A female warrior who is a formidable adversary for any man is not new to Japanese films: Junko Fuji was playing one in yakuza movies half a century ago. The latest iteration of this premise is “Green Bullet,” action specialist Yugo Sakamoto’s fast-paced follow-up to his 2021 “Legendary Hit-man, Kunioka,” though acquaintance with the previous movie is optional.
As I watched the film’s six outsider protagonists training to be hitwomen, I was reminded of “One Cut of the Dead,” Shinichiro Ueda’s smash-hit 2018 zombie comedy. “Green Bullet” features the same ultra-low-budget, shot-on-the-fly aesthetic, as well as an ending that surprises and uplifts, though Sakamoto’s film is not as ingeniously plotted.
Born in 1996 and directing since the age of 20, Sakamoto has been churning out action films at a frantic pace in recent years, with four hitting theaters in 2021. As a result, “Green Bullet” may have less polish than Toichiro Ruto’s similarly themed “Violence Action,” which was released last month, but its action scenes deliver a more realistic gut-punch impact, despite their jokey, mockumentary framing.