“WE BUILT THIS CITY…”: A Word With ‘BAD CITY’ Director, Action Stylist And Filmmaker Kensuke Sonomura
November 2019 was like catching lightning in a bottle for me, personally. For as long as I’d been a fan of cult Japanese action cinema, I never thought I would get the chance to share space at a diner in New York City with a few of today’s best stunt professionals, namely burgeoning filmmaker Kensuke Sonomura who comes freshly out of U’den Flame Works, the prominently-owned Tokyo-based stunt and action wheelhouse headed-up by stunt maestro, Yuji Shimomura. For that matter, it’s also a welcome feat that I finally get to share a formal interview with Sonomura for the first time, as our latest dialogue comes on the precipice of a new campaign currently circulating the global festival scene to promote Bad City, his sophomore follow-up to freshman action thriller, Hydra.
Bad City pairs Sonomura for the first time with V-Cinema veteran, legendary actor Hitoshi Ozawa who wears several hats on the film, in addition to starring from his own script. In Bad City, Ozawa plays tough, grisled ex-cop Torada, who gets furloughed by Kaiko City’s beleagured top prosecutor to head up a covert task force to investigate the underhanded dealings of a corrupt tycoon played by Lily Franky (best known for his Tokyo Sports Film Award-winning Best Actor performance in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s celebrated 2019 drama, Shoplifters.) To do this, Torada gathers his old violent crimes unit, Kawamura (Hideto Katsuya) and Nishikazi (Masanori Mimoto), along with rookie addition Nohara (Akane Sakanoue), and begins investigating the latest brutal incident related to their case to start things off. What unfolds is an escalating bodycount, topped by unraveling loyalities and shocking twists, all which culminate into a final mano-e-mano showdown between Torada, and a vicious Korean/Japanese gang enforcer named Kim Seung-gi (Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi).
As you will also learn in the following interview just beneath this intro, Sonomura’s aforementioned 2019 freshman feature – a martial arts-tinged assassin thriller headlined by Masanori Mimoto – would ultimately be the starting point for a prospective meeting of minds between Ozawa and Sonomura. It would also be an opportune moment for Ozawa to celebrate his 60th birthday in a way he wanted: by starring in an intense and physically demanding action film in which he performs all his own action sequences and stunts. Joined by Sonomura’s own team in addition to the stylings and ornamental attributions of Mimoto and co-star, Japanese action superstar Tak Sakaguchi, Ozawa gets handed a playing field all his own.
The result? Well, you’re more than welcome to regail yourselves in my recent review of the film by clicking here. In the meantime, folks in the U.S. presently gathering to attend Fantastic Fest later this month are all invited to visit the official website, and if you haven’t yet warmed up to Hydra, you’ll find the film ripe for the occasion through Well Go USA and its exclusive streaming service, Hi-YAH!. You are also invited to enjoy our premiere interview for Film Combat Syndicate which you can read in full below.
Our interview was conducted in writing, and Sonomura was kind enough to provide his own translated answers below, which I’ve partly edited and amended for cohesion. Special thanks in part to producer Yuta Takahashi for helping to make this coverage possible.
Greetings, Kensuke-san! It is great to share dialogue with you once again, this time for a formal interview. How has 2022 been for you so far?
2022 has been a year of many things for me. I worked on two films as an action director while doing post-production on “Bad City,” so the first half of this year was very busy.
It’s been three years since your directing career took off with Hydra. With all that’s happened since the start of the pandemic, what is the atmosphere like for you nowadays as a film director in Japan?
Basically, I’ve just been prioritizing work around action directing, fight choreography and training, and using my free time to work on projects for my directorial films.
Your latest is Bad City, which partners you with a number of screen veterans like Hitoshi Ozawa. Talk about the development of this project and what it means to be able to collaborate with a V-cinema legend for your second feature film as your lead star?
One of our co-stars is Mr. Yamaguchi, who I’ve known for more than fifteen (15) years, and he was really appreciative of the fight action in HYDRA. He actually introduced me to Ozawa-san, and we began talking. He was turning 60, and he wanted to commemorate the occasion with an intense action film, and so he asked Mr. Yamaguchi if he could find a good director who could shoot action, and I came up as a candidate. Initially, I thought that Mr. Ozawa was going to direct the film himself and that I was invited as an action director, but I was surprised when Mr. Ozawa asked me to direct everything. I thought it would be a lot to handle at first, but Ozawa-san convinced me that I could do it, and so I decided to make this my second feature film. It had a bigger budget than HYDRA, but I had to do a lot more work to meet the demand, so it was very hard. Specifically speaking, the number of cast members increased considerably from that of “HYDRA,” which meant more parts needed direction. The action scenes alone were tough, but there were also many more drama scenes, so there was a lot to think about. All in all, I am glad I took on the role of director. I gained a lot of experience on this film.
I love the dynamics and camraderie that the lead character, Torada, shares with his V.C. Unit members played by Hideto Katsuya, Akane Sakanoue, and your Hydra colleague Masanori Mimoto. Did OZAWA have these actors in mind while writing the script?
We auditioned the role of Nohara, but I believe that Mr. Ozawa wrote the script for the other cast members based on his own image of the actors themselves.
©️ 2022 BAD CITY Film Partners
Talk about the process of training and rehearsing the action scenes with Ozawa-san and the rest of your cast, as well as your approach to the action design compared to a movie like Hydra.
