Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (2023)

I liked it when i first saw it but absolutely loved it even more when i rewatched it.

I've already given so much praise towards the comedy and direction of Yugo Sakamoto, as well as the amazing choreography from Kensuke Sonomura and the acting of the two leads Saori Izawa and Akari Takaishi. But in here Sonomura and Sakamoto fuse their styles even further giving Baby Assassins it's more unique action-comedy style. I also like how they show the evolution of a character through choreography especially with Izawa's character Makoto. Who at first was a more straightforward scrappy character but now has more similar fighting techniques with Mimoto's character in the first film, utilizing more haymakers and vision blocking. Amazing use of non-verbal storytelling and action design.

But what i would really like to focus on here is the two brothers Iwanaga and Hamada, and how it relates to the film brilliant continous commentary on Capitalism and Labor. The two brothers and the two babies for both commentary and comedy reasons mirror each other very often in the film. At the start we see the two brothers do a job similar to the opening fight scene in the first movie. The fight gets scrappy but after a lot of hard work they finally get it done. And this time we are now faced with the first and most important contrast between the brothers and the babies. We find out that they are on the lower end, and get more unfair treatment, and to get better pay and get more job security, they have to kill their competition (the babies).

This simple contrast alone is what already sets up the main conflict of the film and it's main thesis. The problems of living in a capitalist society. It's a dog eat dog world, and to survive you really have to flush out everyone else.

The film also adds to the tragic nature of it with good character writing. It's really great how Sakamoto was able too add such layers to the characters through subtle moments and seemingly throwaway lines in regular conversations while they eat, relax, and etc.

There's one scene just before the final fight that i really loved that makes the eventual conclusion of the film more tragic. In that scene Yuri says "Those two would have made great friends" and Makoto responds, "Yeah, but doing this with them... it's fun".

They could have been friends! and they're both having fun doing what they do best. Small moments of character that really touch on what a capitalist society does to us. Because if we want to survive we really have to trust noone. You CANNOT have friends. You cannot be emotionally attached and would always need to be ready to kill/flush out your competition in order to keep yourself afloat.

So despite all the fun, and the possible friendship that the babies could have gained with the brothers. At the end of the day, they still have to kill them.