Baby Assassins (2021) - Yugo Sakamoto

​A cute, teenage hangout movie in which the two female protagonists also just happen to be elite assassins. Like this film's eccentricities - the two leads play well off each other, with one being hyper-active chatterbox while the other is a deadpan social outcast. The inevitable tension within their relationship that comes with forced socialization by the organization that employs their services is well-rendered, and ultimately low-key affecting but really what you are here for is the unadulterated violence, and Baby Assassins delivers this while never letting its characterizations or theme fall by the wayside. Bookended by two strong action set-pieces, Baby Assassins is much more interested in the juxtaposition between the innocence of adolescence with the cold, lack of empathy imbued into any person whose profession is murdering people for money. It doesn't fall into sentimentality or overreach, but it plays within the confines of its world well emotionally, juxtaposing moments of teenage adolescence with cold, dispassionate violence. Bookended by two exceptional action set-pieces, what stood out to me about the Baby Assassins is the physicality of its fight choreography - there is a fluidity one would expect, exhibiting the speed and precision of these two young women, but the film also makes sure to get gnarly pronouncing the violence and physicality of each punch or kick in a way that is felt. Not groundbreaking but a peculiar, eccentric fun action flick that balances its various tones quite well.