Wild 7 : Lets Blow Up Shit with the Pacing of a Video Game

Action films from Japan tend to be an awkward mix of anime-style story telling and noir-style pacing. Japanese action films rarely focus on blowing things up in a fast pace. There’s always a slow lead up to the final moment rather than there being a fight to the finish. There’s more of a focus on diving in to the mind of the protagonist and the characters around him. Wild 7, on the other hand, tries to bring a Hollywood approach to the small genre. From the first scene to the final scene, we see a rag team of seven ex-cons engaging in gun fights and killing sprees. There’s a strong western influence with less focus on character development and focusing more opportunity to moving the group to the next big fight scene. But, is this attempt at “Hollywood action” well executed?

Some scenes in this movie defy logic but hey it’s an action movie.

Well, first let’s give some backstory on this whole movie. Wild 7 is based upon the manga from the 1970s of the same name, a story about a group of reformed ex-cons put together by a former cop to basically do the work that the police can’t do themselves. The big difference being that the Wild 7 will not hesitate to kill to get the job done. The manga series was popular enough to last an entire decade, have a drama based upon it, then two animation works, and now followed up by a modern interpretation of the story.

I am not familiar with the manga or anime itself, but I did do enough reading to notice some divergences from the manga — which apparently this movie is based upon. The Wild 7 crew has changed save for about four characters. All their names have changed except for three. The backstory on how this Wild 7 came to be has also changed. The original story reflected Japan of that time and this version reflects the Japan of today. With not knowing the source material, watching this movie allowed me to look with fresh eyes without prejudice. Which, on occasion, can be a blessing.

The original Wild 7

Now, Wild 7 definitely isn’t a masterpiece in film making. It’s nearly two hours of gun fights and explosions with a subplot thrown in the mix. If there’s one thing that’s awkward, if not slightly annoying, is this movie’s pacing. Wild 7 tries to be Hollywood but it still is Japanese. It still is ‘cartoony’. Majority of the film is explained through exposition spoken by the characters to make up for plot development. Why are these terrorists here? Cue in exposition. How come they got the virus? Cue in exposition. Everything is explained rather than shown so we can simply jump into a chase scene or a gun battle. There’s no time to develop any of the characters because the movie is too busy explaining something.

I really don’t give any fucks about Yuki Honma.

Another drag to the story is the subplot between Hiba, played by Eita, and Yuki, played by the mind numbingly terrible Kyoko Fukada. The movie starts strong and continues strong until we are introduced to Yuki, a femme fetale with a tarnished past. I don’t know if this subplot, which ends up becoming the main in some bizarre twist, would have been more tolerable had another actress played the character of Yuki but the story is so dry that it breaks the flow of the movie tremendously.  In many ways, the story of Hiba and Yuki could have been used to build up the other six members of Wild 7.

Which, is another low point for this movie. We have a group of assassins, or ” Above the Law ” cops, that we don’t know anything about. We are introduced to them in one scene, then they quickly fade into the background to make room for Hiba and Yuki’s moments. Sekai, played by Shiina Kippei, is one of two members in the Wild 7 that gets enough screen time to warrant a character development piece all for himself. A moment that is quickly short lived. Pyro, played by Maruyama Ryuhei, also has a moment to shine in the final fight, but his character development is quickly shelved to make way for Hiba’s grand finale.

We have a team of characters, a team that the movie is named after, that we really don’t know anything about. That was kind of frustrating.

The acting in this movie is great. Even if our ragtag team of assassins don’t have much screen time, they bring 100% of their skills to the role that they’re playing. I’m sure if we had more screen time on them we probably would have had some great character moments. Another shocker, for me being the fangirl that I am, was Maruyama’s approach to the character. Even though I joked on my tumblr how out of the entire group of 7, Maruyama always seemed to be the “kawaii” one, he definitely managed to act this character in a way that I did not feel as if I was watching “Maru” of Kanjani8. Especially, in the final fight, where I saw this pyromaniac taking control of the situation. Shiina is also an excellent actor, and with what little he did have to work with, he brought forth all he had. You actually could sympathize with him even if his story seemed randomly thrown in for the sake of tension in the final battle.

Maru plays the youngest of the bunch; his character based off of Ryogoku, a young nerdy demolitions expert.

The weakest of them all though was Kyoko Fukada. She lacks personality, inflection, or emotion. She brings nothing out of her character and majority of the time you’re wishing for her to just disappear. Once you think her part in the story is done for good, low and behold, she’s back again. I believe the character of Yuki could have possibly been a great character had another actress had the role. A stronger, agressive, actress. Karina probably would have been an excellent pick to play the femme fatale than Kyoko Fukada who makes Yuki sound more like a damsel in distress that shoots really good.

Wild 7 is definitely not a bad movie. The cinematography was great and the action scenes were well coordinated. The editing was also great, especially the scene at the dinner party. A well shot scene, in my honest opinion (we’ll ignore the fact that it did, at times, feel like I was advancing in a video game). The music was alright, some tracks seemed too “anime” for the flow of the movie, and other tracks really fitting the mood. The motorbike scenes were also great as well.

If you’re a fangirl, there’s enough fanservice to get you by but the entire movie is simply a man’s movie. Explosions, strippers, gun fights, and motorcycles going at fast speeds. Wild 7 is an entertaining action flick that’s worth a casual watch but it’s no Bourne Identity. You won’t get to see Maruyama kill someone in cold blood (can’t tarnish that idol image too much), but you’ll get to see Eita, Shiina, and the rest pop off a few heads with a smile. There’s a lot of head shots, a lot of violence, and a lot of flying money… but that’s Hollywood action for ya. Yeah, some scenes drag and some moments leave you underwhelmed, but if you’re bored or curious, give the movie a sit through. You won’t be disappointed.

Strippers, guns, bombs, terrorists and corrupt politicians…. all the makings of an action flick.