Baby Assassins 2
The “Baby Assassins” films are two in which, if you’re a fan of buddy movies, action movies, and action comedies, it’d be good to familiarize yourself with them. Writer-director Yugo Sakamoto has created an action world around his two young protagonists that will remind us of other genre entries, but has a feel all its own. You like the assassin underworld of “John Wick?” These films have you covered. You like films about loyalty and people getting in way over their heads? Covered. You like action movies where friendships are tested? That’s here also. Do you like watching two capable female characters just beat the shit out of guys? This will give you that in spades.
I think I was about an hour into “Baby Assassins 2” when it occurred to me that neither Chisato nor Mahiro have had a romantic subplot in either of these films. Their primary relationship is with each other. There isn’t a gay-coded message laid into this film, though; they are just friends whom vibe well together in work and play. If we continue to get more of these films- and I’ll gladly accept more from Sakamoto and his leads, Akari Takaishi (as Chisato) and Saori Izawa (as Mahiro)- I’d like to see this be the case until we get to the point where a romantic relationship for one of them leads to complications in their friendship, and career. That would be something.
When we meet Chisato and Mahiro in this film, they are just hanging out in their apartment, eating junk food and watching stuff together. They get a note of delinquent payment in the mail- apparently, they signed up for the Assassin’s Guild’s gym and insurance benefits four years ago, and have just failed to pay for it. Now, they owe about 4 million yen by Friday. When they are at the bank, however, they find themselves fighting off robbers; because of it being an unsanctioned brawl, they are suspended, so they have to get regular jobs to pay off their debt. That’s the least of their worries, however, when a couple of upstart assassins try to kill them to take their place in the Guild.
The tone of these films is where their uproarious entertainment value comes from. Takaishi and Izawa may be playing Gen Z characters, but they have the same slacker attitudes of Gen X when it comes to how they want to live their lives. They give wonderful performances, and it is fascinating to consider how these two even became as good a killers as they did when they don’t even remember how they owe so much money for a gym membership four years ago. How they have shown enough responsibility to be assassins when they can’t even be bothered to pay their bills is mindblowing, but also hilariously fun to watch. We start to get a stronger view of the world of the Assassins Guild, and how upstarts try to upend things, and it’s wild but also well thought out. When the film gets to the action, it delivers the goods, even as we find ourselves scratching our heads about how people could miss from so close proximity and be considered professionals. The action and humor in this film is equally silly, though, and it’s befitting our protagonists, whom might be my favorite action pairing in decades. It doesn’t get better than this.
