“We kill people so we don’t have to get boring jobs.” It’s as simple as that: unassuming teenagers Mahiro and Chisato are employed to bump people off. Skilled in hand-to-hand combat and with firearms, their assignments typically involve some amount of getting into character, before they grow bored and make a mess of the place, to the chagrin of a specialised cleaning service. Aim for the heart, not the head, Chisato is told repeatedly. It’s tidier.

A mix-up with a Yakuza family turns hunter into hunted for a while, but Baby Assassins is less interested in stakes than in its cool premise and the relationship between the central pair. Self-described sociopath Mahiro is reserved; outgoing Chisato is more open to their employer’s orders to move in together and get part-time jobs alongside their killings. Their differences are extreme, and the odd couple would work just as well on the pages of a comic book, along with the rest of the film. Its impressive choreography and colourful villains feel of a kind with superheroes and graphic novels, for better and worse. It has the lightness of an accessible page turner, but lacks the kind of depth the big screen allows for.

But that lightness carries the film along with a healthy pace and jarringly wholesome humour. On the way to a significant kill, the girls worry about where to park their bike in case they get a ticket. The film is playful, death is labour, and watching different personalities attempt to co-habit is universally an endless well for conflict and comedy.

Baby Assassins is what it looks like. If the mix of comedy and action that comes with two adolescent hitgirls sounds appealing, even if it is left wanting for substance and more development, then it hits just enough right notes.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Yukina Fukushima, Saori Izawa

DIRECTOR: Yugo Sakamota 

WRITER: Yugo Sakamota 

SYNOPSIS: Chisato and Mahiro are two high school girls who are about to graduate.They also happen to both be highly skilled assassins.When the organisation they work for orders them to share a room, the relationship between turns sour.