DEMON City is a revenge thriller that has no interest in wasting its time in such trivial matters as character development, storyline, or sensitivity.
Directed by Seiji Tanaka and adapted from Masamichi Kawabe’s manga series Onigoroshi, this is an ultra-violent crime drama with a supernatural twist. About as subtle as a brick to the face, it is blood-soaked mayhem from beginning to end, with the slicing and dicing all taking place at breakneck speed.
New to Netflix, this Japanese gangster film comes off like an unhinged and murderous opera about an unstoppable and newly retired Yakuza assassin with a lust for revenge that even death itself, cannot halt.
Satara (Toma Ikuta) is the most deadly contract killer in Shinjo City. Framed for his family’s murder and left for dead, the ex-hitman will stop at nothing to exact revenge on the masked “demons” who have taken over his city.
Armed with his faithful snub-nosed meat cleaver, Satara goes all John Wick on those responsible for his torment. A man of few words, and even fewer facial expressions, he lets his lethal skills do most of the talking over 100-minutes, as this wonderfully choreographed cacophony of mindless carnage spills its insides all over the floor.
Again, if you came looking for depth of any kind, plot, or even anything with a mere ounce of originality, you are not going to find it in this relentlessly brutal dance-off. This, here, is gratuitous fun that throws every hackneyed trope from any revenge thriller you’ve ever seen at a screen already splattered in chum.
If you can get over the crimson mess and the director’s apparent disdain for innovative ideas, and instead taking the ‘if it ain’t broke’ approach, you will then, surely, not consider this time lost or misspent.
If you get your jollies from violent video games or films such as Kill Bill and Oldboy, knock yourself right out.
(3/5)
