Demon City

Revenge is a dish best served a decade too late in Seiji Tanaka’s so-so thriller

“There’s a demon in Shinjo.”

In yet another example of the “hitman retires so the mob tries to kill him” trope, Demon City tells of Sakata (Toma Ikuta) who chooses to leave a life working for crime lords to live with his wife and family. Naturally, `the bosses don’t like this, so they go to his house, shoot his wife and child and then Sakata himself. However, he doesn’t die, and is left in a catatonic state for twelve years. Meanwhile, something about a casino is happening – it doesn’t matter. Sakata wakes up, and goes on a revenge spree.

Based on the manga series by Masamichi Kawabe, Demon City is another in a line of John Wick-esque revenge thrillers, except this one takes things a little bit slower. It’s a lot less flashy, and in a way this is quite refreshing, in a world where so many films of its kind are trying to out-sleek the rest. Demon City feels clunkier, and takes its time to get going. Sure, it’s a change of pace from the breakneck pace of other movies, it’s also not particularly interesting either. It doesn’t spend time with its villains, choosing to keep them largely behind masks, and it certainly doesn’t do anything with Sakata, who is largely silent and void of personality throughout. He fights decently, but that’s kind of it.

In fact, the most interesting sequence in the film was when things start heating up in the present day, and Sakata has to come out of his coma, fighting with a body that’s barely functional. It’s the sort of fun creative style of fighting that this revenge genre desperately needs. It’s a shame that the rest of the action isn’t that hot, and is just a usual rehash of gunplay and mild gore: just enough to be edgier than other films of its kind but not enough to be truly memorable. I do enjoy that Sakata spends the entirety of the movie hunched over in agony as his enemies gut, stab, shred, defenestrate and dismember him from one fight to the next.

Demon City feels like it could have been more. The beginning, which sees Sakata’s family mercilessly gunned down – including a preschool child – suggests this could be a brutal, no holds barred look at how ruthless some gangsters can be, but it becomes clear early on that it’s just like that for the sake of shock value, as little else in the film really has the power that that scene does.

I suppose in a vacuum, there’s nothing actually wrong with the movie. But it’s not in a vacuum, it exists in a world where dozens of films like it exist and are vying for your time. And I don’t see a reason to watch it, unless you’ve completely run out of films where Charles Bronson guns down all of New York city. There’s too much plot and none of it matters, and very little of the stuff you actually want to see. It’s evident from the almost genre-required one-take gunfight on the staircase that this is a film where the creators are mostly just ticking boxes, until the inevitable ending. Honestly, I think this would have worked so much better as an OVA.

Verdict: Decidedly middle of the road, Demon City suffers by exchanging personality with a needless casino storyline, and the gamble shockingly doesn’t pay off.

Overall entertainment: 4/10
Violence: 6/10, but it’s quite brutal I suppose
Sex: Just some perverts
Lingering shots on a teenager’s arse: You gotta have one
Least favourite trope: The villain about to shoot the hero but his gun is empty. In any other scenario the movie would be over.
Mid-act pseudo-twist: Yeah, it’s alright I guess

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Demon City (2025)
Also known as: Demon City 鬼ゴロシ
Japanese

Director: Seiji Tanaka
Writers: Masamichi Kawabe. Seiji Tanaka

CAST

Toma Ikuta – Shuhei Sakat
Masahiro Higashide – Kanta Fase
Miou Tanaka – Homare Takemoto
Ami Toma – Ryo
Naoto Takenaka – Karuo Kawano
Takuma Otoo – Yoshihito Takigawa
Masanobu Takashima – Kotaro Shinozuka
Matsuya Onoe – Ryu Sunohara