Wicked City (1987 film)

is a 1987 Japanese adult animated neo-noir action gothic horror film produced by Video Art and Madhouse for Japan Home Video. Based on Black Guard, the first novel of the Wicked City series by Hideyuki Kikuchi, the film is the solo directorial debut of Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who also served as the character designer, storyboard artist, animation director and a key animator.

The story takes place towards the end of the 20th century and explores the idea that the human world secretly coexists with the demon world with a secret police force known as the Black Guard protecting the boundary.

Plot

The existence of the "Black World"—an alternate dimension populated by supernatural demons—is known to few humans. For centuries, a peace treaty between the Black World and the world of humans has been maintained to ensure relative harmony. Both sides of the continuum are protected by an organization of secret agents called the Black Guard, specifically from a group of radicalized members of the Black World.

In Tokyo, Renzaburō Taki, a salaryman for an electronics company by day, and a Black Guard when needed, has sex with Kanako, a young woman who he has been meeting at a local bar for three months. Kanako reveals herself to be a spider-like doppelgänger from the Black World Radicals and escapes with a sample of Taki's semen after attempting to kill him. The next day, Taki is assigned to protect Giuseppe Mayart, a dwarfish and perverted 200-year-old mystic who is a signatory for a ratified treaty between the Human World and the Black World, !! English<br/>

! Renzaburō Taki

| Yūsaku Yara || Gregory Snegoff || Stuart Milligan

! Makie

| Toshiko Fujita || Gaye Kruger || Tamsin Hollo

! Giuseppe Mayart

| Ichirō Nagai || Mike Reynolds || George Little

! Mr. Shadow

| Takeshi Aono || Jeff Winkless || Ray Lonnen

! Kanako/Spider Woman

| Mari Yokoo || Edie Mirman || Liza Ross

! Black Guard President

| Yasuo Muramatsu || Robert V. Barron || Graydon Gould

! Hotelier

| Tamio Ōki || David Povall || William Roberts

! Jin

| Kōji Totani || Kerrigan Mahan || Brian Note

! Soap Girl

| Arisa Andou || Joyce Kurtz || Pamela Merrick

! Clinic Director

| Kazuhiko Kishino || Edward Mannix || Douglas Blackwell

! Bartender

| Ikuya Sawaki || Jason Klassi || Adam Henderson

! Demon Temptress

| Asami Mukaidono || Eleni Kelakos || Liza Ross

! Doctor

| Masato Hirano || John Dantona || Adam Henderson

! Demons

| Ginzō Matsuo <br/>Bin Shimada <br/>Kenichi Ogata Norio Osada's original draft of the screenplay began with Makie's saving of Taki from two demons at Narita, and ended with Taki's first battle with Mr. Shadow and rescue of Makie. After Japan Home Video were shown the first 15 minutes of completed animation, they were impressed enough with Kawajiri's work that the runtime was extended to 80 minutes. Kawajiri saw this as an opportunity to explore more characterization and created more animation for the start, the middle and the end. The project was completed in under a year.

Hayao Miyazaki was reportedly so impressed by Kazuo Oga's art direction that he hired Oga for My Neighbor Totoro (1988). On 28 September 2018, Toei announced a Region 2 Blu-ray release of the OVA to be released on 9 January 2019.

Critical reception

Desson Howe of The Washington Post, who observed the level of sexual violence toward women in the film, characterized it as a "post-Chandler, quasi-cyberpunky violence fest". Howe found the film compelling for its "gymnastic" camera angles, its kinetic pace and imaginative (if slightly twisted) images." He also found the English dubbing laughable, though he saw ominous subtext in various bits of dialogue and other moments in the film.

Richard Harrington, also of The Washington Post, saw the film as an attempt to create the Blade Runner of Japanese animation, citing its distinctively languid pace, linear storytelling and gradual exposition. Harrington also detected a Brave New World subtext, and calling it "stylish and erotic, exciting in its limited confrontations and provocative in its ambition." He also added that "there's a tender ballad moment between Taki and Makie that's right out of Disney."

Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film epitomizes the "sadistic, misogynistic erotica" popular in Japan. He noted that Yoshiaki Kawajiri composes scenes like a live-action filmmaker, and complimented his deft cutting and camera angles, but felt that the "Saturday-morning style animation" and juvenile story did not warrant the effort. Solomon also opined that Kisei Choo's screenplay was inscrutable.

Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle gave the film two-and-a-half out of five stars, calling it a "better-than-average" treatment of the "demons from an alternate universe" subject matter. Savlov opined that the film did not reach "the delightfully sadomasochistic heights" of Urotsukidōji: Legend of the Overfiend. He said Wicked City was easier to follow than the latter due to having a more linear and rapid storyline, along with the lack of flashbacks and cyberpunk jargon that Savlov disliked in the genre. Savlov also appreciated the clarified animation. Savlov commented, "This may not be the second coming of Akira, but it's a step in the right direction."

Stig Høgset of THEM Anime Reviews gave Wicked City a 3-out-of-5-star rating, handing out praise for the animation, artwork, story, characters, theme, and the chemistry between Taki and Makie, but criticized certain portions of dialogue as "corny", and some of the sexual and demonic imagery as "disturbing." He ultimately concluded that "it's 'quick fix' horror with occasional and casual sex thrown in for the heck of it, so don't go in expecting a masterpiece that warrants purchase. It's a great choice for the late-night horror rental district, though, if you can bear with a couple of scenes."

Bob Strauss from Animation Magazine described it as "one of the strongest features to come out of Japan's anime", presenting a seemingly incoherent scenario that "makes more sense as it climaxes, revealing a few solid, thematic reasons for what initially seemed to be inexplicable behavior, gratuitous sex and reckless sci-fi gimmickry." He added that there was also a "neat moral and spiritual subtext to the whole bizarre enterprise."

Chuck Arrington of DVD Talk, reviewing the VHS of the film, recommended that consumers "skip it", citing the transfer errors and scratches on the print, the at-times washed-out colors, and the uninteresting lengthy interview among the DVD's extras. Arrington thought that the visuals and the fight scenes were generally done well, and that the English dub was acceptable, though exhibited some "wooden elements" endemic to all anime titles. Regarding the sexual violence in the film, Arrington found it excluded recommendation for most viewers, commenting, "Though not nearly as gruesome as Legend of the Overfiend, Wicked City is definitely not for children and not really for adults either."

Theron Martin of Anime News Network gave Wicked City a rating of B−, and stated that "in all, Wicked City isn't great fare, but if explicit, sexually charged supernatural action stories appeal to you then it should fit the bill quite nicely."

Literary critic Susan J. Napier describes the film in her book, Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke, as having similar depictions of the female body as its contemporaries: objects to be "viewed, violated, tortured" while also being "awesomely powerful, almost unstoppable". She credits the film's more nuanced and artistic approach within this context, but cites the metamorphoses of the female Black World agents as the film's ideas about female sexuality being limited to "an essentially conservative fantasy", with the powerful women's bodies being ultimately destroyed in "lengthy scenes of graphic violence".

In John Hackett and Seán Harrington's Beasts of the Deep: Sea Creatures and Popular Culture, the authors place Wicked City alongside Hokusai's octopus prints as re-establishing a link between the maritime and the erotic.

Some of the film's fight scenes were featured in Manga Production's Mean & Mercenary VHS compilations.

Live-action remake

The Wicked City, a Hong Kong live-action adaptation was produced in 1992 by Film Workshop Ltd. The film was directed by Tai Kit Mak, produced and written by Tsui Hark, and starred Jacky Cheung, Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Yuen Woo-ping, Roy Cheung and Tatsuya Nakadai. (Michelle Reis said that Tsui actually directed many scenes himself.)

The story takes place in Hong Kong during a conflict between worlds of Humans and "Rapters". Special police in the city are investigating a mysterious drug named "happiness". Taki, one of the police, meets his old lover Windy, who is a rapter and now mistress of a powerful old rapter named Daishu. Taki and other special police track down and fight Daishu, but later find that he hopes to coexist with human. The son of Daishu, Shudo, is the mastermind. In the end, Shudo is defeated, but Daishu and Taki's friends die too. Windy leaves alone.

References

External links