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Fantasia 2024: Baby Assassins Nice Days Review
Image Credit: Fantasia IFF
Loading...Directed by: Yugo Sakamoto
Written by: Yugo Sakamoto
Starring:
Akari Takaishi – Chisato Sugimoto
Saori Izawa – Mahiro Fukagawa
Sosuke Ikematsu – Kaede Fuyumura
Atsuko Maeda – Iruka Minami
Kaibashira – Matsuura
Mondo Otani – Riku Nanase
Karuma – Tsutomu Hirokawa
Atom Mizuishi – Mamoru Tasaka
Tomo Nakai – Mana Miyauchi
Running Time: 113 minutes
Not Rated
As the Bad Boys, the Toretto clan, and Ethan Hunt’s IMF team kick ass in the US in the 2020s, there’s been a pair of tiny contract killers doing their thing quite well over in Japan. Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins introduced the world to the action-comedy stylings of Chisato and Mahiro, teenage assassins learning to juggle their killings for hire with day jobs. The follow-up, Baby Assassins: 2 Babies, took things to the next level as our affable heroines ran afoul of a brother hitman team while on suspension.
Both films found their groove by focusing on the charms of stars Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa while juxtaposing bad-ass action sequences with slice-of-life slacker comedy. With the third entry, Baby Assassins Nice Days, Sakamoto sees his young killers growing up. The film, which had its North American premiere at Fantasia Fest, ups its action game by adding a few more players into the mix, albeit at the cost of some of the goofy humor.
In Nice Days, Mahiro and Chisato are trying to have a vacation when they get a call from their guild to fill in on a job and take out an embezzler named Matsuura (Kaibashira). Chisato is pre-occupied with a last-second realization that Mahiro’s birthday is tomorrow, but the job seems simple enough.
Not so much, as it turns out the job was double booked and the competition is a perfectionist freelancer named Kaede (Sosuke Ikematsu). When the target escapes in the crossfire between the two sides, Chisato and Mahiro are forced to team up with two older guild members – the dismissive and stuffy Iruka Minami (Atsuko Maeda) and the more easy-going Riku Nanase (Mondo Otani) – to get their target and protect the guild’s reputation.
At three films in, Sakamoto has an established formula for the Baby Assassins franchise: thrilling action sequences, mixed with the teen humor of his two leads. Nice Days shakes that dynamic up a bit by acknowledging that the two characters are growing up. Mahiro is about to exit her teens, and there’s a hint of a coming-of-age at play in the narrative as the two bounce off the older pair of assassins. The conflict that the two have with Iruka still mines the Gen-Z humor nicely, but there’s also a more serious underpinning at work. Maeda and Otani fold into the dynamic between the protagonists nicely, delivering fine work as the two new supporting characters for Chisato and Mahiro to clash with.
Sakamoto still knows that his film needs to be fun and exciting though, and he keeps things mostly light even when the stakes get higher. Chisato and Mahiro have a tough match in Kaede, played with star power by Ikematsu, and fight choreographer Kensuke Sonomura outdoes himself with some phenomenal action sequences. As before it’s a John Wick-style mix of guns and fast-moving martial arts, and the standout battle sequences remain a highlight of the franchise, exemplified by the fights between Izawa and Ikematsu.
Of course, the true stars here are Izawa and Takaishi and they deliver as well as they ever have. They’re as game for the action as ever; this is old hat for Izawa, but Takaishi gets to mix it up in the hand-to-hand category a bit more and acquits herself well. Their chemistry remains as strong as ever, and they also deliver when they have to stretch their dramatic muscles a bit more. I don’t know if this will be the end of this franchise (and I’d be very much up for more) but if it is, Chisato and Mahiro’s saga ends on a high note.
The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal from July 18th through August 4th.