I built the action scenes of BAD CITY to fit the story, aiming for choreography that expresses emotion. I wanted the audience to feel emotionally involved by putting the characters in this film through painful ordeals and insurmountable odds – situations where our protagonists are more likely to be hurt and wounded, but still continue to fight. The more difficult the situation is for our heroes, the more the audience will want to root for them.
With Mr. Ozawa, he is a V-cinema legend and has done a lot of action work in his career, so we only had one day of rehearsal, and the rest was fine on the set. Mr. Ozawa’s movements have a beastly violence to them, and I tried to monopolize off of that. The choreography was developed with the aim of creating something different from the martial arts stylings in HYDRA, something that is much more close to human instincts but still memorable. I believe that I was able to successfully fuse Ozawa’s action style with my own.
I was equally impressed with actress Sakanoue-san for her role as Nohara, the rookie of the V.C. unit, both dramatically as well as physically. Was this particular role like anything she had done before?
I think so. She has a background in rhythmic gymnastics and her body was very flexible, and when I saw her performance in the audition, her eyes really struck me. They seemed to have a very strong will to them, and so Ozawa-san, the producers and I decided that she would be a good choice.
One of the earliest stunt gigs you worked was Yuji Shimomura’s 2005 feature debut, Death Trance, starring Tak Sakaguchi, and now seventeen years later, you have directed him in your own movie. How does that make you feel after years of seeing him find his niche in light of your own proliferation as a director?
When I was working as a stunt performer, I never thought I would be a director. However, as I watched Mr. Shimomura’s work up close, I became interested in directing myself. So, I feel very fortunate. I learned a lot about how to direct action scenes from Mr. Shimomura, and now I make films with an awareness of my own personality.
Are there any particular moments or fond memories you have from working with Shimomura-san and Sakaguchi-san on your projects together?
During “Shinobi: Heart Under Blade” (2005), Mr. Shimomura was the action director and I was the stunt double for Mr. TAK. Mr. Shimomura told me to imitate the characteristics of Mr. TAK’s movement style, so I studied Mr. TAK’s movements diligently. Shimomura-san and TAK-san are old friends, so they understood each other’s methods very well. After that, I worked with Mr. Shimomura as his assistant and worked with TAK on many films, and recently I directed TAK as action director for the first time in “One Percenter” which we shot last year. I was very happy that TAK trusted me. We had a good relationship working on BAD CITY.
Did Ozawa, Sakaguchi, and Mimoto lend any input into the action design for BAD CITY?
©️ 2022 BAD CITY Film Partners
Ozawa-san loves action so much that he told me he wanted to do a stunt involving rolling down a flight of stairs, so I asked him to do it. Ozawa-san brought his own protective gear and padding, and happily rolled down the stairs, and to be very clear, Ozawa-san doesn’t use any stunt doubles in BAD CITY. He did it all by himself!
Masanori-san has also given me a lot of ideas, and it is because of his skill that I am able to play an equal role in a fight with TAK-san. I have known Masanori-san for 20 years, and as was the case with “HYDRA,” I create choreography while listening to his opinions. Masanori has moves and techniques that only he can perform, and I like those moves.
Working with Mr. TAK is always a unique experience. I get a lot of ideas from him because there are many moves that only he can make. When I work with actors other than Mr. Tak, I have a detailed choreography for the shoot, but with Mr. TAK, half of it is choreography, and the other half is improvisation. It removes expectation and creates spontaneity in the movements, and the result is something unimaginable. It’s a method that is possible only with TAK.
Bad City had its premiere at Neuchâtel earlier this summer. What have the reactions been so far? And, are you excited to see the film screen at Fantastic Fest this year?
I have not yet received a reaction in Neuchâtel, but I hope that international audiences will enjoy my style at Fantastic Fest as well.
Will you be able to make any in-person festival appearances in the coming year?
Unfortunately, we are still undecided.
Talk about the future of Bad City. Are there plans for any sequels or spin-offs?
Ozawa-san seems to have an idea for a spin-off or prequel.
We talked a little bit back in 2019 about one project that was in development, but that was before the pandemic began. Can you share the status of that project with us?
Unfortunately, the project I told you about as of 2019 hasn’t progressed much so far.
Do you know if you will be collaborating with Shimomura-san again someday?
Right now, we rarely get together for our respective films, but if Mr. Shimomura needs me, I would be willing to work with him.
©️ 2022 BAD CITY Film Partners
You came up from youth as a member of the Kurata Action Club so many years ago, and you’ve worked your way up to having fans of your own. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve dealt with in your career, and what are some of the most important lessons you’ve learned along the way?
Throughout my career, I learned many important things from Master Kurata. For one, he told me to keep learning how to impress the audience with a single punch. This is something I continue to do even now. A few of my colleagues who joined the “Kurata Action Club” at the same time still remain, and so I consider myself lucky. I met Mr. Shimomura and I continued pursuing this craft for a long time, and I also have Naohiro Kawamoto and other reliable colleagues.
Another thing I take with me to this day is to always try and create new action styles. Moviegoers may get bored if I keep doing a style that someone else has created, and so I would like to continue to create new styles that I myself would like to see.
Kensuke-san, I wanna thank you so much for sharing a piece of your story with our readers. I miss my Hydra friends, and if you’re ever back in New York City, I would love to meet up again. My best wishes to you, Masanori-san, the rest of the badass BAD CITY cast and crew, and to Shimomura-san and the team at U’den Flame Works. どうもありがとう!
Thanks for everything!
From L to R: Kensuke Sonomura, me, and Masanori Mimoto
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!