Baby Assassins - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Baby Assassins



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
The Hi-Yah! Original film line up has been Well Go USA’s DTV streaming channel for quite some time, and the movies have been decent to lackluster for the most part from what I’ve reviewed so far. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Well Go USA for bringing in so much Asian content to the U.S. shores, but the Hi-Yah! lineup has just been the weakest of their offerings to date, so when I requested Baby Assassins to review a month or so back I really didn’t have high expectations. I fully expected another run of the mill action comedy from the trailer, but was just a SLIGHT bit curious due to the fact that this was a Japanese flick, and not your usual Thai/Chinese/Korean actioneer. The Japanese are a weird bunch when it comes to their Cinema, and it runs the gambit for crazy action flicks (Takashi Miike films), or full on insane gonzo flicks that you have to be drinking with friends to fully appreciate. Well, Baby Assassins is pure gonzo, but in such a way that had me grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

The film opens up with a young androgynous looking girl name Mahiro (Saori Izawa) shyly undergoing a job interview at a local supermarket that is obviously not going well. Finally out of sheer frustration she drops the facade, pulls out a silenced pistol and caps the guy. Coming out she finds the store employees ready to fight to the death to avenge their manager, and a massive hand to hand combat battle ensues. Just kidding, it seems that this was nothing but an internal fantasy for Mahiro, but the part about her being an assassin is correct. She and her friend/coworker Himari (Mone Akitani) are teenage assassins for an agency that trains young children to become expert killers. Himari and Mahiro have just graduated high school and are ready to go out on their own. That means the two girls have to find actual jobs to mask their income from the tax collectors, get their own apartment, and basically learn how to be self sufficient now that the agency isn’t taking care of their every move and need.

The girls struggle to really gel with society, as Mahiro is a straight up sociopath, and has problems fitting in. Himari ends up trying to get her a job at the local Moe-kun fantasy “master/servant” style restaurant (you have to know these oddball aspects of Japanese nerd culture to really get the most out of this scene) where they have to wear cat ears and act out the male master fantasy as waitresses. However, that ends up pretty much bombing in spectacular fashion with Mahiro unable to even complete basic tasks. Things get really nasty when the girls run amuck with the local Yakuza crime families, and now it’s time for the young Assassins to pull out the big guns and kick some major Yakuza butt on their own time.

Baby Assassins is pure gonzo NUTS. Even me trying to describe what happens in the film is nearly pointless as it goes balls to the wall insane right off the bat. The film somehow manages to blend live action harem anime tropes, with crime drama Yakuzas, martial arts, and black deadpan comedy thrown together, and for some reason it WORKS. The humor borders on 3 Stooges level at times, with the nerd culture/live action anime facets really coming into play here. The girls are both incredible fighters and killers, but their real life interactions tend to be over the top and extreme as they’re both so socially inept from their life of killing that they’re basically almost useless (almost). The comedy can be a lot more biting and dark too, with deaths scenes, and Japanese gore killings eliciting some of the craziest chuckles out of me. It’s not going to be Ichi the Killer level of gonzo, but the movie is so off the wall and hodge podge of genre mishmashing that I was having a complete BALL with the flick.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Presented in 2.39:1 AVC for the Blu-ray, the image is very typical of Japanese films. That is, very monochromatic for the most part, with dulled colors, heavy yellow parchment grading, and a slightly desaturated look. Colors do pop off the screen sometimes (usually in the apartment), but the entire thing has a sort of gonzo “filmed on handi-cam” look to it that the Japanese employ a lot. The fine details are generally good, but I did notice some soft shots (such as during the job interview, or in the inside of the Yakuza base). Blacks can be a bit murky, but never so murky as to cause a problem. Good, but definitely a bit limited by the stylistic choices.









Audio:

The Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is a completely different animal. It’s slightly box and reserved in scenes, but the action kicks into high gear and the mix is fully immersive from the get go. Fisticuffs and metal music blaze during the final confrontation, and there’s more than enough low end for the gunfights. It’s never massively bassy when compared to more traditional Hollywood shootouts, and the film keeps the gunshots sounding more of a natural “pop” rather than the over exaggerated bass slam that they typically are. Surrounds are used copiously throughout, but also know when to slide into the background during the talky scenes in the apartment or with their handler. All around great mix that should please about everyone.












Extras:

• Well Go USA Trailers
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Baby Assassins is very bluntly going to be for those who don’t mind gory deaths and jokes about killing people and the like, as well as a general knowledge of slapstick Anime comedies as well. The movie manages to pull out the genre mashing with rather good ease, especially since Saori Izawa really hasn’t acted much outside of doing stunts in other films (she’s an incredible martial artist, and the end fight with her and the Yakuza figher is an amazing mix of traditional martial arts, grappling, and parkour stunts). But at the end of the day the crazy film just manages to please audiences way more than initially expected. The Blu-ray is very good, just with the usual lack of extras that is typical of the Hi-Yah! Films from Well Go USA.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mono Akitani, Yukina Fukushima, Masayuki Ino, Masanori Mimoto, Atom Mizuishi
Directed by: Yugo Sakamoto
Written by: Yugo Sakamoto
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Japanese: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 95 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: August 16th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Gonzo Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I must have missed this some how.. Will look for it.