The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill

Like the first movie, this one also doesn't really work and it should be an anime. Some of the qurkiness does not really translate to real world, but the first movie is waaay more guilty of this.

This movie is improvement compared to the first in almost every aspect; some things stayed the same, like mediocre acting, even tho the production quality of second movie is much better.

Story will always be good, even tho it's less messy that the first one, it can still be better. And they finally made gun sounds decent (in first film, it was sooo bad, especially silencer sounds). What is really good in these movies is the action. The way Fable moves is awesome.

My personal gripe from both films is portrayal of Akira Satou/aka Fable. I think objectively the actor is probably fine, but not in my eyes, also the way he struggles with better enemies, does not gimme the vibe he is the legend as portrayed. In manga there is not one human who can beat him in fight, let alone give him trouble, but I can understand that it's for movie purposes.

6.3/10.

The choreography and stuntwork for the action scenes are excellent and far better than what I was expecting for a Japanese movie. It rivals any other movie. The story and the mannerisms of the actors are uniquely Japanese, so don't expect it to be a Hollywood movie. It is a very entertaining story and the acting is fine, again better than most stuff coming out of Hollywood these days. Some scenes are very bloody, but that's typical of Japanese movies. Don't overthink it.

The story is tired and old: good hearted assassin has to protect innocents from bad hearted assassins, I guess. The acting is not stellar, but the action is good. I actually did not know it was a sequel (thought it was a remake) and so I watched this before I watched the original (or read the manga). Truth be told, I am not particularly thrilled for either, but I may do it if I am bored. I just wish the acting was a little better. I liked a lot more the actor playing the villain (Shin'ichi Tsutsumi) than the one playing the hero (Jun'ichi Okada), although the first is an actual actor, while the latter is a boy band member and a martial artist, so his performance was brilliant considering. The girls were there just to look pretty, for example.

Bottom line: why not make this an anime? It would have looked cooler and could have focused on the story and characters more.

You don't get the depth of the story like the manga so the movie can only be seen as a compliment to the manga story. Not everything worked but I manage to finish the movie without fast forward or anything so its watchable.

The first was good. The 2nd was amazing. Kampai!!

One of the best Japanese action movies that has been in a while now, packed with great stunts ,actions and funny charming characters.