‘Bad City’ Delivers a Gritty and Thrilling Ride for V-Cinema Fans

This article is a part of our protection of the2022 edition of Fantastic Fest, going down from September 22-29. In this entry, we evaluate the brand new Kensuke Sonomura movie, Bad City. Follow together with our opinions, interviews, and options from the fest in our Fantastic Fest archive.

For these unfamiliar with V-cinema, it’s primarily Japan’s personal tackle the sorts of direct-to-video style movies that also discover audiences right here within the U.S. Lower budgets allowed for larger freedoms, and in Japan that provided one thing of a boon to filmmakers like Takashi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and others by a lot of the 80s and 90s. They’re not almost as prevalent as of late, however the love for what they’ve to supply stays. Director Kensuke Sonomura clearly shares in that love, as his second function is a throwback in the absolute best methods. Bad City is a densely packed story of corruption, honor, and bloody beatdowns delivering a extremely satisfying romp and a well-deserved star-turn for the nice Hitoshi Ozawa.

Everyone is aware of high-profile businessman Wataru Gojo (Lily Franky) is soiled, however nobody can show it. His newest ploy to safe extra energy entails a run for mayor, and realizing how dangerous that may be for the town, the police kind a particular unit headed up by a robust ex-cop named Torada (Ozawa) to convey him down. First step? Get Torada out of jail. These two are removed from the one gamers within the combine as Korean gangsters, corrupt cops, a knife-wielding murderer (the all the time dependable Tak Sakaguchi), and Torada’s three-person squad (Masanori Mimoto, Sakanoue Akane, and Katsuya) all get bloody within the sandbox that it Kaiko City.

Bad City is a terrifically entertaining nod to V-cinema classics that’s dense with characters strolling either side of the ethical divide. The plot might by no means stretch past the minimal of what’s anticipated, however Sonomura crafts an engagingly gritty world. Even higher, and as needs to be anticipated from the previous stuntman turned motion choreographer turned director, the combat sequences are blistering enjoyable.

The motion is isn’t essentially frequent all through the primary two acts, however it explodes into superb confrontations within the closing stretch. Much of it’s brawler type — much less about delivering fights that impress with their choreography, and extra about delivering choreography that impresses with the fights. It’s gangsters and cops scrapping with fists, knives, and batons, combating for their lives with much less curiosity in type than in survival. Sprinkled all through, although, are masterclasses in combating type as Sakaguchi and Mimoto shine with lightning fast, close-quarters fight.

Sixty-year-old Ozawa leans far nearer to the previous, however he’s no much less spectacular as he punches and rolls with the most effective of them. The style legend, a acquainted face from the likes of Miike’s Dead or Alive (1999) and the woefully underseen Deadman Inferno (2015), has performed extra yakuza members than most actors can declare, however they’re all the time memorable. He performs a badass cop in Bad City, however he nonetheless makes nice use of the wealthy character strains in his face that run as deep as his gravelly baritone voice. The position calls for a sprint of sincerity and remorse, and Ozawa delivers simply sufficient pathos with out disturbing the style’s want for a grizzled robust man.

As talked about, Bad City is so dense with characters and layered with betrayals that it’s not tough to get misplaced within the stew of motivation and corruption. Some beats really feel unnecessarily sophisticated whereas others are as one-note as they arrive, however it’s all expectedly in service of dramatic confrontations and action-fueled set-pieces. They’re all the time welcome, in fact, however you don’t come to V-cinema (or DTV motion) for elaborate plotting. You come for the beatdowns and memorable characters, and Sonomura delivers on each counts.

While nonetheless at residence within the motion style, Bad City is a far totally different animal from Sonomura’s wonderful debut, Hydra (2019). Where that movie is way smaller and solely bookended with fights, his follow-up paints its carnage throughout a bigger canvas. Budgetary limitations stay, however we nonetheless really feel the town’s breadth, the ominous attain of its corrupt people, and the stoic heights of its heroes. A B-movie, maybe, however an A-plus experience for followers of honor, desperation, and impressed road violence.

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Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since earlier than you had been born, which is bizarre seeing as he is so rattling younger. He’s our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists ‘Broadcast News’ as his favourite movie of all time. Feel free to say hello when you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.