Baby Assassins 3
There’s something delightful about Yugo Sakamoto’s “Baby Assassins” movies that feels very contemporary, as well as a throwback to an earlier time in action cinema. A big part of it is, obviously, the lead actresses, Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa, who have delightful chemistry as the title characters, and the action choreography by Naohiro Kawamoto is top notch. But this is not your average buddy action movie. For one thing, we aren’t dealing with mismatched cops like in the “Lethal Weapon” and “Rush Hour” films, but a couple of Gen-Z friends who got into the assassination game as teenagers, and have managed to get pretty good at it. Each film is about a situation that tests their skills as assassins, and their friendship, and by centering it on that connection, Sakamoto makes sure that we care every step of the way.
We don’t begin this film with Chisato (Takaishi) and Mahiro (Izawa), however. We start by watching an assassination by a young-ish man, Kaede Fuyumura (Sôsuke Ikematsu), who receives a packet for another hit which promises that it will be his last. Meanwhile, the girls are in the town of Miyazaki, mixing business and pleasure, and getting ready for another hit while they’re in town. It turns out, Kaede is after the same person, and after a brutal fight, it practically ends in a standoff, with Kaede having the upper hand. This puts Chisato and Mahiro in hot water, and they must pair with another team to take out the mark, and Kaede.
The “Baby Assassins” movies are at their finest when the focus is on Chisato and Mahiro, whether it’s watching them on a job, or just spending time together. We get more of the former, and not enough of the later, in this third film in the series, but Takaishi and Izawa have such an infectious chemistry and energy that the vibe of their friendship just naturally carries through. This is a bit more dramatic of a film than the previous two, however, especially given that Kaede- and others of their adversaries in this film- are more of threats to them. But the action absolutely continues to kick ass in this movie. One of my favorite parts of this series is how Chisato and Mahiro have a natural, very improvisatory fighting style that feels effortless, and also plays off of the fact that they are- more often than not- smaller fighters than who they’re up against. There’s a bit more worldbuilding in this film than we had in the previous film, and that kind of pads out the film a bit more than the first two, but I still loved every minute of what I watched here, and- if we are blessed to get another film in this franchise in the future- I would not say no.
