Demon City Oni Goroshi

The action scenes do not disappoint!

I really enjoyed the action parts I think this would have been a whole lot better as a show instead of just a movie so that it could have gotten more of a deeper story but overall I really enjoyed the action! I would have loved to see the origins and story behind the characters. But it was Just a bit rushed but I think that has to do with the fact they only had a movie time limit to work on instead of multiple episodes. Ikuta did a wonderful job with his character and I like that they didn't have the cheesy "you betrayed me but I'll trust you again" trope. The cast did a wonderful job portraying their characters and the camera team did a great job with the setting/vibes of the movie. I think it was a nice watch especially for someone like me who doesn't mind blood or violence and likes action! They did wonderful and would have loved it to be longer but overall a solid layout for me. (This is just my opinion and your might be different)

Read More

Fairly passable watch but it has so many faults

For the foremost, the movie itself is shot well. It has great action sequences that are focused and well choreographed. Things are easy to follow and it has great sequences. However that cannot save this movie from it's lack of cohesion. The movie itself could of been much greater with many tweaks. It felt like all the great parts of 80s 90s action movies but without the soul to make it so.

The plot is very rushed. We have a simple motivation set up in terms of revenge for fallen family members. Then we have a hero who rises again to seek revenge. Ok great. However we had little to no build about this family or this guy in general so we have no attachment to him or his family at all. Then we hit the back in action plot point. Ok he's been living 12 years in prison, barely aged and somehow looks younger coming out then in lol. We have him gathering intel in the silliest way possible with a guy just randomly telling him he took this one off video that he kept for whatever reason showing crimes. Ok but why didn't you do anything with this evidence??

Then we have the daughter character who's grown up and secretly survived. Ok great there are now heightened stakes. Ok but we aren't going to do much about her personality at all and show barely anything about her. Now dad and her meet but don't have any sort of dialogue. What is even going on here? We know that he's shocked and exhausted but to say nothing of the sort in this moment? So when we have final confrontation showdown, Ryo goes with them isn't even questioning what's going on and is just quietly freaking out in a waiting room...

This is the main issue with the story, there's no dialogue really except the villain talking about little to what happened this whole time. When there is dialogue it's mostly throw away that doesn't matter. Sure it sets up the fact that they made the city prosper but there's no real stake in this or tension. How are we supposed to fell when nothing feels at stake? There's no family conflict, there's barely any villain motivations next to wanting to grow Ryo up to assault her.

It's frustrating because many elements of this movie are cool but it needed so much more in terms of storytelling.

Mini rant:
Also guy who saved our hero with the gun...why didn't he just help and attempt to shoot the boss?? He clearly had enough bullets. And this isn't hyper anime, no way does he reflect that many bullets at that speed. And what was up with the random close up of the firefighters arriving as if there was something important there?? Was there a significance of the manju?? Did it tie to the family in the manga??

Read More