Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins, which screened at the Glasgow Film Festival in 2022, told the story of two highly skilled but nevertheless adorable young assassins whose lives fall apart when their agency forces them to share a flat. The moment that we see Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa) again in this film, which screened as part of the 2024 festival, it’s obvious that the bond they formed back then has really blossomed. They are living in a gloriously untidy, candy-coloured paradise whose tables are piled high with sweets and desserts in which they indulge at every opportunity – but they’re still in good shape, of course, because they still work as contract killers.
They need to. Outside of their work, their disorganisation extends beyond the domestic sphere. An unpaid gym membership results in massive penalties from accrued fines and interest, landing them in hot water, and...
They need to. Outside of their work, their disorganisation extends beyond the domestic sphere. An unpaid gym membership results in massive penalties from accrued fines and interest, landing them in hot water, and...
- 3/6/2024
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"You can bet on me." Well Go USA has revealed an official trailer for an action comedy sequel from Japan titled Baby Assassins 2, once again written and directed by Japanese action filmmaker Yugo Sakamoto. This is a follow-up to the 2021 film Baby Assassins, about two high school girls who also just so happen to be highly trained assassins. Apparently it was enough of a success they had to come back and make a sequel - with everyone returning for more. After the agency suspends its top assassins, aspiring hitmen decide to eliminate them—leading to a lightning-fast showdown between trained killers. Baby Assassins 2 brings back Akari Takaishi and the rising star and Snake Eyes and Rurouni Kenshin franchise stuntwoman Saori Izawa as the two leads - who try to stay alive. With Atomu Mizuishi, Tomo Nakai, Tsubasa Tobinaga, Tetsu Watanabe, Joey Tee, Oto Abe, and Tatsuomi Hamada. This played at...
- 2/23/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Stars: Saori Izawa, Akari Takaishi, Tatsuomi Hamada, Iwanaga Joey, Junpei Hashino, Atom Mizuishi, Tsubasa Tobinaga | Written and Directed by Yugo Sakamoto
Two years ago, Yugo Sakamoto’s quirky action comedy Baby Assassins came out of nowhere and blew me away with its story of Mahiro and Chisato two high school girls who live secret lives as assassins.
Now the girls are back in Baby Assassins 2 Babies, and they haven’t gotten any better at dealing with day-to-day things like paying their bills. A gym membership that’s been collecting late fees for five years and their insurance needs to be paid immediately. But when robbers strike the bank as they’re trying to, they intervene and get suspended from the Assassin’s Guild for using their skills off the clock.
But finding another job to pay the bills is the least of their problems. Makoto and Yuri are looking...
Two years ago, Yugo Sakamoto’s quirky action comedy Baby Assassins came out of nowhere and blew me away with its story of Mahiro and Chisato two high school girls who live secret lives as assassins.
Now the girls are back in Baby Assassins 2 Babies, and they haven’t gotten any better at dealing with day-to-day things like paying their bills. A gym membership that’s been collecting late fees for five years and their insurance needs to be paid immediately. But when robbers strike the bank as they’re trying to, they intervene and get suspended from the Assassin’s Guild for using their skills off the clock.
But finding another job to pay the bills is the least of their problems. Makoto and Yuri are looking...
- 11/22/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
Before being widely known through his two “Baby Assassins” movies, Yugo Sakamoto has also shot a grittier, somewhat darker movie, “The Janitor”, who still implements, though, the chaotic narrative approach his later movies included.
on Hi-Yah!
The titular character is actually Akira Fukami, a man whose father was murdered and was taken in by his sworn blood brother, Majima, a yakuza leader who trained Fukami into becoming his most formidable assassin. As the movie begins, and as a side job, the young man poses as a janitor in a high school where Majima’s daughter, Yui is attending, secretly functioning as her bodyguard. Despite some issues here and there, his life proceeds smoothly, until Majima announces that he wants to take his business to Hong Kong. This enrages one of the underbosses, Nishimori, who immediately starts plotting to have him killed, using Fukami, to whom he reveals...
on Hi-Yah!
The titular character is actually Akira Fukami, a man whose father was murdered and was taken in by his sworn blood brother, Majima, a yakuza leader who trained Fukami into becoming his most formidable assassin. As the movie begins, and as a side job, the young man poses as a janitor in a high school where Majima’s daughter, Yui is attending, secretly functioning as her bodyguard. Despite some issues here and there, his life proceeds smoothly, until Majima announces that he wants to take his business to Hong Kong. This enrages one of the underbosses, Nishimori, who immediately starts plotting to have him killed, using Fukami, to whom he reveals...
- 10/20/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Hot off the Japanese action-comedy hijinks of 2021's "Baby Assassins" is writer and director Yugo Sakamoto's "Baby Assassins 2" (alternately titled "Baby Assassins: 2 Babies"). No, this isn't about toddlers with katanas accepting mercenary contracts. Sakamoto continues his story about an odd couple of trained assassins who'd rather be gorging on ice cream sundaes than pulverizing gangsters with a very slacker-humor vibe. Action can feel like an "afterthought" earlier on, but that's not a forever choice nor a detriment. "Baby Assassins 2" is as much a commentary about Japanese youths struggling to find work and nonsense bureaucracy as a flurry of furious fists, both of which find their place in this offbeat, uptempo, and quite funny sequel.
