Based on the webcomic “Violence Action” by Renji Asai and Shin Sawada, “The Violence Action” is another in the long line of live action manga/anime adaptations that spawn from the Japanese movie industry. Unfortunately, it is one of the worst.
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Bubblicious Kei Kikuno is studying bookkeeping, but actually doubles as a killer for hire, a member of a group also consisting of boss lady “The Shopkeeper”, metal-wig baldy driver Zura, and eventually, bowl-cut Watanabe who is kind of forced to join when he followed Kei, his crush, one day after his classes. The group operates from a small restaurant, taking full advantage of Kei’s uncanny battle abilities, as much as the fact that she can pass as someone completely cute and innocent through her overall appearance.
However, the crew members soon find themselves in the middle of a power clash within the ranks of Denma-Gumi, the most powerful yakuza syndicate in the city, among the existing boss Sandaime, and his chief lieutenant Kinoshita, who wants the spot for himself. Ayabe, a corporate executive and Terano, a financial manager whom Kei meets on a bus one day, are also involved in the whole thing. However, the biggest danger comes from sociopathic Michitaka, the white-tracksuit-wearing top assassin of Denma-Gumi, who is set on the heel of Kei and the group, after she manages to dispose of henchmen of both factions.
Probably the best scene in the movie is the initial. Cute-looking Kei forces her way into a room full of gangsters, and using knives, guns and hand-combat demolishes them in order to save a kidnapped pop-idol. From then on, however, the plethora of issues of the movie take over. The cheap slapstick humor, which has a lot to do with how the characters look, does not offer any laughter at all, with the characters being a series of buffoons that are impossible to like at all. The over-the-top acting, particularly of Takashi Okamura as Zura, Oji Suzuka as Watanabe, and the main villains of the yakuza is not only ridiculous but also becomes annoying after a fashion. Fumika Baba as The Shopkeeper somewhat stands out since she is quite cool in her overall demeanor, while Yuu Shirota as Michitaka is fun to watch, both for his absurd misogyny (which is repeatedly commented upon) and his cool style of fighting. That the majority of the cast consists of former and current pop idols definitely does not help in that regard, although it adds to the whole eye-candy approach of the movie, which also includes Kanna Hashimoto as Kei unfortunately.
Even worse is the directorial approach to the action, with the choppy editing in particular, that actually moves back and forth time-wise (even if for a few seconds) in the middle of the battles, being one of the worst approaches to action I have ever seen. The whole thing ends up being dizzying and annoying, detracting from the part that should be the movie’s highlight, while essentially making a joke of the title. At the same time, and despite some impressive panoramic shots here and there, the production values are on a rather low level, to the point that the movie occasionally looks as a low-budget actioner that someone just threw money at, just at the post-production stage.
Granted, shooting these types of adaptations is not exactly easy, since manga tend to be excessive in both story and presentation, which is usually the reason that the ones who do work are big-budget productions in the hands of directors who can handle the excessiveness (Miike, Ohtomo etc) “The Violence Action” has neither, and the effort to attract audience just by the title and the presence of pop idols is rather evident, in one of the worst adaptations we have seen recently.
