With the upcoming release of Baby Assassins 3 I thought it was about time I watched the first 2 movies in the series. I know there is a television show too, but I can’t seem to find that anywhere, so I will cover that someday… but not today.
Baby Assassins (2021) Review
Plot: Two high school girls who are about to graduate also happen to be highly-skilled assassins. When the organization that employs them orders them to share a room, their relationship turns sour.
Baby Assassins tells the story of two young girls Chisato Sugimoto (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro Fukagawa (Saori Izawa) who are assassins; they are told by their employers to move in together and find “normal” jobs, so no one suspects them of their real missions.
It starts off well with a bloody battle in a convenience store as socially awkward Mahiro shoots her job interviewer out of sheer boredom; she then fights and kills all the employees, but after a few minutes we find out this is just going on in her head. There isn’t too much in the way of action until the last 20 minutes when we get an awesome final fight and bloodbath.
Our two leads are basically both sociopaths where they seem to feel nothing and killing is second nature to them; they don’t even give it a second though which makes it a little hard to root for them. I also find some of the characters just plain annoying and shrill especially the female villain Himari Hamaoka (Mone Akitani) who drove me nuts. I had to turn the volume way down on the TV a few times as it just irritated my hearing.
Aside from that the action is well done and that final fight is the highlight; as this is from the director of Ghost Killer then that doesn’t come as a surprise.
I do love how their jobs as assassins is treated like any other job with their handler regularly talking to them on video calls or in person which adds to the silliness of it all.
Overall, Baby Assassins is at times annoying and the pacing drags a little but the opening and final fight scenes make it worth checking out as does the outrageous humour. On to the sequel…
Baby Assassins 2 (2024)
Plot: Chisato and Mahiro were banned from performing tasks because they violated the organization’s rules?! Needing money to make ends meet, they resumed their days as part time workers. The two are busy working to earn money, but they suddenly encounter other assassins who are after them. What should they do if they can’t reveal their identity as assassins when they are not on duty?
Now we move on to the sequel Baby Assassins 2 which is more of the same as our oddball pair of killers have their mundane conversations about nonsense in-between killing people.
This time Chisato and Mahiro must deal with two new assassins who want to eliminate the competition to become the best in the business. They are basically male versions of our protagonists with equally pointless conversations who have no problem taking lives.
I don’t think either film is paced all that well with little in the way of action after the opening and final scenes. A highlight, however, is Chisato and Mahiro in Panda and Bear costumes fighting each other which is up there with the penguin fight in Sudden Death for an outrageous fight.
The final showdown delivers the action goods with Mahiro once again facing off against an opponent in satisfying fashion. I think the finale of the first film is superior though as there is just more action.
This still has plenty of dark humour where you aren’t sure whether you’re meant to laugh or not, but you usually do anyway.
Overall, if you didn’t like the first Baby Assassins then the sequel likely won’t change your mind, although it’s still a fun time with Chisato and Mahiro proving two of the most appealing on-screen killers for some time.
Now bring on part 3 and the TV series to see what madness ensues next…