Baby Walkure 2 is a fun sequel.

 

After thoroughly enjoying Yugo Sakamoto's Baby Walkure, naturally I sought out the sequel as I wanted to see more of our favourite duo of awkward assassins. Once again a low budget affair, the movie received a limited release and as such I had to wait some time before being able to watch it. Could it live up to my expectations? Let's find out! 

Baby Walkure 2 is set some time after the events of the first movie. Chisato and Mahiro are still living together whilst working as assassins. Whilst they're really good at contract killings, they fail to keep on top of living expenses and other such expenses. They fall into debt and eventually wind up suspended from their organisation, meaning that they can't take a contract for a month and can't otherwise kill anyone. Meanwhile, a duo of assassin brothers known as Makoto and Yuri Kamimura, are out to make names for themselves and learn that by killing Chisato and Mahiro, they could take their places in the organisation. This naturally leads to both duos having an epic showdown. 

Much like it's predecessor, Baby Walkure 2 is a very competently made movie. Yugo Sakamoto knows how to shoot with a low budget and get great results. I feel like there was a much more subtle approach to the usage of colours this time around, but it's still there and used well enough to highlight certain emotions and elements of scenes. The cinematography is a dynamic array of various shot types, including both moving and static shots. Sakamoto knows when to keep the frame still and when to add character by moving the camera and making scenes much more fluid. 

The action was once again superb and a lot of credit has to go to Kensuke Sonomura's expert choreography. One of the stand out fights in my humble opinion is the very first fight scene of the movie in which we see the Kanimura brothers take out a room full of a rough mah-jong playing crowd. There's a really gritty intensity to the fight and there's also a feeling of actual struggle with the choreography having a rather realistic look with the brothers violently fending off the group. The frantic and chaotic nature of the fight feels real and that's always a good thing. 

In contrast to this, the later mascot fight between Chisato and Mahiro is also well choreographed, but incorporates elements of comedy as the two friends get physical. It's a fun fight and the comedy did help in regards to the fact that I don't believe Chisato could go toe to toe with Mahiro in hand to hand combat. From what we saw in the first movie, Mahiro would wipe the floor with Chisato in a serious fight. 

The final fight is also really well choreographed with Mahiro and Yuri having an epic showdown at the climax of the movie. It also subverts expectations with a bit of a fake out, but it works and is a nice contrast to the gun fights earlier on. Credit to Saori Izawa and Joey Iwanaga for doing all of the fight sequences themselves, which isn't surprising with their backgrounds, but they excel in this scenes. Credit also to Akari Takaishi and Tsuomi Hamada for doing their own stunts as well.  

Some of the comedy really worked such as the pudding scene with Mana provoking reactions from the guys by making them wait only to say that the pudding is delicious. I laughed when Tasaka tried the same tactic only for the others to simply not care at all. Overall though, it was really hit and miss for me personally. I did enjoy Chisato and Mahiro being annoyed at the bank robbery and the comedic fight scene in which they beat up the robbers out of sheer annoyance. 

Mahiro's hair was different this time around. It was much more vibrant and way straighter and cleaner than before and that bugged me. I wanted some consistency! She also talked much more than in the first movie to the point were it almost felt like a different character. Thankfully, the scene in which she refuses to go out because the she'd meet the neighbours before she and Chisato accidently let off a smoke grenade exists to at least let her retain some element of social awkwardness. There's also the scene in which Mana talks to her with Mahiro looking rather awkward that I related to. Other than that though, she talked way too much for someone supposedly socially awkward.  Not to take away from Saori Izawa as she was awesome in the role and truly shined in both the action and the comedy. I hope she gets bigger roles with larger budget productions because she's too talented not too. 

Chisato had one of the best comedic scenes in the movie with her overconfident Shogi play. The fact that she lost every single piece and didn't seem to take a single one of her opponent's was great. She was still the loudmouthed showboat from the first movie and Akari Takaishi seems to have a ton of fun portraying her. 

The Kamimura brothers were a great foil to the protagonists. They were virtually symbolic of being the male counterparts to both Chisato and Mahiro. Starting the movie out by following their exploits was a good move as it made me more invested in the pair and I found them to be quite likable despite them being the antagonists. If they weren't trying to kill the heroines, I'm sure they could have been good friends. Joey Iwanaga is another actor that deserves to be in bigger roles, he was great as Yuri Kamimura and also played another great antagonist in Red Blade. His physicality lends itself well to action and I hope he makes more action movies. 

Overall, I thought that Baby Walkure 2 was a fun sequel. It was not as good as the first movie, but that comes down to personal preference as I much preferred the relatable Mahiro of the first movie and how tight everything was. Nevertheless, it was still a fun watch and I would recommend that fans of the first movie check it out to form your own opinions on it. I'd also recommend it to fans of action comedies and Yugo Sakamoto's work.