Hydra

Brisk and straightforward flick about a retired killer trying to make amends for his past deeds being forced back into the game. You won't find huge set pieces, slow-mo/ fast forward bs or shaky-hand footage cut endlessly; just very well choreographed, very kinetic fights, shot wide so you can actually see what's happening and where it's happening. The combatants are so skilled with the blade that it makes you feel that the slightest mistake can and actually becomes lethal, raising the stakes. That aspect reminded me of the last fight in The Raid part 2.

Give this smaller flick a try, at 72 minutes you'll be glad you did.

I was trying to remember the name of this movie for the last month or so and serendipitily came across it in my Prime Video feed.

It was not as good as I remembered unfortunately. There are maybe three action scenes and while they are different than the usual fare they aren't spectacular. This movie is 65 minutes of boringness, 10 minutes of action and 5 minutes of credits. The story is a bit muddled and it is hard to figure out what is happening. It seems to be either a pilot, a vanity project or a pilot for a TV series. If you want something with a similar plot try 'The Killer' or 'The Man from Nowhere' both movies from Korea (2022 and 2010 respectively)

Should I be surprised that an 80 minutes long foreign film has more depth, story, better acting, camerawork, and action than Black Widow? No. Was I? Yes. Let's stop feeding the fuel fire that is Disney and Hollywood. They're just making a quick buck.

This? This is cinema. I loved it.

So Hydra is one of the movie that I'm been dying to see after the release of Re: Born (2016) Japan answer to the booming of the new gun-jiujitsu style of action movies that started with John Wick. Unlike the Western folks, the Japanese adapted to this new trend with a different approach when they complete drop the realistic aspect and amplified the wow factor with hypnotic body movement and flashy hand to hand combat techniques that look outer-worldly cool to the eyes of audience. Kensuke Sonomura who body of works already speak volume in the low-budget action movie scene of Japan teaming up with Masanori Mimoto another veteran of the scene to create Hydra a low budget action movie that clearly a passion project that mean much for these guys yet end up bitten off more than it can chew. Hydra despite the short runtime and easy to digest premise was a real snooze-fest that barely saved by the action when it not only short but also so few and far between. I'm still think that the movie is worth watching on the choreography alone but I'm you really want to see something different from the usual Hollywood stuff, check out Re: Born and hopefully Baby Assassin in the future.

As far as low budget independent Japanese action films go, it doesn't get much better than this. This little gem is the directorial debut of stuntman/actor Kensuke Sonomura. Sure it wasn't perfect, but rookie filmmaker mistakes aside, it was a really well put together film. The mere 77 min runtime flew by even with the slow pacing, mostly due to the fact that each scene was relevant to the narrative, and just the right length to fill in the necessary back, current and upcoming sub-plots. I actually would've wanted more runtime to fill in some backstories more, and better character development in some of the characters. As an action film, there's really only two action scenes, but man are they choreographed and filmed exceptionally well, and are executed lightning-fast. I sure hope this little gem has some sequels in the works, because I do want more.