Tôichirô Rutô’s directorial venture, “The Violence Action,” leans towards the comedic sub-genre of action films. Despite the connections that the plot develops, which almost become confusing after a point of time, the film doesn’t pay much heed to clarify them but settles it all by bringing the two strongest characters face to face. “The Violence Action” sets up its story pretty well but fails to deliver a proper ending in trying to deliver its action-genre promise.
Spoilers Ahead
‘The Violence Action’ Plot Synopsis: What Happens In The Film?
A young guy named Terano (played by Yosuke Sugino) helps a sweet girl by paying for her bus fare, whose face gets imprinted on his mind. He arrives at his home, the Denma-Gumi clan, where his father, Sandaime (Jiro Sato), leader of the Denma-Gumi clan, is having a meeting. Sandaime declares that he intends to choose his successor as he is about to go to prison. The board includes his second-in-command, Kinoshita (Katsunori Takahashi). Kinoshita’s right-hand man is Ayabe (Shunsuke Daitoh), who is the CEO of the clan’s business front, Ayabe Finance. Kinoshita also has another guy, Kaneko (Win Morisaki), who carries out all the dirty work for him. The board also includes Kunitsu (Daiki Hyōdō), who is the oldest member of the board. Michitaka (Yu Shirota) is the most dangerous assassin at Sandaime’s table.
Sandaime has two sons: Terano, who manages all the finances, including the transactions of Ayabe Finance, and Kura (Kenta Izuka), who was admitted to the hospital after being shot a month earlier. He was shot by Kaneko. Kinoshita and Kunitsu are both fighting for the throne of the Denma-Gumi clan. Meanwhile, Terano finds alterations in the financial accounts. He tells Kura that he will destroy all those who go against his family. He even tells his father, Sandaime, that the funds requested by their clan for stock trades are excessive, and the extra money has been siphoned into a different account.
On the other hand, Ayabe is abducted by Kunitsu’s men. Kunitsu lost a lot of money after listening to Ayabe’s insider information. Naturally, he wants the money back by any means necessary. Kinoshita fixes a meeting with Kunitsu. At the meeting, he offers Kunitsu $100 million, but it is a hoax. Inside the case (that has the money) is a camera that is watching them. Outside, Kei Kikuno and her team are waiting for the right moment to strike Kunitsu’s men.
Kei Kikuno (Kanna Hashimoto) is a student by day and a contract killer by night. One day, on the way to work from school, she is impressed by a guy who pays for her bus fare, and his face gets imprinted on her mind. She works at the Supple and Natural Girls Delivery Service, which is run by a woman addressed as “boss” (Fumika Baba). The organization uses a ramen shop as its front. On their team, they also have Zura (Takashi Okamura), a middle-aged second-hand man; newly recruited Daria (Yûri Ota), who is a sniper; and Watanabe (Oji Suzuka), Kei’s new friend from school. One day, they receive a contract to kill a member of the Denma-Gumi clan, Kunitsu. They are supposed to kill Kunitsu when he is at a meeting with the person who hired them, i.e., Kinoshita. Kei breaches the location, and Kunitsu is ultimately killed by Daria’s bullet. Kinoshita brings back Ayabe. This doesn’t go down well with Sandaime, who sends Michitaka, his most dangerous assassin, to kill Kei and Daria. Moreover, Kinoshita sends Kaneko to kill Kei and Daria, probably to remove evidence. This is because if Sandaime gets his hands on the girls, he will find out about Kinoshita and that he was the one who got Kunitsu killed. It is Michitaka, not Kaneko, who attacks the two girls first, and Daria gets wounded. Kei manages to pull off a distraction and escape with Daria, who is hurt badly. She is admitted to the same hospital where Terano’s brother Kura is admitted too. Terano and Kei come face-to-face for the second time.
The very day on which Terano meets Kei at the hospital, Kura pulls the plug and kills himself. Terano blames the clan for his brother’s death and escapes with all the money, including the amount he found inside Ayabe’s safe, i.e., the excess funds from another account. Kei’s services are required again by Kinoshita, but this time it won’t be easy for her to kill the target. It is Terano. Also, Michitaka and Kaneko are still looking for Kei and Daria and will stop at nothing to kill them. Will Kei kill Terano, a person she has taken a liking to after a long time? Will Kaneko or Michitaka kill Kei and Daria? Whatever the answers are, they will involve a lot of “violent action.”
