For the previous decade or so, numerous motion thrillers have arrived in theaters or on the finest streaming providers and have been in comparison with John Wick. Much like the “Pace on a [insert mode of transportation]” trope of the Nineties, the “John Wick in [insert setting or situation]” idea has taken the world by storm. The 2025 Netflix film, Demon Metropolis, has been in comparison with the Keanu Reeves motion franchise, however I feel it has extra in frequent with one other, bloodier, revenge thriller.
I just lately watched Demon Metropolis with my Netflix subscription, and although it wasn’t the perfect 2025 film I’ve watched to this point, this brutal, blood-soaked revenge saga had me wanting to observe one of the violent and messed-up motion pictures of the twenty first century: Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.
Demon Metropolis Is A Brutal Revenge Thriller With A Complete Lot Of Lore And Thriller
SPOILER ALERT: The next sections comprise main spoilers for Demon Metropolis. Should you’ve but to observe Netflix’s new motion film, please train excessive warning.
There was quite a bit to like about Demon Metropolis, Seiji Tanaka’s stripped-down adaptation of the long-lasting Onigoroshi manga collection, however the perfect factor concerning the outrageously violent film is the brutal story of revenge at its core. Toma Ikuta’s Sakata, a former yakuza hitman framed for the deaths of his spouse and daughter earlier than being left to die, is a spectre-like determine who comes out of a vegetative state after 12 years to enact revenge towards a gaggle of very highly effective males hiding their identities behind conventional Japanese demon masks. And boy, does he get his revenge…
Over the course of the film’s practically two-hour runtime, Sakata kills wave after wave of armed goons, henchmen, and high-level gangsters as he makes an attempt to avenge each his household and a life that would have been. As he works his method to the highest of the proverbial meals chain of Shingo Metropolis’s legal underbelly, he learns a lot about his attackers, their supporters, and people he as soon as thought have been his associates.
However, on prime of all that, Demon Metropolis has a complete lot of lore and thriller. At occasions, it looks like a nice Japanese horror film with speak of a wayward demon in Shingo who has lengthy sought a correct vessel in order that they might help them make the evildoers of the town pay for his or her transgressions.
I Can See The place The John Wick Comparisons Are Coming From, Each With The Story And Motion
There are a ton of articles everywhere in the web saying Demon Metropolis is akin to the John Wick motion pictures, with retailers like Complete Movie (by way of GamesRadar) writing that “followers would possibly discover themselves in acquainted territory” with the brand new Japanese motion thriller. And I can completely see it.
Each motion pictures comply with hitmen of few phrases who needed nothing greater than to place a lifetime of contract killings behind them and luxuriate in time with their respective households earlier than being thrown again into the motion following extreme tragedies. Demon Metropolis and John Wick each have a collection of more and more violent and well-choreographed struggle and motion sequences that up the ante for the style. And each tales middle on revenge.
Demon Metropolis has extra in frequent with John Wick than it doesn’t, however there’s one other film that I stored fascinated by all through my viewing, one which’s a complete lot extra tousled than something Keanu Reeves has been concerned in over time.
However Actually, I Suppose It Has Extra In Widespread With Outdated Boy
Demon Metropolis is a Japanese motion film wherein the hero could or might not be possessed by a demon, and Oldboy is a Korean thriller a couple of man attempting to determine why he’s been imprisoned in a lodge room for 15 years, however I couldn’t cease evaluating the 2 throughout my viewing. Not solely are each movies sensible revenge tales about crazed males going to hell and again (repeatedly) to seek out solutions and get vengeance, however they’re additionally two of essentially the most extremely violent motion pictures I’ve ever seen.
These motion pictures, above all, are gratuitously violent and don’t pull a single punch from begin to end. Blood being splattered on partitions, children getting shot, physique components being reduce off, dangerous guys dying in terrifying methods. There are these lengthy and elaborate struggle sequences that go on ceaselessly, however by no means turn into boring, exhausting, or overdone, which is a uncommon feat in cinema. And, with each being nice motion pictures primarily based on comedian books, the comparisons simply hold coming.
Then there’s the entire enterprise with each motion pictures being about fathers reconnecting with their daughters. It is simply that Demon Metropolis by no means goes as excessive as Oldboy, which I used to be pleased to see.
Demon Metropolis’s Ending Is not As Unnerving As Oldboy, However That is Fairly A lot Unattainable
As I discussed above, Demon Metropolis and Oldboy have father-daughter relationships at their core. Whereas the previous by no means comes near touching the degrees of heartbreak, anguish, and disgust because the latter, this doesn’t imply that it doesn’t have some tousled stuff occurring.
To today, the Oldboy reveal, which I received’t disclose for the sake of my very own sanity and to to not damage the twist for the uninitiated, is without doubt one of the most tousled endings of all time. It could be subsequent to inconceivable for Demon Metropolis to outdo that actually gut-wrenching and traumatizing second, and even come shut for that matter. The truth is, possibly that is for the perfect.
A Colleague Additionally In contrast Demon Metropolis To The Crow, And Now I Cannot Cease Pondering About That
Simply earlier than I began scripting this, a colleague messaged me and drew a comparability between Demon Metropolis and The Crow (the 1994 Brandon Lee film, not the 2024 travesty). And you understand, ever since he talked about that, I haven’t been capable of cease fascinated by how a lot the 2 motion pictures have in frequent. Each middle on anti-heroes who have been primarily introduced again from the lifeless resulting from some supernatural entities, each are grueling revenge thrillers, and each are darkish as hell.
Maybe sooner or later I’ll return and do a point-by-point breakdown of the 2 and what number of concepts and ideas they share. Till subsequent time…
Demon Metropolis was one of many greatest surprises of the yr to this point, and it’s not simply because it made me take into consideration Oldboy for the primary time in a really very long time.