Baby Assassins ベイビーわるきゅーれ (2021) (Blu Ray) (English Subtitled) (US Version)

For mismatched teens Mahiro (Saori Izawa) and Chisato (Akari Takaishi), the good news was they had lucrative careers awaiting them beyond high school... as contract killers. The bad news is that their employer insisted on cover by having them take scut day jobs-and become roomies. The dicey arrangement gets worse when it allows the Yakuza they've been picking off to find them! Outrageous action-farce co-stars Masanori Mimoto, Atom Mizuishi. 95 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack: Japanese; Subtitles: English. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Despite the title, Baby Assassins is not about a CIA plot to recruit the homicidal infants from Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive franchise. Nor is it a black comedy about murdering newborns. It’s an Odd Couple-style buddy comedy about two recent high school graduates who also happen to be hit women. Writer/director Hugo Sakamoto (A Janitor) lets us in on what to expect in the film’s opening. Mahiro’s (Saori Izawa, Snake Eyes, Re: Born) job interview with a particularly obnoxious convenience store manager goes wildly, and violently, off the rails. Why you may ask is an assassin looking for work at a convenience store? Because now that she and fellow assassin Chisato (Akari Takaishi, A Janitor) have graduated high school they’ve been ordered to share an apartment and find some kind of job in order to blend into society. The problem is that while being polar opposite personalities makes them a good team in the field, it makes them terrible roommates. And, as this begins to drive a wedge between the two, the Yakuza family whose dealers they’ve been eliminating has figured out their identities. Baby Assassins was one of the films in the SFFF lineup I’d been looking forward to. But by the last day chronic lack of sleep and a noisy hotel room had worn me down to the point I caught some kind of bug and ended up heading home early. Catching up with it by way of a screener now I’m really regretting not seeing it with an audience. While it may be about professional killers, much of Baby Assassins will be relatable to anyone watching it. Having to interview for a job you know you’ll hate. The problems of juggling multiple job schedules, or having your work life interfere with your personal schedule. And, of course, dealing with an annoying roommate. By making these kinds of situations the core of the film Sakamoto lets the viewer connect with the characters in a way that films such as No Time to Die or The Raid can’t. A part of us may wish we were James Bond, but a much larger part can emphasize with these two. This means we’re much more invested in the film’s action scenes and ultimately in the characters’ fate. The trade-off for this is that Baby Assassins has fewer of those action scenes, something that may disappoint viewers attracted by the poster’s gun-toting actresses. But the scenes we do get are energetic and well done. Saori Izawa was part of the stunt crew on the G.I. Joe film Snake Eyes and action director Kensuke Sonomura has worked on everything from I Am a Hero and Godzilla: Final Wars to The Machine Girl and Resident Evil: Vendetta as well as directing the jaw-dropping Hydra. So when Mashiro and Chisato finally find themselves in the crosshairs of a rival mob led by Masanori Mimoto (Meatball Machine Kodoku, Enter the Fat Dragon) and his psychotic offspring what you get is some high-quality violence marred only by some CGI blood spray. Part female Odd Couple, part teen comedy and part Yakuza action film Baby Assassins is an unexpected delight and a film that, despite some wonderful reviews from Fantastic Fest, seems to be flying under a lot of people’s radar. --Voices From The Balcony

AKARI TAKAISHI is a Japanese actress that debuted as a stage actress in 2016, with "Anecdote of Mermaid", where she is most active. She began acting in smaller roles for movies in 2017, and in television in 2020 as well as acting in commercials and music videos. “A Janitor” was one of her first major appearances on screen. SAORI IZAWA is a Japanese stuntwoman who began to work as an actress in 2021 with "A Janitor" being her first major appearance. She's done stunt work for "Re: Born", "Kingdom", "Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning" and "Rurouni Kenshin: The Final".

In 2016, at the age of 20, director Hugo Sakamoto released a romantic film about a couple whose hobby is murder. “Bae” won the Grand Prix of the Cruel Student Film Festival 2016. At that time, Director Koji Shiraishi (The Curse, Impossibility Defense) said he is "jealous of his talent". His next film, “Hangman's Knot”, a violent film about a psychopathic killer and his confrontation with his brothers, won a double award for Best New Director and Best Actor at the Kanazawa Film Festival 2017. His subsequent black comedy "Pan" won the Grand Prix in the short film section of the MOOSIC LAB and the Grand Prix in the short film competition section of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. He also won the Special Jury Prize at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, his first participation in an international film festival, and swept the independent film world while still in college. His talent was highlighted at the Summer Horror Treasures Festival in 2018, where his works were featured in a special screening. As a rising star in the Japanese film industry, he is one of the most talked about directors today. In 2021, he released "A Janitor" in February and "Baby Assassins" in July, and his fame skyrocketed. In particular, "Baby Assassins" has been a huge hit in Japan and has been screened at several international film festivals, attracting attention from around the world.