HYDRA Review: A Slowburn Assassin Potboiler With Too Many Heads
Hydra, the new action crime thriller directed by Kensuke Sonomura, starts off strong with the brutal murder of a police detective in a men’s restroom stall by a silent, proficient assassin armed only with a Philips head screwdriver. We’re then introduced to a Cleaner type character who collects the body and cleans the crime scene. Then it smoothly segues into a nice homage to Michael Mann as the Cleaner travels through the city at night. His journey is accompanied by a track by Hydra’s composer Moku that apes Tangerine Dream as much as Director of Photography Yasuyuki Suzuki’s digital photography apes Dion Beebe’s work on Mann’s Collateral and Miami Vice. And then the problems start. We spend a fair amount of time with the Cleaner as he makes this gorgeously shot drive home, disposes of the body from the first scene and then feeds his pet piranhas. Just as we […]