Baby Assassins

Baby Assassins comes on like a V-Cinema adjacent slacker comedy in which two teenage girls, who moonlight as contract murderers, are pressured into co-habiting by their surprisingly fussy employers. As well as living together in the cramped, one couch quarters provided by their criminal overlords, the duo must also work a string of anxiety-inducing part-time jobs. Presumably, their recent graduation from high school - and lack of interest in higher education - demands they maintain a kind of cover? Some level of plausible deniability should the (otherwise completely absent) authorities come calling? For this first instalment, writer-director Yugo Sakamoto leans more heavily on the concept of capricious, baby-faced killers and the gallows humour they inspire. Akari Takaishi's Chisato and Saori Izawa's Mahiro are oblivious fantasists, like basically every young adult, but this self-absorption takes on a real layer of horror when there's a bound hostage in the room, screaming through a gag while their executioners bicker about household chores. Izawa, a stunt performer by trade who has worked on American productions such as John Wick: Chapter 4 and the recent GI Joe movie Snake Eyes, is the obvious stand-out: morose and mumbling in repose but, when battle is joined, she bobs and weaves in such a way that you cannot help but think of vintage Hong Kong action cinema. Much like, say, Jackie Chan in Wheels on Meals, Izawa isn't just telegraphing the damage she can inflict upon her enemies, she's portraying a specific headspace within the fight. The actress battles fluently, uphill and against physically imposing foes, all while soaking up some serious punishment.