Wicked City
Year: 1987
Director: Yoshiaki
Kawajiri
Rating: 6.0
Long long ago I enjoyed the Hong Kong live
film version (I had the vhs tape) of this Japanese Manga/Anime released in
1992 with a script from Tsui Hark with Tsui also producing it. From what
I gather not a lot of people do. So when I came across the anime I thought
this could be fun. And it was, but I sure don't recall any nudity and sex
in the HK film - which I am thankful for since it stars Leon Lai, Jacky Cheung
and Michelle Reis - but damn this animation is chock block full of it. Was
not expecting that. I have to say that I find animated sex to be high up
there in the creepy category - right next to old men flashing in raincoats
and men hanging around school yards watching children play. I don't get it.
But people like what people like and Japanese mainstream anime has a lot
of it - or at least once did. So I had to sit through a number of sexual
encounters - which admittedly were livened up a bit when the female turned
into a demon spider and tried to kill the male or another one who sucks him
in - all of him - every man's nightmare.
There has been peace between the two species
- human and demon - for hundreds of years and another Peace Treaty needs
to be signed to keep it. Taki from the Black Guard is assigned to protect
Mr. Mayart, a wizened old man who can't keep his hands off women or himself
out of hostess bars and massage parlors. Mayart is necessary for the Peace
Treaty to be signed and a rebel terrorist faction of demons wants him dead.
Working with Taki is a female Black Guard from the Demon world - the very
cool Makie. Together they fend off attack after attack and slowly a bond
grows between them but can there be real love between a man and a demon.
The world may depend on it.
This is weird imaginative fun if nothing
else - an interesting Blade Runnerish sort of story - or maybe also influenced
by all those snake into women films popular in Asia. The animation itself
may have seemed more sophisticated 33 years ago but pales compared to some
of the Japanese animation I have seen of late. It is based on a collection
of ten manga novels from Hideyuki Kikuchi, who is also the author of the
Vampire Hunter D series.
