Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Unrated, 118 minutes
Director: Kensuke Sonomura
Cast: Hitoshi Ozawa, Sakanoue Akane, Katsuya, Masanori Mimoto, Mitsu Dan, Tak Sakiguchi, Lily Franky, Rino Katase, and Masaya Katô
Don’t let its generic-sounding title fool you. BAD CITY makes for a good time.
While American cinema was undergoing its independent movement in the 1990s, the direct-to-video “V-Cinema” industry was booming in Japan. Young voices, new stars, and a catch-as-catch-can style where the movies were shot on the cheap and distributed en masse.
Starting the nineties working with Takeshi Kitano (BOILING POINT) and ending the decade in Takashi Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE, actor Hitoshi Ozawa became a DTV fixture. He even wrote and directed a few features. Turning 60 this year, an age where many would be contemplating retirement, Ozawa isn’t going out without a fight. And boy, does he fight in BAD CITY.
Crimes and corruption are regular occurrences in Kaiko City. They intensify once business magnate Wataru Gojo (Lilly Franky) is acquitted of several criminal charges. His acquittal sees the slaughter of Yakuza at a bath house. Slashed and gutted and hands removed. Prosecutor Hirayama (Masaya Kato) wants to link Gojo to the murders, but he needs proof – and fast. Gojo is cutting ties from his conglomerate to run for mayor. While he champions the will of the people to make his bad city good again, what he really wants to do is push through a redevelopment venture that will bring Kaiko City a casino and give himself increased power.
Hirayama organizes an off-the-books special investigation team, including two veteran members from Violent Crimes, Kumamoto (Sakanoue Akane) and Nishizaki (Katsuya), and detective Nohara (Masanori Mimoto), the “newbie.” The remaining member is Makoto Torada (Ozawa), a veteran inspector currently serving time behind bars for murdering a fellow officer.
As the elder statesman, Torada is the most experienced and wants to nail Gojo as much as anybody. But things go from bad to worse when the foursome ventures into the criminal underworld and get into the crosshairs of both Yakuza and the Korean Mafia. Fisticuffs with a bunch of baseball-uniformed thugs wielding aluminum baseball bats as if they just watched THE WARRIORS is just the appetizer. Every fight sequence after that ups the ante in topping the previous one.
BAD CITY’s action and director Sonomura Kensuke’s staging of the scenes push it a few notches above its dense procedural narrative. Each new twist presents an even greater insurmountable odd for the special unit. When reinforcements come in the form of a delicate alliance and special investigators are still outnumbered, Ozama coolly acknowledges not to shoot the bad guys. “We don’t have enough bullets.” The joke’s on him; it would only be stage one of the final battle. Those bullets may just come in handy.
Outside of running a tad long with some ancillary plot threads feeling unnecessary and not clearly delineating character motivations, Kensuke and Ozama have managed to make a crafty crime story full of great action, shifting alliances and betrayals, and deliver a fine throwback to V-Cinema.
You may not want to live in BAD CITY, but a visit with proper backup is warranted.
Grade: B-
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