Bad City

Bad City is fresh story of law vs lawlessness from Japan. The set-up involves a team of cops on a mission to break up a burgeoning partnership between the yakuza and a Korean crime syndicate. The film moves at a steady pace and has a flashy style and color scheme that will keep the viewer engaged.

The film's action is largely hand-to-hand. It should be said that this is NOT a martial arts film. Instead, the audience is immersed in wild group battles where fists fly and baseball bats crack! These sequences are plentiful but do not eclipse the story.

While the story plays by the numbers, there are enough interesting characters to keep you guessing. If you watch Japanese crime films or are just a fan of the John Wick franchise, this should be enjoyable.

If you come across this on streaming, give it a shot.

Well. It's your very stereotypical run of the mill gangsters vs cops Japanese movie that doesn't take itself seriously, with exaggerated acting etc. I prefer the more serious gangster thrillers that especially Korea (but also sometimes Japan) puts out, but as an action and martial arts movie fan, I find this one worth it for the last 30 minutes or so of the movie, which is one big brawl with lots of fighting and martial arts. Just don't go in expecting an engaging plot.

Well. It's your very stereotypical run of the mill gangsters vs cops Japanese movie that doesn't take itself seriously, with exaggerated acting etc. I prefer the more serious gangster thrillers that especially Korea (but also sometimes Japan) puts out, but as an action and martial arts movie fan, I find this one worth it for the last 30 minutes or so of the movie, which is one big brawl with lots of fighting and martial arts. Just don't go in expecting an engaging plot.

This is a fantastic Japanese Mafia gangster Yakuza crazy excellent fight scene movie with a pretty good story as well, of course it's not like the best movie in the world, it's not some sort of fantastic drama, it's not supposed to be!, the characters are great, the acting is wonderful, and the fight scenes are really really good, pretty authentic, yeah yeah there's not too many people who can withstand that many blows or who can fight countless multiple opponents, but why not?, it's a movie for crying out loud!, that's the point, it's for fun, what's with people and their crazy serious reviews?, trust me you might really like this movie if you give it a chance, of course it's some sort of police and Yakuza and Mafia storyline we see a lot of like it, but so what?, it's done well and it has a great hero in the captain the old dude with gray hair kicks proverbial butt!!

The type of hand to hand combat and the brawl SONUMURA adapted is an investment that is close to reality even hollywood should adapt in future...the stunts are well staged and electrifying that showcases the Greed among the mobsters and their hunger towards power... The plot is better which a typical action flick should have and the charismatic cast with their realistic performance and their dedication towards action part adds a midas touch to the flick with some blood pumping fast combat sequences and promising brawls that I never witnessed is a delight to watch... Morever simple budget and a Crispy writing and some memorable low light wide angel shots makes it a worthy addition of japanese action flick.

Entertaining Japanese action thriller by choreographer-turned-director Kensuke Sonomura. This is a bold step up from his lean, mean Hydra (2019), even if its bigger ambitions don't necessarily translate to a better film.

To explain more clearly, I believe this film is both bloated (partly because of its slightly convoluted plot) and sometimes dragged out even if just seen primarily as an action thriller (as in, it feels like it's missing Hydra's no-fat runtime). However, we don't see many yakuza films packed with this much fistfighting, and so Bad City kinda resembles Korean gangster films like The Outlaws. We have a tough police captain with his capable little crew kicking yakuza and Korean mafia asses alike. Which also means it is more fun than average genre fare.

As mentioned, I feel like the plot is complicated, rather needlessly so if I might add. In a way it reminded me of Hell Dogs, another recent yakuza thriller which fell flat trying to immerse you in its storyline. Thankfully, Bad City is more effective plot-wise, spinning a tale about gang wars getting out of control in a safer, yet more easily digestible manner. But it's still more confusing than it should be, and feels both awkward and unoriginal regarding certain plot points.

The main draw here is the action, and it is never less than entertaining. It's not quite as well choreographed or punishing as we usually see in Korean, HK and Indonesian action cinema, but that still doesn't detract from the fact it is really well done. Japanese action films (of the more grounded variety) are pretty rare, so it's refreshing to see one that isn't afraid to include more than a throwdown or two. Hitoshi Ozawa as the tough former captain and Tak Sakaguchi (impressively agile as usual) as a mute knife-wielding killer are standouts.

Overall, this was a pretty fun experience that should be recommended to Asian action fans, provided they don't mind some narrative bloat or certain inconsistencies (like some rather cheap sounding audio effects).