Brief Story Line
Shuhei Sakata (Toma Ikuta - Hanamizuki, Beyond Goodbye TV series etc) was a professional hitman who informed his handler Fujita (Taro Sugura - Tokyo Swindlers TV series etc) that he wanted to retire and live peacefully with his family. Unfortunately for him, a group of masked men murdered them and pinned the crime to Sakata by showing that he committed suicide.
Twelve years later, Sakata turned out to be alive but in vegetative state while the city was now ruled by Mayor Sunohara (Matsuya Onoe - Love, Life and Goldfish etc) along with several important figures who were part of secret organization, including the pervert Kanta (Masahiro Higashide - Asako 1 & II, The Confidence Man JP TV series etc). Due to some reasons, Sakata somehow got back his physical abilities and started to kill the people responsible for murdering his family.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this film.
End of Brief Story Line
Revenge plot has always been one of my favorite genre as nothing satisfied me more than seeing the bad guys being punished by the people they wronged. And the stronger the punishment, the better. Now this film started off nicely with some brutal action scenes that showed the capability of the lead character Sakata. It did not take long till the bad thing happened to him and his family which obviously made us sick of the evil the villains did. Subsequently, the movie became a full bloodbath after Sakata somehow regained his abilities. And on this part it was pretty awesome and entertaining, even if at certain time it was a bit too much as Sakata seemed unable to die.
The film only has duration of 1 hour 46 minutes where I think more than 80% was on the action. The violent nature of the killings would definitely satisfy fans of such action. To be honest, it has a strong resemblance with ultra violent Iko Uwais earlier films like The Raid or The Night Comes for Us where it focused on the nonstop bloody fights. I read that some people compared this movie with John Wick, though personally to me, the violence was not as extreme and he was not that invincible. However, despite its rather fantasy nature (it was never explained why Sakata could suddenly healed), I chose to believe that his strength came from his full on rage due to his family's death and his mind just took over his body to do the impossible.
The lead cast Toma Ikuta was suitable in playing this role with his scary cold stare and of course his ability to perform in the fights scenes. Other than Matsuya Onoe, I think Masahiro Higashide was also good in portraying their characters. In addition to those names above, there were few support cast like Takuma Otoo (Kamen Rider Black Sun TV series etc) as Detective Takigawa, Mai Kiryu (The Land of Tanabata TV series etc) as Sakata's wife Aoi and Ami Touma (Ooku TV series etc) as an important person to the story. The movie was directed by Seiji Tanaka (Melancholic) who was also credited as the writer. From the closing credits, I noticed that the film was a live action adaptation of manga Oni-Goroshi by Masamichi Kawabe.
In the end, this movie might satisfy audience looking for gore action focusing on revenge, although the ending felt a bit short to me personally. I think they should have ended it with the scene at the building owned by the mayor instead of extending it to additional scene which might seem cool but defeat the whole purpose of Sakata's effort. I have no complaints on the story which was very simple and the ability to keep himself alive was still OK as despite seeming illogical, it could still be linked to the rage as I mentioned. So if you are just here for the action, then you should be able to enjoy it, but if you are here for something deeper or more meaningful, I do not think you would really find it here. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
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