Starring Yuusaku Yara, Toshiko Fujita, Ichirô Nagai, Takeshi Aono, Mari Yokoo.
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
It’s time to get out of the kiddie pool and head for the royally fucked up pool. I have thus far in my reviewing career avoided the nastier areas of anime, but that had to end sometime, and October’s horror marathon is as good a place as any to head over to the dark side. Wicked City is yet another Hideyuki Kikuchi adaptation, and like Demon City it is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. If I was to compare that film with Vampire Hunter D, I would have to say that Toyoo Ashida was the better director for adapting Kikuchi’s works, but here Kawajiri proves that he really can handle the job just as well, if not better.
The animation is damn good, just like all his other films that I have seen, although the beginning moments felt below average. I was initially disappointed, but as soon as the first monster shows up it amps up the quality and never looks back, matching Demon City for gorgeous and grisly visuals. There’s not much outright gore, though. It’s more about crazy nasty monsters lurking around every corner than blood and guts splattered everywhere.
Of course there needs to be some complications. Taki has some thoughts that Mayart is just a decoy to distract the demons from a more important target. And Mayart is certainly not the type to be a good diplomat as the crinkled old pervert spends his entire time trying to run off to a brothel, or at least get inside Makie’s pants, who rebuffs him at all turns. Makie is perhaps the film’s biggest flaw, as there is little explanation of her character, and we never know why she is so dedicated to her job, or why she wants peace despite being a demon. We just have to take her at face value and accept it.
The thing I was most disappointed with about her, though, is that we never see her demonic form, despite the fact that the movie is filled with some of the freakiest demons ever conceived. When the guy whose ribs shoot out from his chest and the floating head with tentacles are the throwaway villains, I want something impressive from the main characters. All Makie does is extend her fingernails into elegant knifelike blades and choke somebody with her hair. I can understand that they wanted to keep her sympathetic, especially with the romance that develops between her and Taki. Turning her into a hideous monster would have made her less alluring, and thus decreased our concern for her, but since this is something of a backwards Beauty and the Beast tale, I think it would have worked better if Taki saw and accepted Makie in her true form. Since the film is about making peace between humans and demons, this would have been all the more important to do.
Kawajiri definitely lets loose the crazy, here. The only line he hesitates to cross is Japanese law that prevents showing genitalia, though he uses some incredibly grotesque loopholes to sneak some things in anyway. That’s where Wicked City becomes its most disturbing. Not only does it have lots of creepy inhuman demons, but it has lots of creepy inhuman demons having sex, even dabbling in that peculiar Japanese debauchery of tentacle rape.
Whether sexually or otherwise, this movie gave me countless eye-popping, jaw-dropping, “oh shit” moments. I’m at a bit of a loss to come up with specific examples though, because the biggest of these moments looms over my mind, blotting out most of the rest of the film. Right at the beginning it hits you with a woman turning into a spider monster with deformed arms and legs tipped with claws and a huge, gaping, fang-filled mouth where she should have a vagina.
There’s really no point in saying anything more about Wicked City. I could go on and tell you what she does with that mouth at the end of the movie, but what would be the point? You undoubtedly had one of two reactions to that statement. Either you were appalled and probably left the site already, or you’re intrigued enough to give the film a try. (And if you are a part of that rare third group that said “What? That’s it?” then may God have mercy on your poor shriveled soul.) Either way, I’ve done everything I can. Follow your gut on this one. If you’re feeling nauseous, then stay away. Stay far away. If you’re into freakish depravity, however, then this is a must see.
