Hydra: Compact, tight and engaging.

 Sometimes you just get bored and have nothing to do and so you go searching for something to spend a bit of time doing. Hydra is something I came across during one such time and overall, I'm glad I did. This is a movie that flew under the radar and delivered where a lot of modern Hollyweird doesn't. It's a neat little movie that actually had a story told in a far a shorter time then I had expected. 

The movie starts out with a brutal and strong assassination in which a man is murdered whilst relieving himself. We later find out that this assassin works for the same organisation that the main character used to work for but we'll get to that. Then a cleaner comes into the bathroom and cleans up after the assassin before we get a nice neon lit opening credits sequence. Over the credits sequence, we are treated to some neat synthesiser sound, which is a taste of the soundtrack to come. I thought it was a neat little music piece personally and it fit the style quite well. 

Following the opening, we are hit with quite the change in pace as we are introduced to the main character, Takashi, played by one of Japanese action cinema's hardest working men, Masanori Mimoto. Takeshi is a former assassin who has left that life behind him and now works at a small bar in Tokyo, the titular, Hydra. His two notable co-workers, Rina Kishida and Kenta Kishita, don't know of his past and to them Takashi just appears to be a quiet, solitary, unassuming man with expert culinary skills. Surprisingly, the movie seems to devolve into a slice of life centred around the snack bar and it's on goings. During our peek into the daily operating of the snack bar, it becomes clear that the trio are quite close even if Takashi has an air of mystery about him. It's also established that Kenta has a crush on Rina. 

The nice, easy-going life at the snack bar is suddenly takes a drastic turn as Hasegawa, a regular customer, drugs Rina via slipping it into one of her drinks. Hasegawa is revealed to be a repeat offender, often drugging victims and then doing unspeakable things to them. Unfortunately for the would be assaulter, Takashi has caught on to him. Takashi deals with Hasegawa and banishes him from Hydra. Suddenly, it is revealed that Hasegawa died not long after Takashi left him as the former assassin's employers contact him to arrange a meeting. It is revealed that his former employers are something of a vigilante group that targeted corruption by eliminating police and politicians. It turns out that Hasegawa was their next target however, before they assassinated him someone else got to him first. They are concerned that another group is operating on the scene and may well be targeting the vigilante group as well as the corrupt. Takashi is tasked to help find them. 

From here we get a look into Takashi's background. We see that he was orphaned and picked up by his future employers. His employers trained him to be the skilled killer that he once was. We also get a flashback that shows us the reason for his departure from the group and the life of an assassin. It turns out that an assignment changed everything and he left the group to work a Hydra as apart of a promise he made to an old friend. 

The movie then reaches the last 30 minutes and what a way to end. We are treated to 2 spectacular one on one fight scenes. Both of these fights involve the same bad guy, the main villain of the movie played expertly by veteran action man Naohiro Kawamoto and they are amongst the best fight scenes of the past decade at least imo. The first fight features the rival from a not so righteous group of assassins taking on Takashi's would be replacement whom we saw in the opening of the movie at work. The second features the rival take on Takashi himself. Now what's most impressive and surprising about these 2 fights is just how swift the movements of both fighters are. There's no editing to speed up the motions and yet the pace is blistering to the point that it may be hard for some to keep up with everything that's happening on screen. The fights incorporate an impressive plethora of techniques from various martial arts forms from knife fighting to jiu jitsu. There's even a screwdriver involved in the first fight. This could be seen as a nod to Donnie Yen's hard work in incorporating MMA into his fight scenes starting with SPL and Flash Point. I'd argue that they even rival Yen's scenes and the second fight is an exhaustive (In the best way) uninterrupted 4 minute showdown between Takashi and Syu Ueda. Long take fight scenes often stand out as being amongst the best due to how much work is put into them and the fights in Hydra were brought about by a trio of choreographers. Masanori Mimoto, Naohiro Kawamoto and first time director Kensuke Sonomura all collaborated to great effort and it really shows. 

Speaking of Kensuke Sonomura, the fight choreographer and stuntman worked as the director of Hydra. Being his first foray into directing, I was surprised by his ability to handle a slow burn narrative, as it seems he had a solid understanding and idea of the narrative he wanted. The opening 10 minutes were completely devoid of dialogue and relied purely on visuals to tell the story and this is followed by 45 minutes spent within the small snack bar whilst getting to understand the dynamic of the trio of workers. This was such a pleasant surprise as it could have been just another cliched action movie focused on a retired assassin being back back into the game and yet Sonomura as well as writer Jiro Kaneko, turn it into something unique and original instead of rehashing tired old tropes and stories we've seen time and time again. Sonomura also of course, as a veteran of action knows how to appropriately capture fight scenes. For a first time director, Sonomura had me very impressed as it seemed like he was a veteran. 

All of the cast does an excellent job with the material they're given. Mimoto is the stand out, portraying the former assassin dragged back into the game with poise and he handles the action superbly. Kawamoto also does what he's best at with the fight scenes and the results speak for themselves. First time actress Miu, gives her all to the role of Rina and performed adequately with a balance of feminine grace, kind-heartedness, playfulness and vulnerability. Tasuku Nagase brings the charm expected of the veteran Kamen Rider actor and rounds out the main trio splendidly.

Hydra gets a strong recommendation from me. That being said, it may disappoint those who just want a straight up, balls to the wall action movie as it's slower paced and builds up to it's exciting climax. What it delivers is a well told, self contained narrative that twists a tired old cliched story on it's end and churns out something different. It has a much better plot than most modern Hollyweird productions and does not try to push an agenda down the viewers throat and with it's meagre runtime of 1 hour and 30 minutes, that's impressive.