Tokyo: The Last War (1989)

Swaps surrealism for sheer horror

Swapping the dark fantasy and wild surrealism of its predecessor for sheer unnerving terror, Tokyo: The Last War still manages to feel ambitious even with its relative limitations and plenty of spine-chilling imagery. The story is much more straightforward, with a narrower narrative focus which lends the plot a greater degree of urgency and momentum; teeming with plenty of visual flair. You don't need to dig very far to find out the film was predominantly ghost-directed by Lam Nai-Choi and even features some choreography by Philip Kwok, expanding on the Hong Kong-styled elements of the first film. There are plenty of truly harrowing sequences throughout this film, the tone is consistently bleak, rarely containing a moment of hope for its characters, with the firebombing sequences especially delivering goosebumps whenever they grace the screen. The combination of having effects work by Screaming Mad George and H.R.Giger doing the art direction gives the film a strikingly gruesome edge to it in which people are dispatched in horrifically brutal fashion. The performances from the central cast are all solid but it's really the returning Kyusaku Shimada who steals the show, Kato is given a much more menacing edge this time, with plenty of build-up as this darkly oppressive figure. Combined with a great musical score by Koji Ueno, Tokyo: The Last War is certainly an escalation of that of The Last Megalopolis, a dramatic departure in tone and style but that only makes it more compellingly different and mesmerising. One that is certified to leave chills lingering long after it's over.

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