The Violence Action (2022)
A young girl leads a double life as an assassin for hire.
I saw a trailer and cover art and went “Why yes, this looks like some fun.” I figured it would be a more Japanese, anime-influenced take on something like Gunpowder Milkshake. Oh man, was I off in that call. Strap in for some whiplash action and a crap load of laughs, tonight you’ll find yourself questioning The Violence Action.
The story for this movie both straight forward, convoluted, and totally off the rails. Sounds like something based on a manga or anime slapped into a 2 hour runtime right? The basic gist is that our main character is a young lass trying to pass her bookkeeping exam, but she’s also an assassin by trade. She’s fueled by having a dream to pursue - even small ones. The entire posse that forms around here is all characters of sorts. The main thing that feels like a story with some form of progression is the gangster side of things, where the big boss is cleaning house and we get to watch as some minions are funneling money from him. Of course it all ends up crossing paths eventually, usually to much violence. If your used to watching stuff like anime in general, the setup of characters and actions on display won’t be all the surprising, but for the common movie goer this thing might come off as feeling a bit like some kinda spastic school project. It’s not to say that it isn’t there, just that it isn’t wicked elaborate - but you will get some tidings of friendship and love and stuff.
The biggest thing I see as a detriment to this movie is the editing. Theres some pretty good stuff here at times, but the movie is going to give you whiplash - and it isn’t entirely during the fight scenes. The running gag between me and my fellow watcher is that they are “Cutscenes” - not because it reminds of us video games in any way, but because there’s almost more cuts than scenes. The movie is plenty colorful, and the characters are pretty standout even if hair at times looks a bit off. Yeah, the story isn’t anything super advanced - but it’s still fun in that anime-type fashion. Characters are of the same kind - some don’t really get any backstory setup or anything, and others it’ll just dump it right on you out of nowhere. Most serve their one role - and a few of them is pretty much just laughs.
The actors aren’t bad. There’s a bit of disconnect obviously, as I don’t speak Japanese nor am I versed enough in the culture to know how much of it would be lost in translation, but I don’t feel like anyone was doing outside of what they were wanted to. That being said, it’s very much a goofy movie as far as character tone, with plenty of wacky antics that the actors do a good job of acting out. There some rather stand out moments regardless of how serious or insignificant they may be, which is a surprise considering how much head scratching I had going on over the editing. I’m looking at you, scene with the stink eye.
As many bodies as cuts.
Effects wise, it’s certainly a mixed bag. There’s some good stuff, there some stylish stuff, and theres some stuff that’s not that good. Most of it is related to either action or comedy - things like wacky flips and anime poses. You understand what it is that it’s aiming for, but when mixed with the editing it can be a bit confusing at times, particularly during the action scenes when things are spread in out of order at rapid rates from different directions and it can cause a bit of spacial confusion. The best moment is probably the final “boss” fight, in which it’s (mostly) one solid edit-less thing to let you just appreciate the effects and action on display. Other moments don’t fare greatly, with some noticeably fake blood or the likes.
Audio is pretty good. I mean, I’m not a fan of all the music, but it’s slotted firmly in that feeling of what it is trying to be. That said, there is some good jammers in there, even if they don’t stick around with me outside of the movie. Balance is good, so line hearing won’t be a problem - although as stated, I don’t understand Japanese so a good amount of it is lost to me. Still, it’s got some puns in there and I think at least one works both as a subtitle and with what the Japanese line is. There’s not really a whole lot for me to complain about in the audio department, it’s a solid situation even if I’m not digging the soundtrack in entirety.
I think the biggest problem for me was I had different expectations going into this than was relevant to what I was getting. It wasn’t really that action-focused high-stunt kind of gig as much as an attempt to get that “Live action Anime” feel. Sadly, it’s not that live action giant robot feel I’d prefer, but it does do exactly what it set out to do for better or worse. The characters feel ripped right out of something like that, the colors and overall hard to be serious tone of most the movie with the occasional serious moment all feels in place with what I remember of watching some of the stuff I used to watch in my “wider net” days of anime. I don’t think that’s something that translates well for a lot of people though, considering how many people still kind of look down upon anime even in modern times. I had fun with some of the joke moments, but comedy mileage is always going to vary.
That hair, I just cant.
In the end, I think it takes more than a man with a Lego-style hair piece that can stop bullets to make the movie great. If you can get passed some of the editing and the very goofy anime feeling of a lot of it, you’ll probably have a good time with the better parts. That being said, if you expected some realistic action flick you might end up asking yourself why you wasted your time - and that’s just the breaks when you try and make something with a specific intent, it won’t please everyone. That said, for the casual goer it might not merit going out of the way to watch, but having said that I have certainly seen far worse movies that weren’t targeting that specialized feel - so as long as you go in knowing what to expect I don’t think you’ll hate your time there.