Its a ghostly buddy comedy, sort of like All of Me, but with some seriously “anti-social”
behavior. Hideo Kudo was an elite hitman with a shadowy syndicate—with the
emphasis on the “was.” Now he is dead, murdered by his former associates. However,
he still has his deadly skills, when he borrows Fumika Matsuoka’s body. He is
an extremely angry ghost, but their partnership makes him a more decent soul in
Kensuke Sonomura’s Ghost Killer, which releases today on digital.
Kudo
was hard to kill, but eventually they got him. The operation is perfectly
executed, but the clean-up crew misses the cartridge casing. When Matsuoka, a distressed
college student, picks it up, her resentments combine with Kudo’s grudge to
produce a haunting. To get rid of him, she must allow him to take over her body,
to extract his vengeance. However, he first spends a good deal of time beating
the snot out of her would-be abusers.
In
fact, things get so messy, Kudo must call in help from his protégé Toshihisa
Kagehara, to tidy up all the moaning and groaning bodies. Of course, Kagehara
has only one method of cleaning, which poor Matsuoka does not want to think
about. Regardless, Kagehara is way too edgy to fully trust.
You
often see the me-and-my-ghost premise in comedies, but Ghost Killer is
surprisingly dark. It also kicks tons of butt. Sonomura served as his own fight
director and he did not pull any punches. It is one gritty but spectacularly
cinematic beat-down after another.
Like typical Millennials, Chisato Sugimoto and Mahiro Fukagawa are rather surprised
to learn their guild expects them to act like adults and pay their bills. Even
after two years of steady work they still are not ready for responsibility, but
they understand Assassins’ Guild does not take no for answer. They are clueless,
but they still do their best to abide by the rules in director-screenwriter Yugo
Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins 2, which releases tomorrow on BluRay and
digital.
Sugimoto
is still the bubbly and Fukagawa is still the withdrawn, anti-social one, but
they work well together, because they both enjoy bingeing sugary desserts after
a successful job. After two years of ignoring the guild’s bills for health
insurance and its gym membership, the partners are informed they most pay-up at
a certain bank, by a certain time, or else. The insurance is particularly
costly, for obvious reasons. After a week of procrastination, they rush to the
bank, with a few minutes to spare, at which time two armed robbers storm in.
Of
course, there are strict rules governing the use of force by assassins, outside
contract jobs, but Sugimoto and Fukagawa are facing a crisis. During their
resulting suspension, two lunkheads erroneously figure they can take the two
assassins’ places in the guild if they knock them off. It does not work that
way, but the partners must be wary in how they respond.
Given
its concern for the governance of an assassins’ guild, Baby Assassins 2 is
a lot like the John Wick franchise hopped-up on bubble tea and ice cream
sundaes. It is also a reminder of a fact that was overlooked during the Writer’s
Guild strike. Guilds are essentially cartels designed to keep competition out of
a specific line of work. Makoto and Yuri might be perfectly competent assassins
(as indeed they appear to be), but the Guild limits their ability to ply their
chosen trade.
Even
Sugimoto and Fukagawa might agree the lads deserved a better break, but
business is business. Sakamoto’s business is goofball action—and business is
booming throughout this sequel. Kensuke Sonomura’s fight choreography was maybe
a bit stronger in the first film, but the follow-up features the funniest
sequence of the duology, in which the feuding partners pummel each other while
wearing furry animal costumes, in front of several shocked children.
