Demon City

I really wanted to like this. First 15-20 minutes made me feel like it could be inspired by a mix of John Wick and The Crow (original). They raised the stakes by what happened to the protagonist but we never really get the payoff from the build up. He is inexplicably invincible, even when he wants you to believe he's hurt and sadly the villains never really die. Speaking of which, they are evil to the core but then they have little back stories to make it seem like they have some sort of honour. There are some cool action sequences, and performance around the Samurai culture but overall I found this movie weird and ultimately disappointing. I had to watch John Wick after to scratch the vengeance itch it gave me.

In a down-on-its-luck port city the world's most skillful assassin does one last job before retiring to an idyllic life of ... just kidding, obviously; within 30 minutes of his retirement some bad guys set him on the path to a decade-spanning vendetta. The story is pretty goofy. The script can't seem to decide whether or not it wants to be taken seriously and/or how overt or illusory to make its supernatural implications. Important plot points are just retconned into existence via expositional dialogue or cutaway flashbacks.

But at least there's lots of violent bloody action and the antagonists rock some decent Oni masks. It's all style and no substance but enjoyable as over-the-top fun.

Demon City has many good elements in it. IT is a sleek Japanese action film based on the aged old martial arts revenge trope. The action, fighting, and violence are the strongest aspects of the movie. It has a sleek and cool look. The issue with it is that the backstory is too confusing and the relationships of the characters is also confusing. The elements that relate to the characters revenge against the people who wronged his family are the best parts but the main characters lack a certain depth and dimension. They do not provide enough gravitas to make it seem like they are just going through the motions. Could have been better.

Why ???? Like why ?.? Why would you try to recreate or give your Homage to these classic and fail so bad, so disappointed 😞 the climax was just meh. 1.5 hr of disappointment, no proper background story, few actor were good but not all, action sequences below MID. There was no build up for the villan too, If you still wanna watch this go ahead but don't have any high expectations, especially if you are a fan of classic likes John Wick, Kill Bill, The Crow.. This one was just bad. Didn't accept this from Toma Ikuta. Also the music was disappointing, the climax music was suppose to hype up the scene but just failed.

Yes there are many things about this film that are not true to life, but that does not mean this film should be any less enjoyable. Masashiro Higashide plays Kanta fase, the main character here who is sent a mission to kill the head of a clan. Unfortunatly five men in very creepy looking but at the same time cool masks do something unspeakable, and leave kanta in a coma. Somehow he survives by share luck and as he regains he functions he must go on a quest to hunt down each of the masked men and make them pay for what they have done. The action was good and pretty bloody. Good effects were used here. Sure redemption stories have been done many times before but this was a very entertaining one with good acting to add.