Returning as Sakamoto's "Babies" are Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa), roommates with contradictory personalities shaped into expert killers. The excessively cutesy and squee Chisato discovers they haven't paid their gym membership in roughly four years,...
Returning as Sakamoto's "Babies" are Chisato (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro (Saori Izawa), roommates with contradictory personalities shaped into expert killers. The excessively cutesy and squee Chisato discovers they haven't paid their gym membership in roughly four years,...
- 7/28/2023
- by Matt Donato
- Slash Film
Highly skilled assassins lying in wait and trying to live a normal life have recently been portrayed to commercial success in cinema of late. When it comes to Japanese cinema, two such recent productions that immediately come spring to mind are “The Fable” and “Baby Assassins”. Since the former did get a sequel, which was also well received by the audience, it was only a matter of time that Yugo Sakamoto's action comedy about two young female assassins also got a sequel of its own. Two years since the release of the first and we are back in the world of our awkward but highly skilled pair of killing machines.
Tokyo Uber Blues is screening at Nippon Connection
Since we last saw them fighting and winning against the Yakuza, Mahiro and Chisato have become elite, high-ranking killers within the Guild but most importantly, they have learnt to live with...
Tokyo Uber Blues is screening at Nippon Connection
Since we last saw them fighting and winning against the Yakuza, Mahiro and Chisato have become elite, high-ranking killers within the Guild but most importantly, they have learnt to live with...
- 6/13/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
"May the syrup be tasty!" Well Go USA is releasing this Japanese action comedy on VOD & DVD starting tomorrow - this trailer dropped a few weeks ago but we're only catching up with it now. Baby Assassins is a hitwoman action comedy from Japan directed by filmmaker Yugo Sakamoto. Chisato and Mahilo are two high school girls who are about to graduate. They also happen to both be highly skilled assassins. When the organization they work for orders them to share a room, the relationship between them turns sour. This "badass new martial arts action-comedy" is directed by Hugo Sakamoto and it stars the inimitable Akari Takaishi, the rising star and Snake Eyes and Rurouni Kenshin franchise stuntwoman Saori Izawa, and the lightning-fast Masanori Mimoto—now available to watch early, exclusively on Hi-yah! - if you prefer streaming. This definitely looks like fun, but it really does have a direct-to-video vibe about it.
- 8/15/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
What do assassins do in their downtime when they are not taking contract hits? This is a question that has often perplexed viewers and now, director Yugo Sakamoto attempts to answer it in “Baby Assassins”, surprisingly one of his three directing credits from last year.
on Amazon
Mahiro and Chisato are two high school graduates who, like every other girl their age, are on the lookout of securing and surviving at a part-time job. Unlike most girls their age though, they’re both assassins for hire, working as a team for an organisation that insists that they share an apartment with each other till they turn twenty. The two work well as a duo on assignments but living together is a different game altogether, as Mahiro is a self-confessed sociopath whereas Chisato is a bubbly, cheery extrovert. While the two try to work their differences out and make their living situation work,...
on Amazon
Mahiro and Chisato are two high school graduates who, like every other girl their age, are on the lookout of securing and surviving at a part-time job. Unlike most girls their age though, they’re both assassins for hire, working as a team for an organisation that insists that they share an apartment with each other till they turn twenty. The two work well as a duo on assignments but living together is a different game altogether, as Mahiro is a self-confessed sociopath whereas Chisato is a bubbly, cheery extrovert. While the two try to work their differences out and make their living situation work,...
- 7/26/2022
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
(l-r) Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa take down a target in Baby Assassins. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment
Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, one might be oriented towards assuming the Baby Assassins title denotes a right-to-life documentary. Not even close. This is a subtitled Japanese dramedy about two teenaged girls who moonlight as hit persons. Upon graduation from high school, their bosses make them share an apartment and find regular jobs to appear like normal members of society, deflecting suspicions about how they really make a living. That sets up a Felix-and-Oscar type of pairing for sharing quarters. Awkward, with a mild touch of humor.
Akari Takaishi plays an upbeat brunette with enough charm to work at a themed restaurant that requires its waitresses to exude all the giggly girlish energy one could generate for the patrons. It makes the pressure on Jennifer Aniston to display “flair...
Due to a recent Supreme Court decision, one might be oriented towards assuming the Baby Assassins title denotes a right-to-life documentary. Not even close. This is a subtitled Japanese dramedy about two teenaged girls who moonlight as hit persons. Upon graduation from high school, their bosses make them share an apartment and find regular jobs to appear like normal members of society, deflecting suspicions about how they really make a living. That sets up a Felix-and-Oscar type of pairing for sharing quarters. Awkward, with a mild touch of humor.
Akari Takaishi plays an upbeat brunette with enough charm to work at a themed restaurant that requires its waitresses to exude all the giggly girlish energy one could generate for the patrons. It makes the pressure on Jennifer Aniston to display “flair...
- 7/22/2022
- by Mark Glass
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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