The Violence Action (2022)

A cute young girl who works as a hired assassin meets a boy on a bus and gets caught in the middle of a Yakuza clan war.

Netflix's latest action import is kind of the year's anti-Carter, equally obnoxious but for exactly the opposite reason - whilst CARTER would have you believe the whole film is one continuous shot, THE VIOLENCE ACTION tries to convince you there's no such thing as a continuous shot and you've never seen one before in your life.

Both are quite singular experiences, and both call conspicuous attention to the film-making techniques they employ - the medium is the message, or something. The Violence Action is much, much lower budget though, probably closer to something like Hard Revenge Milly.

Lead actress Kanna Hashimoto is... kind of great? She's tiny and cute but gives her all in the action scenes, and even manages to deliver quite a nuanced performance between them (in a film not exactly rich in nuance).

The action choreography is reminiscent of recent Japanese films like Hydra and BABY ASSASSINS, fast knife work and economical gunplay. It is heavily stylised though, often to anime-esque levels.

I assume the film is pretty faithful to the source material, and the broad manga-style comedy will probably annoy even more people than the hyperactive editing... but you won't forget you've watched it.