Bad City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Bad City Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 18, 2023

The heyday of the American gangster film was arguably during the thirties, when Warner Brothers in particular cranked out any number of memorable properties starring the likes of James Cagney and/or Edward G. Robinson, and in a way, many of those films hinged largely on the participation of those two legendary stars, since the stories were often retreads or at least tended to exploit the same plot mechanics over and over (and over). Something maybe a little similar is at play in Bad City, though in this case it's probably the action choreography by Kensuke Sonomura (Hydra) that is the marquee attraction. And in fact, this film much like Hydra has a viscerally violent side almost from the get go, once again at least somewhat focused on hitmen and with a lurid purple and teal palette that often evokes memories of productions like John Wick.

You can tell that mogul entrepreneur Gojo (Lily Franky) is inherently corrupt not just from his behavior, but from the little Hitler-esque mustache he bears, but the film actually begins with Gojo getting acquitted of bribery charges. That element is intercut (in more ways than one) with a very disturbing vignette that echoes the opening of Hydra, at least subliminally, as a machete wielding assassin makes his way through a steambath, to spectacularly bloody effect. In the wake of his acquittal, Gojo announces he's running for mayor of deeply troubled city Kaiko, and it's soon revealed he has a bounty of well connected and very powerful people, some in positions of considerable authority, at his beck and call.

A supposedly disgraced policeman named Makoto Torada (Hitoshi Ozawa) is released from stir, where he's serving time for having taken out the kid of a Korean crime boss, to hopefully bring Gojo and his henchmen to justice, and the cat and mouse game is on. There is some passing lip service to the tension between Japanese and Korean gangs here, and some fitful attempts at character beats, but what really keeps this film's almost feral energy going is some really spectacularly staged fight scenes.

Bad City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bad City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The closing credits are largely in Japanese, but I didn't see any camera logos, and unfortunately the IMDb doesn't offer much in the way of technical data, but this is a competent digital capture that I assume had a 2K DI. As mentioned above, the stylistic flourishes can involve sprinklings of John Wick-esque hues, but there's also a tendency for things to skew toward a somewhat jaundiced yellow look, which can lead to very slight but noticeable mottling or even near pixellation in flesh tones in particular. A lot of the film plays out in subdued shadowy environments, and there can be passing deficits in shadow detail. The bulk of the presentation offers secure detail levels, however, and aside from just a couple of very brief flirtations with banding, there are no compression issues at play. My score is 4.25.

Bad City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with many Well Go USA releases, Bad City offers both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks in the original language (in this case Japanese, of course) and an English dub. As dubs go, I'd say the English track is actually relatively artful, but I'd still stick with the Japanese if you can handle subtitles, though that said, in toggling between the two lossless tracks, I discerned no real difference in the mixes or overall amplitude. Both tracks offer some really energetic surround activity in the action scenes in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available, and there are occasional forced English subtitles translating Japanese text (like names of characters, etc.).

Bad City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD: 1:54)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Bad City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The actual plot of Bad City traffics in any number of well worn gangster film clichés, but the good news is, Kensuke Sonomura seems to recognize that and so keeps the action element front and center a lot of the time. Technical merits are solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.