Baby Assassins: Nice Days
(2024)

Baby Assassins: Nice Days 🔫

The third film in the quirky Japanese hired gun series Baby Assassins had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival.

Baby Assassins: Nice Days is exactly what the title suggests: two assassins trying to have a nice day.

For years Chisato and Mahiro have been working relentlessly for the assassin guild, and with only one job left to complete, they can finally ease up and take a well-deserved, long-awaited vacation. That’s until they find out their last kill got double booked, and they now have to take out a freelance assassin who is like no one they’ve faced before.

Worst of all, it’s the eve of Mahiros birthday.

This is one of the rare times I’ve watched a third film in a series without having watched any of the previous installments, but international films being so hard to come by and the premise being what it was, I just couldn’t resist.

But guess what? I LOVED it.

The pairing of these two plays out like a buddy-cop movie with assassins, one being the kawaii darling and the other being a socially awkward introvert, which ends up being a recipe for success as both have the skill to kill.

Having the skill to kill makes for some incredibly unhinged action sequences; it’s legitimately ruthless quick and swift sharpshooting. The best way I can put it is if John Wick is graceful ballet, this is tactical breakdancing.

A lot of the film felt like The Raid, but with two innocent-looking (but completely capable) girls, which sounds like an oxymoron, yet somehow they make it work. Like The Raid, this has such a great use of space and environment when it comes to action, that lends itself to how well the characters play off each other. Their is rhyme and reason to every move and bullet; no inch is wasted.

The only reason this simple story works is because of how perfectly developed Chisato and Mahiro are as characters.

Chisato may be my favourite character I’ve been introduced to this year; she has a dark yet simultaneously vibrant sarcasm that had me dying, especially when she goes on kill sprees, blitzing every opp in sight. She’s played by Akari Takaishi, who I’ve never seen before, but she’s someone I’m a huge fan of now.

The best part is I get to go back and watch how these two became who they are by watching the first two movies like prequels. I can’t wait!

Baby Assassins: Nice Days is a delightful buddy-comedy that may be simple in story but overdelivers in a blitzing kill spree bonanza. 

Enjoy!

7.8/10 🍿 🎥

Runtime: 1hr57mins
Where: Fantasia International Film Festival

Baby Assassins: Nice Days Review (2024) The Richmond Reviewer -  August 8th, 2024.

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