The Consequences
While shooting Kunitsu, Daria observes Kaneko through her sniper scope and is shocked. We later find out that years ago, when Daria was a child, her parents were killed by members of the Yakuza, who then took her and trained her to kill. Kaneko was one of the members. She wanted her suffering to end, and it did end with her killing Kaneko. Daria has been carrying the burden of this suffering for as long as she can remember, a weight that she never wanted to carry. It was put on her by Kaneko, and it is through his death that Daria finally frees herself of the burden.
Kunitsu and Kinoshita both die horrible deaths as a result of immoral sinister intent to be the leader of the Denma-Gumi clan. While Kunitsu is shot to death, Kinoshita is blown to bits by a grenade. What’s surprising is that both die at the hands of their brother (considering they all belong to the same clan, which makes them brothers in a way). Kunitsu is killed by Daria, who was hired by Kinoshita. Kinoshita dies at the hands of his boss, Sandaime’s son, Terano.
Michitaka is defeated (not killed) by Kei, a woman whose kind he dislikes. He took pride in himself and the fact that his targets never survived. He does manage to hurt Daria and Kei but ultimately suffers defeat at the hands of Kei, who miraculously heals after seemingly having a dream. This happened after Michitaka fired nails into her stomach. This brings us to the next topic.
Kei’s Dream Concept
Kei believes that everyone should have a dream, big or small. But does this belief root in her inability to dream for herself? She tells Daria, as well as Terano, about dreaming. We do not know anything about her dream or what she even wants. Kei never found love as such but always dreamed of it. We could understand her affection for Terano, and it was evident that Terano loved her too. She has been so involved in killing people that she has deliberately kept her feelings at bay so that they don’t interfere with her work. In the dream sequence, we hear a female voice reminding her to dream. The voice is probably that of her mother, the first person that anyone starts to love in their life. The voice renews Kei’s faith in dreaming. Maybe she dreams of being with Terano or at least of staying in contact with him. Towards the end of the film, when she thinks that Terano is dead, we see how quickly she becomes her older self, one that is unmoved by loss. It is only at the end of the film that she receives a message from Terano. The message contains pictures of New York and a cheesecake. Both of these are what Terano told Kei he dreamed of. In this way, Kei’s dream comes true. She may not be with Terano, but she knows that he is alive and well.
‘The Violence Action’ Ending Explained: What Happens to Sandaime and Terano? Is Michitaka Dead?
With his two main board members (Kinoshita and Kunitsu) as well as one son (Kura) dead and the other (Terano) missing, Sandaime has only Ayabe at his disposal. There is no one left to challenge his seat when he is serving his sentence. Terano survived his fall and made it to New York. He even has the three coins that Kei threw into the dam after his fall. Thinking that he was dead, Kei threw the coins to clear her debt to him (the money Terano paid for her bus fare). Later on, in the picture with the cheesecake that Kei receives from Terano, we also see the three coins. This means that Terano still remembers and thinks about Kei.
As for Michitaka, he has made it out alive despite being heavily wounded by Kei. He found his way to Kei’s ramen shop and had a bowl of ramen. Before leaving, he tells the boss that he will be back. This means that “The Violence Action” will have a sequel that will bring Michitaka face-to-face with Kei once again. It will be more brutal as both of them will have had more experience in their art of killing. Michitaka knows about Terano, so he might find a way to track him down and use him as bait to get hold of Kei. Ayabe will probably serve as the leader of the Denma-Gumi clan while Sandaime is away. We have to wait to see how Ayabe makes use of the position. As unstable as he is, he might just have Sandaime killed and become the new head of the clan. This is something that Michitaka wouldn’t like, as he respects Sandaime a lot and addresses him as “Father.” Kei might also decide to go to New York and meet Terano. All this proves that the potential sequel will raise the stakes of “violence action” quite a lot.
“The Violence Action” is a 2022 Drama Action film directed by Tôichirô Rutô.
