Wicked City [VHS]
The premise ofWicked Cityhas been used in a number of other anime features, includingLegend of the Overfiend: Earth is linked to a parallel world of demons, whose inhabitants can cross the barrier separating the planets. Dashing Taki Renzaburo, a secret agent assigned to handle invaders from the "Black World," finds himself partnered with Makie, a gorgeous Black World woman. Their assignment: to protect Giuseppe Mayart, a bigwig coming to Tokyo to sign a 500-year peace treaty between the worlds. Mayart, who typifies the sniggering, diminutive lechers who often turn up in anime, hardly seems to warrant all this bother. Protecting him draws Taki and Makie into a series of exceedingly violent encounters with "radicals" from the Black World who oppose the treaty, including their shape-shifting, unkillable leader and a spider-woman with fanged genitalia. Blood and gore fly amid scenes of rape, torture, shootings, slashings, and exploding bodies. Yoshiaki Kawajiri directs skillfully, although the simian Mayart never blends into the realistic world of the film.Wicked Citywas a landmark work when it was released in 1987, and it retains a cult following. But many subsequent features--notably Mamoru Oshii's darkly brilliantGhost in the Shell--have eclipsed it. Not rated; suitable for ages 18 and up for nudity, sexual situations, profanity, rape, violence, grotesque imagery, and violence against women.--Charles Solomon