Baby Assassins 2
Japan | Japanese, English subtitles
2023 | 102 Minutes
Director: Yugo Sakamoto
Cast: Akari Takaishi, Ayaori Izawa, Oto Abe, Tatsuomi Hamada, Junpei Hashino
Mahiro and Chisato, the terrible teenage twosome of Tokyo’s murderous underworld return in Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins 2; the sequel to the brilliant and rather funny assassination comedy that stared a pair of lazy teenage killers who lacked the proper motivation to achieve their killings.
The first Baby Assassins film was shown at last years Fantasia festival and was extremely well received – but with all honesty in tow, the majority of sequels never are able to usurp the first film in the series. Baby Assassins 2 is one of those very rare examples where the sequel is actually better than its first installment, and when talking a film that was already very good – that’s making quite a statement.
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The second installment to the Baby Assassins franchise brings in a new crew of young assassins, Yuri and Makoto, who are equal part slacker and dimwitted twits, with ambitions of taking over the contracts held by our heroines Mahiro and Chisato. Of course, the two duos come to blows and several fights take place between them throughout the film. The duels are always both incredibly funny and well created, using fantastic fight choreography that is at times brutal and others highly inventive and fun.
Unpaid fees for a gym they signed up for and only used once have snowballed, and getting out of that jam drops them right in the middle of a bank robbery. Foiling the heist only gets them in trouble with the tediously bureaucratic assassination agency they work for. Suspended indefinitely, they’ll have to cover the cost of their sukiyaki and ice-cream sundaes with a mundane gig as shopping-arcade mascots. Meanwhile, psychopathic goofball brothers Makoto and Yuri are smalltime hitmen with big ambitions. To become Tokyo’s top killers for hire, they’ll have to take out the two young ladies currently occupying that slot.
The endearing and uproarious back-and-forth between Chisato and Mahiro, played by anime stage-musical star Akari Takaishi and in-demand stuntwoman Ayaori Izawa respectively, is even fresher and funnier this time. Anyone that enjoyed the first film is surely going to adore this continuation, which keeps all the things audiences loved the first around and instead of trying to modify a winning recipe, simply transplants the duo into more of the same with just enough of a twist to keep things interesting while not looking desperate for new sight gags.
So far, there have been some tremendous films show at this year’s Fantasia festival, but I think two, maybe three of my favorite scenes have all come from Baby Assassins 2. Reading this next part, will almost certainly reveal spoilers, so please proceed with caution. Look away now. Alright, well don’t say you weren’t warned. The opening fight scene in the film is so oddly amusing. It involves a lot of players but none of them seem to have the will it takes to assassinate one another – or even give enough effort to attempt to survive. Instead, the participants are dragged into a to the death fight and half-ass it in hilarious style.
Another great scene takes place during a foiled bank robbery scene where the dynamic slacker duo of Mahiro and Chisato take turns punching a would-be robber that is sat on an office chair, sending him circling around and around in a dizzying and highly amusing beatdown. And who doesn’t love a fight scene where both participants are dressed as mascots. I roared with with laughter at that scene, as anyone that knows me knows I live for the bizarre.
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Throughout, the film has some seriously funny moments and some very cool, over-the-top action sequences that really help it take a step up above its first installment – and let me just take a second here to reinitiate that the first film was a solid, fun and highly amusing piece of film in its own rights. I honestly never expected to walk away from the cinema loving Baby Assassins 2 more than the first part, and I really happy that it turned out that way. Some movies don’t lend themselves well to a sequel or sequels, and I had thought Baby Assassins fit that mold. I didn’t see a way to expand the storyline beyond what the first film had done, and I must admit that I was really… really wrong about that.
Baby Assassins 2 is a riot; a hilarious social satire ripe with silly jokes and crazy cool action.
