“Demon City” Netflix Poster
Director: Seiji Tanaka
Cast: Toma Ikuta, Masahiro Higashide, Miou Tanaka, Ami Touma, Taro Suruga, Mai Kiryu, Naoto Takenaka, Takuma Otoo, Masanobu Takashima, Matsuya Onoe
Running Time: 107 min.
By Paul Bramhall
If I had to guess I’d say the audience for Demon City falls into 2 categories – the first being those who’ve been waiting for the sophomore feature from director Seiji Tanaka, and the second being fans of the manga that it’s adapted from, Oni Goroshi. Personally I fall into the first category, with Tanaka’s 2018 debut Melancholy being one of the best surprises of the 2010’s, a witty and offbeat tale of a bathhouse worker who comes to realise it’s used by the yakuza after hours to carry out hits. As a new voice in the world of Japanese cinema it showed a lot of promise, and despite it taking 7 years to release his 2nd feature, the anticipation to see how he’s developed as a filmmaker is no less. Netflix hopefully feel the same way, since it’s their platform that Demon City has landed on.
Taking a slice out of Timo Tjahjanto’s The Shadow Strays, Demon City opens with an assassin played by Toma Ikuta (Miike Takashi’s The Mole Song trilogy) taking out a household full of yakuza in violent fashion. The massacre was intended to be his last job (aren’t they all?) before he settles down with his wife and 5-year-old daughter, but unfortunately the rival yakuza who sanctioned the hit want no trace left over, so his post-shower family time is interrupted by 5 demonic mask wearing men in suits who have come to finish the job. With his wife and daughter meeting a grizzly demise, he’s left for dead and falls into a coma for the next 12 years, with the news of his waking up resulting in the same villains who murdered his nearest and dearest returning to finish the job.
Why didn’t they just kill him in the first place if they know that’s what they’re planning to do if he ever wakes up from the coma he was in? Demon City isn’t concerned with you asking such questions, and in any case there’ll be plenty more plot hole induced head scratching before the end credits roll. A character explains how the port city of Shinjo is believed to be afflicted with a demon that possesses someone every 50 years, causing said person to go on a killing spree. Is Ikuta’s awakening a sign that he’s the one that’s been possessed this time? It’s never explained, nor is it at any point hinted at, leaving the audience baffled as to whether we’re watching a vengeance fuelled husband and father extracting revenge, or something more supernatural.
Tanaka’s uncertainty around how much the supernatural element should be leaned into unfortunately results in moments of unintentional comedy which, reading between the lines, where probably intended to reflect Ikuta being imbued with some kind of supernatural ability. The speed he recovers from the coma offers up the first eyebrow raising moment, immediately getting into a fight with 3 assailants while still lacking full mobility of his body, before throwing in a few clicks of the neck and he’s on his way, easily putting Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill to shame. There’s another moment in the finale where he’s repeatedly struck across the face by a steel pole wielding opponent. They’re the kind of hits that would leave anyone unconscious after a single blow, but the fact he’s able to stand there and repeatedly take them in slow motion, all set to a harrowing score, feels like some kind of absurdist slapstick.
In fairness to Ikuta none of these issues are his fault, who does well as the lead role. After his awakening in the first 10 minutes the script gives him even less lines than Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4, instead allowing him to convey a quietly brooding presence. Ikuta’s performance makes it easy to buy into his plight, even if his choice of a Dodge Charger sometimes makes Demon City feel more like a Japanese take on Drive Angry than it does an adaptation of a manga. The action also picks up considerably after the awkwardly edited hospital throwdown, with the action direction coming courtesy of Takashi Tanimoto, who previously served in the same role on the adaptation of City Hunter from the previous year (and notably played the bounty hunter character in 2013’s Bushido Man).
A brawl in a factory is a highlight, and once Ikuta get his hands back on his trademark weapon – a large machete style blade attached to a rope, things get particularly bloody. The manga influence comes through in the exaggerated explosions of blood that come out of anyone who finds themselves on the end of Ikuta’s blade (although unfortunately it’s all done with CGI), feeling like an update to the blood geysers seen in the likes of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, and there’s a few worthy impacts shots thrown in for good measure. Interestingly the more the plot progresses the messier the action gets, with the finale in particular feeling more like a desperate brawl, all set to the throbbing electric guitar riffs of Tomoyasu Hotei.
One aspect that Tanaka has definitely secured bragging rights to with Demon City is having Hotei come onboard as the composer, one of only a handful of times he’s done so in his illustrious career as Japan’s most recognizable electric guitarist. For anyone unfamiliar, I can practically guarantee you’ll have heard his piece Battle Without Honor and Humanity somewhere, with its first, and arguably still best, use in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Having an electric guitar riff as the main soundtrack in a 2025 action movie may feel a little antiquated, but personally I’d take old school charm (even if it is kind of cheesy) over the generic electro soundtracks that populate so many straight to streaming action movies any day of the week.
One observation in watching the action play out is that I get the feeling the evolution of onscreen hyperviolence is reaching the same tipping point that we’ve seen with the devolution of CGI, albeit it’s got there far faster. 14 years ago The Raid set an exciting new bar by focusing as much on bodily damage as the choreography itself, the result of which felt exciting and fresh. However with the advancement of technology, much like we’ve seen with large scale CGI set pieces, there’s also come a realisation that when there’s no limits to what can be shown onscreen, violence can quickly lose its edge. Stabbing frenzies in a 2020’s production rarely carry the same shock factor as they do in a 2000’s production, and similarly here when a machete gets wedged in the side of someone’s face, the expected “whoa!” moment is missing in action. Ultimately the seamless digital illusion still isn’t quite there, and so neither is the intended impact.
Overall Demon City feels like a movie with an identity crisis, one that’s fallen between the cracks of how much it should fit into the Netflix straight to streaming action movie template, and how much it should attempt to faithfully adapt its manga origins (which as of the time of writing is still an ongoing series, currently 14 volumes in). It’s a conflict which sometimes feels like its playing out on the screen literally, with one scene seeing a character realistically slump to the ground after being shot in the head, and another scene having a character react to receiving a head shot by somersaulting to their death.
Which brings me full circle back to my first paragraph – I said the audience for Demon City falls into 2 categories, and while it may be a disappointment to both, there’s actually a 3rd category – the casual Netflix viewer looking to get their next action fix. From their perspective Tanaka’s sophomore feature may well fit the bill and, although I’m afraid to look, will no doubt invite some kind of comparison to the Japanese John Wick. From the perspective of it being the follow-up to a debut that showed there was a fresh new voice in Japanese cinema, Demon City for the most part feels like a generic follow up, lacking any of the touches that made Tanaka a talent to be excited about. Should a directors sophomore work be judged against their debut? There’s probably no right or wrong answer, but in my case, I was hoping for much more.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 5.5/10
Interesting points. I assumed the yakuza bosses didn’t kill Ikuta earlier because they thought he was brain dead and would never recover. I was expecting more of a supernatural explanation for how he recovered from being brain dead, and it was disappointing that nothing was mentioned.
I’m afraid I fall into the category of someone looking for their next action fix, and Demon City gave me that. Tanaka shows a flair for filming action scenes, and I’m sure combining that with a better script would do wonders.
Got some decent action but the movie still looks cheap. Most movies that go to streaming just doesn’t look professionally made.