Hydra (2019)

• Year: 2019
• Released: 23 Nov 2019
• Country: Japan
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10428440/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hydra
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Japanese
• Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
• Runtime: 77 min
• Writer: Jiro Kaneko
• Director: Kensuke Sonomura
• Cast: Masanori Mimoto, Miu, Tasuku Nagase

	5.8/10
	12% – Audience

Hydra Storyline

Hydra – a small bar in the middle of Tokyo. There’s Takashi, standoffish guy working where he hides his another identity of a highly skilled hit man now has to face a brutal killing game that he has been pointed as a target.

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Hydra Movie Reviews

Surprising? Yes. Should it be? No.

Should I be surprised that an 80 minutes long foreign film has more depth, story, better acting, camerawork, and action than Black Widow? No. Was I? Yes. Let’s stop feeding the fuel fire that is Disney and Hollywood. They’re just making a quick buck.

This? This is cinema. I loved it.

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Well Go continues to release some of the best action films out there. While martial arts movies have been made in the US nothing can compare to the speed, action and quality of fight sequences to come from Asian films. HYRDA is yet another in that list of films that all action fans should seek out.

Hydra is a small bar in Tokyo owned and operated by Rina Kishida (Miu). Rina only has two people working for her, most notably Takashi Sato, a quiet unassuming man who is an expert culinary chef. Takashi keeps to himself and says little, just arriving to work and going home each night.

All of this changes when a regular customer to the bar slips a drug into Rina’s drink. Hasegawa has been doing this to other patients in the past and Takashi has caught him. Now Takashi’s past catches up with the present and he tracks down Hasegawa, retrieving Rina and letting him know that she is off limits. When Hasegawa turns up dead the next day, Takashi is called in to meet his former employer.

It seems that Takashi once worked as an assassin for a vigilante group that took out corrupt police and politicians. Hasegawa was their next target but someone else took him out first. Now they’re concerned that a new group is on the scene coming after them as well as those corrupt officers. They ask Takashi to help find them.

Throughout all of this we get a look into Takashi’s background as well. Orphaned and picked up by this group he was trained to be the skilled killer that he is now. But one fateful day that all changed with an assignment he was given. He walked away from the group and walked into the life of the tiny bay Hydra. This was not a choice made in haste but a purposeful destination.

HYDRA is strange in that there is a depth of story involved here that’s being told but not so deep as to need a ton of explanation. Most likely you will figure out much of it within the early minutes of the film. And yet there are still enough twists and turns to hold your interest from start to finish.

In addition to that are the fighting sequences which are some of the fastest moving scenes I’ve seen in years. I’ve seen a ton of movies in this genre and this one ranks among some of the best fight scenes I’ve witnessed. The fluidity and speed with which each strike, each parry and each launched attack takes place is mindboggling.

Odds are this movie isn’t going to be at the top of the que wherever it appears and that’s sad. In a world filled with half-baked concepts and scripts this one ranks above those. So make a point of seeking this one out. My guess is that once you do you’ll be looking to see what else Well Go is releasing.

great action carries muddled story

When I saw the title, I thought we were in for another Marvel origin movie – this time about the evil organization the Agents of S. H. I. E. L. D. spend their lives fighting. Not the case. This one’s a subtitled Japanese crime flick that’s long on action and short on everything else. The fight scenes will justify the time for any martial arts junkies who remember to set the rest of their expectations on low.

First-time director Kensuke Sonomura, who also appears in a substantial role, has 75 stunt gigs under his (presumably) black belt. That history allowed him to choreograph a couple of the most exciting, unique fight scenes in the genre. No wires or CGI pyrotechnics. Just a couple of foes squaring off in gritty matches of speed and agility with normal-people weapons. These scenes are akin to the cherished chase scene in Steve McQueen’s Bullitt – exciting for their atypically bare-bones staging.

The plot centers around a disenchanted hitman who has secretly dedicated himself to protecting the daughter of a deceased colleague. When trouble arises from some local gangs, it’s time to get back in the saddle. The details matter little, and, frankly, could have used the hand of a skilled editor to bring them into a more cohesive narrative. As it plays out now, timelines, characters and motivations are rather muddled, isolating the fights as the main, if not only, attraction.

Stunt men can ripen into outstanding directors. Clint Eastwood and Hal Needham come quickly to mind in that regard. Sonomura might get there. He’s still young. If he surrounds himself with skilled storytellers to balance his wealth of action knowledge, he could be a contendah.