minute featurette,
“Sakigate! Otoko versus Juku,” about the new material shot four years later
than the original, with all the same actors regrouping. It’s a fun Making Of,
though it does not follow any narrative lines, but rather jumps around quite a
bit, which is fine. The action between Sakaguchi (who was the fight coordinator
for the reshoot) and Sakaki, which takes a large portion, is the most
interesting.
Back to the first
disc, I started with an audio commentary by Kitamura and producer Keishiro Shinei,
which is happily in English. While there is still a bit of whatever in
the conversation, this is focused on the film production, and is a lot more interesting.
In the yet-another commentary, this third one is the director, the lead actor,
and four of the crew (including, again, Shinei). Unlike for the Ultimate,
this one, which is in Japanese with captions, is quite a bit more informative
and my assumption is that they said most of what they needed to say, so by the
time the Ultimate one came around 4 years later, they had said their
piece. This one is also worth the listen, though it does get disjointed at
times; it’s like a film of the one for Versus Ultimate in that it is
about 80 percent decent and 20 percent fluff.
With “Body Slamming, Body Horror: Jasper Sharp on Ryûhei Kitamura” (16
min), the British expert of Japanese films frames the director in historical
context at the beginning of a new wave of Asian Extreme Cinema, such as those
by Takashi Miike. It’s a nice overview of Kitamura’s career. “First Contact: Versus Evolution” (10
min), a featurette exploring the film’s origins, is a bombastic telling with no
dialogue but Japanese title cards (and English subtitles) that just flashes images
in MTV editing style with no piece being more than 5 seconds over thunderous
music and language heavy in adjectives like “unprecedented.” Personally, I
found it a bit annoying. “Tak Sakaguchi’s One-Man Journey” (14 min), a mostly
self-shot featurette on the actor’s visit to the 2001 Japan Film Festival in
Hamburg. The first 10 minutes is just him leaving for the flight, his hotel room,
meeting his interpreter, food, and expressions of lonely feelings. When he
finally arrives at the fest, he signs autographs, looks cool in his Neo leather
jacket from the film, and destroys a screen. It was an okay watch, but I don’t
feel a need to see again.
“Team Versus” (1 min)
is a humorous look inside the napalm FILMS basement office; short and sweet. “Deep
in the Woods” (25 min) is a thoughtful featurette of interviews with Kitamura,
cast and crew, including Sakaguchi, Matsumoto, and Sakaki. “The Encounter” (13
min) is an interview with well-respected editor Shûichi Kakesu by Versus
producer Keishiro Shinei. While he discusses this film, he also talks about
different ways to approach editing, and the differences between action and
animation (he did 1995’s Ghost in the Shell).
Next up is a fun Deleted
Scenes (21 min) with audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew obviously done
when the main one was completed as it is the same group. As discussed above,
there is the Versus FF Version, a condensed, 20-minute recut of the film.
While the narrative is obviously in disarray, it’s pretty much a collection of
action scenes, mostly with Sakaguchi., and very little dialogue.
“Behind Versus,”
a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the film’s production, the first being “Birth
of a Dark Hero” (27 min) and the second “Versus the Legend” (46 min). Both
are very well made, one featuring a mix of interesting interviews, especially Sakaguchi
again, and filming some of the action; the other is more about the non-fighting
parts, like rehearsals, make-up, set-ups, steadi-cams, and the like, but
remains fascinating. These are well put-together Making Ofs.
There are two clips
from film festival screenings, one being the XXI Fantafestival in Genoa (2 min)
and the second is from various other fests where the film won awards (3 min).
Again, there is no dialogue, and each edit is less than 5 seconds, over blaring
music. This is more ego stroking than anything else, but considering the rightful
fanfare it got, who would be surprised. For “side stories,” which are
mini-movies featuring characters from Versus, there are “Nervous” (6.5
min) and “Nervous 2” (16 min), along with a featurette on the making of “Nervous
2” (1 min). The first one deals with the two police detectives and their
dislike of being called “officer” (is this a Japanese thing?). It’s confusing
because one detective has both hands while the other has the cuts on his face
from Versus. Either way, the image is a bit over-exposed, but I am
assuming that’s on purpose. For the second, directed by Yudai Yamaguchi, four
of the characters are in an asylum post-Versus, and can’t remember what
happened before, until… It’s quite humorous. The Making Of is a waste, don’t
bother.
There are five trailers,
each one quite different. I love coming attractions, but want to warn anyone
with epilepsy to avoid due to the flashing lights. Seriously. Also included are
5 different image galleries, including stills (both publicity and screen shots)
and posters. On the tactile side, there is a reversible sleeve for the box
featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon, and a glossy,
beautifully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film
and a reprinted interview with Kitamura by Tom Mes, with notes on the making of
the film by Kitamura (this appears only in the first pressing of the Blu-ray).
Note that it took me three days to get through all the films and features. That's a nice package.
Kitamura would go on
to make 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, and most notably what has become an
underground classic, The Midnight Meat Train in 2008.
