In fact, the whole film’s structure seems to be geared a little differently this time around. This is an incredibly welcome development. Where the first film occasionally lost the balance between the intrinsic humour of the material and the set-piece action, Eguichi seems like he wants to get the big stuff out of the way so he can focus on the character based plotting. Opening with a massive car chase, one in which a vehicle goes careening off the top of a building, THE FABLE: THE KILLER WHO DOESN’T KILL (ザ・ファブル　殺さない殺し屋) wastes no time in establishing the parameters of its own scale. He’s right, of course: Utsubo works for rival contact killer Suzuki (Masanobu Ando) and is extorting their victims. Yet when non-profit worker Utsubo (Shinichi Tsutsumi) sets up shop, Sato suspects something is up. Akira Sato, the legendary altruistic killer known as Fable, now lives in relative peace with his partner Yoko (Fumino Kimura) as siblings. Building on Katsuhisa Minami’s manga of the same name, the offbeat 2019 film navigated several styles to worm its way into our hearts with its anti-hero and his band of regulars.ĭirector Kan Eguichi’s sequel confidently steps in as a ready-made and self-contained entity. The image of Junichi Okada’s titular hitman with a parrot perched on his head quickly worked its way into the hearts and minds of Japanese film lovers a few years ago.

All the esoteric elements come together nicely, with some large scale set-pieces that are world class. One of those rare instances where the sequel outdoes the original.

The fable 2021