Re:Born (2016)

Re:Born marks the grand return of action star Tak Sakaguchi, in what is obviously a bit of a passion project. More a showcase of raw talent than a particularly coherent film, Re:Born is nevertheless hugely enjoyable if you like watching a whole load of remarkable fight choreography. The narrative is familiar: former special operative Toshiro (Tak Sakaguchi) now lives a quiet life in a small town with his adopted niece Sachi (Yura Kondo), but that sense of normality is shattered when his past catches up with him, and he must re-visit is deadly skills in order to protect all he believes in.

The story is paper-thin, but that’s intentionally so – this is foremost a chance to watch skilled performers and martial artists do their thing. That around 40 minutes or so of the film is taken up by an extended fight sequence in a forest indicates that well enough. If you’re expecting a necessarily involving story, then you might want to look elsewhere, but, having said that, for me there’s enough charisma and acting chops from the cast to make it work. Sakaguchi, in particular, manages to exude a brooding charisma despite a very un-showy performance. The way in which the film recounts Toshiro’s past life doesn’t always quite work – jump cuts are used in a very disorientating way, signalling flash back scenes or moments from a different timeline. It makes following what we’re being shown difficult, but, when it comes to the action, the editing is very well done.

Naturally, the action is what we’re here for. While the film features some interesting parallels to The Mo Brothers’ Headshot, namely in its depiction of children trained and used as henchmen, the action that’s found in Re:Born is distinctly different from what we’re used to in either the violent South East Asian action of Thai or Indonesian productions, or from the balletic style of modern wuxia films. With Re:Born, Sakaguchi, director Yûji Shimomura and combat director Inagawa Yoshitaka present an incredibly efficient vision of action and combat: the film boasts not so much fight scenes as very long sequences of very short fights, Sakaguchi less beating people up as dispatching them with a few strikes. Based on Yoshitaka’s own brand of combat, this ‘zero range combat’ is a marvel to watch on screen (and I only wish I could have seen this on a big screen for that very reason).

If this style of quick brutality sounds potentially repetitive, well, it is, but the film is mostly paced well and it really shines when Sakaguchi faces off with more impressive foes – his fight with child-soldier Casper (the brilliant Makoto Sakaguchi) being a particular highlight for me. The film also has a certain sense of realism to it – Toshiro dresses ready for battle in baggy clothes, and takes a moment to re-tie his ponytail, mid-battle. Moments in the film slightly undermine this, such as his nevertheless entertaining fight with assassin Newt (Mariko Shinoda), who is a short-skirted badass who rather seems to have stepped out of a different film.

Unfortunately, this release doesn’t include much by way of special features – a making of would be very welcome, for example, but rather it comes with just a very short festival introduction by the cast and crew (which makes more sense once you watch the film) and a couple of trailers. The film looks great, though, and I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who enjoys watching intricate martial arts work unfold in phenomenal fashion.

Re:Born is out now on DVD and Blu-ray from Eureka Home Entertainment.