Demon City, now streaming on Netflix, is a revenge thriller written and directed by Seiji Tanaka (Melancholic). Wait, scratch that. Actually the only thrill here is single-minded revenge. Adapted from the manga Oni Goroshi by Masamichi Kawabe, Demon City stars Toma Ikuta (Beyond Goodbye) as Sakata, a guy who keeps his work life separate from his home life, mostly because in the former heâs a vicious hitman and in the latter a loving husband and father. But that all changes when his work/life balance is radically disturbed by a gang of criminal freaks, who obscure their identities behind traditional Japanese demon masks. Taro Saruga, Miou Tanaka, Masahiro Higashide, and Mai Kiryû also star.
DEMON CITY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?Â
The Gist: When veteran Japanese actor Naoto Takenaka appears early on in Demon City as a feared gangster boss who slices into his underlings with arrogance and menace, we were gearing up for a Yakuza movie bloodfest, with gangs of dudes attacking each other in the name of their clan. But Demon quickly turns away from that expectation, or at least holds onto it til later, as Sakata (Ikuta), a hitman by trade, is prevented from retiring in the worst way possible. He always kept his bloody work separate from his idyllic life at home. Until a group making moves to take over the city of Shinjo â its criminal element and its economic base â casually commit a few acts of godawful violence before leaving Sakata for dead.
Fast-forward 12 years. When Fujita (Suruga) installs an unspeaking Sakata, who has become wheelchair-bound and partially paralytic, in a rundown Shinjo City apartment, it would seem to be the place where the former hitman would live out his days in regret. But his past wonât leave him alone. A suspiciously confident new mayor has transformed the cityâs waterfront with a flashy hotel-casino development, a criminal bunch known as the Kimen-gumi have consolidated their power on the streets, and everything starts to feel connected as the men Sakata encountered years before â who obscure their identities behind elaborate and frightening Oni masks â resurface to target him again.
Sakata still doesnât say much. But heâs nowhere near as immobile or helpless as he seems, and soon he has returned to his bunker-style hitmanâs lair to stock up on formidable bladed weapons and fire up his old ride, a burly matte-finish Mustang Mach 1. Cue a few entertainingly outrageous, continuous shot-style fight sequences that involve Sakata dispatching many generic thugs en route to the name-brand thugs, those Kimen-gumi goons who hide their depravity behind their masks. Even if Sakata can somehow catch bullets on the blade of his custom cleaver, heâs not totally invincible, and itâs equally outrageous how much physical damage he can withstand. There is a running theme in Demon City. âThe moment when someone is consumed by their desire for revenge is the moment they become a demon.â But depending on who is being consumed, a demon might also become an avenging angel.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Internet chatter has linked Demon City with the animated 1988 action film Demon City Shinjuku, though they arenât related. Drive comes to mind here, as does John Wooâs 2023 film Silent Night â in that one, Joel Kinnamanâs starring role is largely dialogue-free as he goes about violently avenging his murdered family. And if youâre watching Demon City but havenât caught up with Indonesian filmmaker Timo Tjahjantoâs The Shadow Strays, get on it.
Performance Worth Watching: Maybe Sakataâs almost-but-not-quite comical resilience? How much of this guyâs body can be hacked off, shot away, gouged into, or punctured by an arrow from a daikyÅ« bow? The percentage is high.
Memorable Dialogue: Weâll leave in Netflixâs closed-caption prompts, because they amplify the devilish mirth with which Miou Tanaka delivers this villainous line: â[Laughs maniacally] âMy loyalty is to our master! I swore that I would devote my body and soul for a better world. Can you even understand what that means?â [Laughs maniacally]â
Sex and Skin: A few brief scenes to establish the ugly human trafficking racket and uglier personal perversions of the Kimen-gumi gang.
Our Take: We gotta hand it to Toma Ikuta. In Demon City, as Sakata, Ikuta has maybe 20 lines of dialogue total. (20 is generous.) But we still came away from this film with a fully-formed understanding of his motivations in either department: his killing of many, many bad guys, and his longing for a homelife that was taken from him. Sakata doesnât even get a âYeah, Iâm thinking Iâm backâ moment to sink his teeth into. Instead, he stays largely silent and totally violent as Demon progresses. Itâs a cool performance for what he does do â which is to orchestrate numerous improvisational death blows, even when Sakata is half-paralyzed â but itâs often a cooler performance for what he doesnât do, which is any kind of grandstanding.
Ikuta is mostly on mute as Sakata, but Demon City wasnât gonna trade on its screenplay, anyway. Itâs the fighting and bloodshed thatâs the draw here, as in a one-versus-many staircase battle that at one point includes Sakata utilizing one of his adversaries as a murderous rappelling device. Throw in a few slight plot twists, and a few more references to the fanatical, slightly mystical nature of the masked Kimen-gumi, and youâve got a satisfyingly single-minded revenge movie that doesnât waste time jawing about it. Â
Our Call: Demon City is a STREAM IT, though this verdict will admittedly depend on your tolerance for relentless violence. Nobodyâs watching this movie for what it says, because it never says much.  Â
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.Â
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Demon City’ on Netflix, A Relentless Japanese Film Where Revenge Does Most Of The Talking appeared first on Decider.
