What to do when you get the chance to create a sequel to two beloved action-comedies? Does one merely reshuffle things to deliver more of the same or does one challenge oneself to utilize the cornerstones of the narrative to create something familiar yet different. As Yugo Sakamoto already did the former with Baby Assassins: 2 babies (2023), he understood perfectly well that his third narrative had the bring something new to the table.

With Baby Assassins: Good Days Sakamoto does not deliver another action-driven buddy comedy, but an action-drama with some light-hearted and comical touches. Rest assured, everything the spectator liked about the previous narratives is still present, but Sakamoto offers a fresh glance at Chisato and Mahiro’s subjectivity and their social presence by delivering a darker and grittier narrative. 

The first thing that sets Baby Assassins: Good Days apart from the first two narratives is the choice to explore how our assassins do their work – no suspensions or laying low, they have a job to complete. Chisato Sugimoto (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro Fukagawa (Saori Izawa) are in Miyazaki prefecture to kill Tsuyoshi Matsuura (Kaibashira), who is wanted for embezzling money.

Yet, upon finding their target in the maze of the Miyazaki prefectural office, their target is about to get killed by freelance assassin Kaede Fuyumura (Sosuke Ikematsu). While Mahiro and Chisato succeed in thwarting his murder attempt, Kaede defeats Mahiro, offering her a handkerchief to wipe her blood, and sabotages Chisato’s ultimate attempt to kill him. The guild, furious that their image has been blemished, orders Chisato and Mahori to kill the freelancer and Tsuyoshi Matsuura, who is on the run. To make matters worse, they must work together with two other assassins, the naive bodybuilder Riku Nanase (Mondo Otami) and the cold-hearted bitch Minami Iruka (Atsuko Maeda). 

The second difference is that Baby Assassins: Good Days expands the thematical dimension. While the Baby Assassins (2021) and Baby Assassins: 2 babies (2023) merely focused on exploring the dynamic of relational conflict – the frustration of not understanding and being confronted with each other’s Otherness – to show how subjects, despite their differences, can wield the deceptive feeling of imaginary sameness to pacify their conflicts, Baby Assassins: Good Days also zooms in on the fact that social traumata shape the logic of the subject and, often, exacerbate his social ineptitude. Some subjects, to inscribe themselves in the social field, become a copy of their desired image and cause their own ostracization. Other subjects transform their frustrations with the opaqueness of the Other into anger and cultivate a joyous thirst to violently perforate the ungraspable Other.     

Despite all the kicks, punches, gunshots, and swishing knifes, all three Baby Assassins narratives explore the fact that the true battlefield for the subject is nothing other than the field of the imaginary. It is in this speech-based mirror-palace that direct and indirect wars of likes and dislikes and where, by obtaining a superficial but pacifying feeling of understanding, alliances can be formed.   

Just like the composition of the previous narratives, Baby Assassins: Good Days stands out due to its energetic dynamism and its nicely-flowing visual rhythm (Cine-note 1). To maintain the fluidity of his visual fabric, Sakamoto either relies on elegantly repeating the same dynamic movement throughout a given compositional sequence or by continuing the direction of the camera-movement in a certain concatenation of shots, by diminishing the impact of the cut. The energy of the compositional whole, on the other hand, relies on surges of fact cutting as well as the thoughtful use of slow-motion decorations. Yugo Sakamoto further elevates the spectator’s visual pleasure by garnishing his composition with some nicely composed visual moments. These moments, by fleetingly emphasising and exploiting the beauty of the geometrical dimension, will not fail to please the spectator.

Sakamoto’s skill as director, of course, is most evident in the way the action sequences are framed. With a keen sense for visual pleasure – there are many beautiful tracking shots to savour, Sakamoto creates a visual envelope that amplifies the dynamism of the fight-choreographies and generates tension to make every down-to-earth brawl a thrilling experience. In short, Sakamoto composes the action-sequences in a way that supports the rhythm of the choreographies and enhances their dramatical unfolding.

At first glance, the choreographies feel very similar to those featured in the previous two films – there are many deja-vu moments. Yet, by thoughtfully and creatively exploiting the spatial dimension of interiors and by finding ways to deliver more decorative action-moments, Sakamoto ensures that the choreographies of Baby Assassins: Nice Days feel fresh, are impactful, and engaging. The decorative action-elements, moreover, add a bit of flair to the otherwise down-to-earth action choreographies (Cine-note 2).

Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawadeliver, once again, pitch-perfect acting performances and please the spectator with their strong chemistry. The childlike bubbliness that Akari infuses into her character is charming as ever and the dry aloofness that Saori stages will not fail to delight the spectator. Yet, it is the clash between their character’s differences, a clash magnified by fluidly integrated moments of over-acting, that makes the light-hearted exploration of Mahiro and Chisato’s relational dynamic such a pleasure to watch.

The introduction of Riku and Minami into the narrative introduces some new relational tensions which allow Sakamoto to add more variety to the moments of interactional comedy. The way Mahiro and Chisato act and speak in the presence of the cold bitch Minami, for example, does not merely add more light-heartedness, but also offers the spectator a fresh glance at the subjective dynamic of these well-beloved characters (Narra-note 2).

With Baby Assassins: Good Days (2024), Yugo Sakamoto successfully mixes up the formula that structured his previous two action narratives. Not only does he create an experience that delivers what fans loved in the first two movies, but also rephrases the series’ overarching theme in a fresh and grittier way.    

Notes

Cine-note 1: The fluidity is also supported by the fluid interlacing of different scenes.

Cine-note 1: What also adds variety to the fighting sequences is the introduction of variety of different assassins with a different fighting style.

Narra-note 2:  WhileChisato stages her cold disinterest to confront Minami with her disdain – her affirmative answers and explanations echo her radical unwillingness to be around her, Mahiro often tries to cover-up Mahiro’s rudeness by offering the bitch appeasing but deceptive enunciations of friendliness.

In some cases, Chisato does not coldly deliver her signifiers to echo her disdain, but becomes all bubbly, shifting the ongoing conversational struggle with Minami with a sudden compliment. This bubbliness as well as her empty enunciations are disingenuous because of the radical contrast they install – from cold to hot – and the bubbly excess the ‘empty’ compliments are delivered. Yet, as the narrative underlines, Chisato’s true wish is not to win the fight with Minami by verbally attacking her, but by killing her, by erasing this presence that, for some subjective reason, agitates her.  

Minami, on the other hand, expresses her dislike for our baby assassins with her cold austere attitude presence and her sarcastic enunciations.