'Demon City' (2025) Movie Review

Have you seen Seiji Tanaka’s Demon City, or a close approximation of it before? Yes, many times. Among other comparable titles, it’s almost beat-for-beat Hard to Kill. Does it have much in the way of nuance, depth, or character development? No. It’s extremely sparse on those fronts. What it does have, however, are plenty of bonkers, bloody fight scenes and awesome action choreography.

 

It's this action that carries the film. Clearly, the selling point is the violent spectacle, which Tanaka and action director Takashi Tanimoto more than deliver. Among other notable set pieces, there’s a three-minute oner where the hero battles his way up a stairwell that moves the needle for genre fans. It’s wild and inventive, brutal and thrilling; fantastic stuff all around.

 

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The biggest knock is the lack of any substantial emotional connection to back up the stellar action. There’s no significant weight behind any of it, and the absence of any real stakes—especially as it becomes increasingly clear that the protagonist can survive any amount of physical trauma and keep going—is likely going to lose some viewers. 

 

Toma Ikuta plays Sakata, the gnarliest hit man to ever do the thing. He hangs it up after one last job, but that very night, a crew of criminals wearing creepy masks murder his wife and young daughter, leaving him for dead. Twelve years later, he comes to and goes on a kill-crazy rampage of vengeance. The plot is a paint-by-numbers affair and primarily serves to move Sakata from one violent encounter to the next. There’s the definite impression that multiple subplots and backgrounds were cut in one phase of development or another.

 

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But Demon City doesn’t generally concern itself with such issues. It’s here for one thing and one thing only, to deliver abundant stylish, well-executed action. And in this regard, it succeeds, scratching a specific revenge-movie itch. It moves at a brisk tempo, skipping over the slow bits, but this also means that, while fun and thrilling at times, the result plays like a hollow facsimile of the films it emulates. It’ll keep action heads well enough entertained for 106 minutes, then they can forget all about it. Sometimes that’s enough, so we can count this as a win. (Demon City also makes excellent and frequent use of the sound effect subtitle “squelching,” as well as a soaring glory-rock score.) [Grade: C+]