Baby Assassins (2021): Killing time with friends
2021 • Yugo Sakamoto • 2.35:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
Yugo Sakamoto‘s Baby Assassins follows two teenage assassins who are required by their organisation to live together as ordinary civilians after completing a job. As they attempt to adjust to everyday life, finding part-time work, managing routine responsibilities and coexisting as roommates, their professional identities as killers clash with the demands of normal society.
Blending action with deadpan comedy, this low-budget Japanese film contrasts mundane daily activities with sudden bursts of violence. Much of the story centres on idle conversations, awkward interactions and personality clashes, creating the low-key rhythm of a ‘hang-out’ movie that is periodically interrupted by precisely staged action sequences.
Operating within a limited setting, Baby Assassins prioritises character dynamics over plot progression. Its combination of a slice-of-life style with elaborate action fight sequences makes it an oddity within contemporary Japanese genre cinema, where humour, routine and violence coexist within the same unexpectedly cosy space.
Technical Specs:
- The Story: Two high school girls trained as assassins are forced to live together and blend into society after graduation, but their clashing personalities and violent line of work soon attract the wrong kind of attention. Read my review of Baby Assassins.
- Actors: Saori Izawa, Akari Takaishi, Masanori Mimoto, Yukina Fukushima, Mio Tanaka, Atom Mizuishi, Yasukaze Motomiya.
- Director: Yugo Sakamoto
- Year: 2021
- Cinematographer: Hiroshi Kondo
- Origin: Japanese Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Genre: Action / Comedy
