Well Go USA Has Acquired All North American Rights To Japanese Director Kensuke Sonomura’s Serious Crime Thriller Bad city.
A sequel to the genre director’s killer thriller Hydra from last year, bad city will be screened at Austin’s Fantastic Fest on Friday, followed by an in-competition slot in Sitges in October.
Well Go will first release the film through its martial arts specialty streamer Hi-YAH! like a Hi-YAH! Original, followed by a theatrical outing and wider VOD release sometime later this year.
The film is set in Kaiko City, a place torn by rampant corruption and violence between a private conglomerate, the yakuza and even the authorities. But after a mob-affiliated businessman runs for mayor and begins to systematically take out his opponents, a former police captain imprisoned for murder is released in a desperate, last-ditch effort to take down the corrupt tycoon.
Bad City stars Hitoshi Ozawa (gozu; Dead or alive; Shoot my darling), Hideto Katsuya (Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider Zero-One), Masanori Mimoto (Hydra, Baby Assassins, Enter the Fat Dragon), Akane Sakanoue (Ultraman X, your eyes tell), happy kato (Godzilla, brother, fighter in the wind), Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi (Kamen Rider Kabuto, Bushido Man) and Lily Franky (Shoplifters, Yakuza Apocalypse).
Well Go is known for the regular North American release of edgy action titles from across Asia, with semi-recent titles including the Korean zombie sequel Peninsula, Hong Kong’s Better Days or Japan’s First Love by Takashi Miike.