GFF 2025: Baby Assassins: Nice Days
Coming across like an anime leaping to live-action, Yugo Sakamoto's latest entry in his Baby Assassins series is an infectious and silly delight
It's not the sole factor behind his star power, but a key element to Jackie Chan's success during his 1980s heyday was his skill in making his extraordinary stunts feel like a natural extension of his character from the scenes where he wasn't crashing through glass or flipping over cars. Yes, he looked like a badass during all those kinetic, dangerous sequences, but the specific nuances of his performance in the 'calmer' comedic or dramatic scenes are still very much present in the movements and reactions of his fight scenes. You fully believe that it's the anxious sergeant getting wrecked in Police Story, not Jackie Chan the stuntman flexing his craft.
What does this have to do with the hugely entertaining Baby Assassins: Nice Days, the latest entry in Yugo Sakamoto's increasingly lauded series of Japanese action-comedies? Well, across three films now, Saori Izawa (as Mahiro) has proven herself worthy of comparisons to Chan for that exact same quality to her performance. She's the shyer half of a pair of socially awkward young-adult assassins more concerned with the slacking and snacking possibilities of their latest assignment, which takes them from their Tokyo hub to the coastal city of Miyazaki.
Deftly supporting her is the lovably deranged Chisato, beautifully played by Akari Takaishi in one of the mightiest comic turns of this decade. Like the surrounding film, Takaishi's equally deadpan and exuberant performance resembles a great anime comedy show leaping to live-action with all its infectious silliness successfully translated – but crucially, with its heart still intact.
Baby Assassins: Nice Days had its UK premiere at Glasgow Film Festival