Baby Assassins

Baby Assassins is Fast and Fun! Baby Assassins is the latest release from Well Go USA Entertainment to come out of the Japanese market and it is both fast and fun. This well paced and well Directed action comedy can not help but engage you from the opening scene.

Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa are delightful as the high young assassins who are faced with trying to balance "normal" lives with their careers as professional assassins. Their chemistry on screen with each other, and the rest of the cast make for some memorable and enjoyable moments as they recognize they may be unfit for anything other than professional "hits".

The film does a terrific job of walking the tight rope between being funny and outrageous without being silly. It also does a fantastic job of integrating martial arts action and gun play into the film. Saori Izawa clearly has some Taekwondo training in her pedigree, and her fight scenes are interesting and well choreographed.

In a market of formula driven action and adventure films it is no surprise that this original and unique action comedy is winning awards and making noise at worldwide film festivals. I expect it will explode in popularity after this year's Comic Con.

Baby Assassins may be the most enjoyable movie independent movie since The Paper Tigers. I highly recommend this film.

The film is subtitled.

Deadpan hilarious and well paced, no time wasted on finicky worldbuilding, it just tosses you in and assumes you'll be able to swim based on ample context clues. I don't think I've seen a better mix of humor and action since Hot Fuzz, and Izawa Saori is probably the first actor in 2 generations to be worthy to take up the Jackie Chan / Stephen Chow / Michelle Yeoh mantle of funny martial artists.

The leads have great chemistry, and for all its absurdity, it remains surprisingly grounded. They manage to act like both snarky gen z kids AND skilled assassins without making those two things a contradiction. And all that is before the fight scenes, which put almost all modern action movies to shame by sheer virtue of believability and being able to see what is actually happening at any given moment.

All 3 movies are worth your time, but the first one is still the best.

The movie does a good job of balancing brutal action, funny moments, and some subtle social commentary to create one of the best action comedies of the past few years.

There's less action than one might expect from the trailer and other reviews but the action that we do get is very good. The climax fight in particular is S level stuff and makes the movie really must-see. The leads have excellent chemistry together. They keep the movie very entertaining during the periods without gun fights.

The social commentary is very light. If you aren't familiar with life in Japan in 2021, you won't notice it and you'll still be able to enjoy the film. If you are familiar with life in Japan in 2021, you'll have a deeper understanding of the struggle of young people entering the workforce in a declining country. And that Maid Cafes aren't just a quirky weird Japanese trend but actually kind of horrible places to work and a means of survival. There's a brief conversation behind the scenes at the Maid Cafe that does an excellent job of briefly bringing these themes to the forefront before the movie moves on to bigger things.

Overall, this is a must watch movie for action fans, comedy fans, and fans of foreign films. It gets a lot of things right.

Interesting main characters, who are polar opposites in personality. They are quirky and kind of sympathetic, especially the less socially adept one. There is no significant backstory on their evolution into their "jobs" but just accept what it is and see how these two very different people mesh together.

I really congratulate the filmmaker for the action choreography, which is extremely intricate and very well photographed. It is vastly better than most fight scenes in films these days, even very high budget ones.

The story wasn't gripping, and there wasn't an opportunity for me, at least, to find much sympathy for anyone in the story. At least the dead were deserving of their demise. Still, I enjoyed it.

Saw a trailer for #3 and thought, "man...I bet #1 would be worth watching!" It definitely was.

This was a lot of fun. Kind of goofy, but not in a goofy 'American pop' movie kind of way (and more to its credit, really) but in a bit of taking social tropes and amping them up a touch, and in a smart, clever way.

Importantly, the action scenes are great. There's not a ton, but they're very well executed and shot, so they're good to watch. Unlike a lot of modern action, they're filmed and edited so the fight itself is part of the story telling and the hits feel cinematic without departing from reality.

The main baddy is obnoxious and stupid, and we could really do without her as she's gone too far into the goofy trope... but the two characters are great for all their differences and chemistry.

Glad I watched it!