Baby Assassins 3 is the latest follow-up to the 2022 Japanese action/comedy Baby Assassins and its 2023 sequel Baby Assassins 2.

Teenage assassins Chisato Sugimoto (Akari Takaishi) and Mahiro Fukagawa (Saori Izawa) work for an organization called The Guild. They are currently enjoying a break from their city life in Tokyo, sent on a job in the Miyazaki prefecture, which also doubles as a sunny vacation for the teens. In-between killing assignments, the girls have fun on the beach, take in some sightseeing, and are eager to get a taste of the much praised Miyazaki beef. However, Chisato starts to panic when she realizes it’s Mahiro’s twentieth birthday that weekend, and she has nothing planned for her best friend.

When the girls track down their next target, embezzler Tsuyoshi Matsuura (Kaibashira), they find someone else already there with a gun to his head. It appears that they’ve been double-booked, and have come face-to-face with freelance assassin Kaede Fuyumura (Sôsuke Ikematsu). Fuyumura is an odd and ruthless guy, who isn’t going to let these girls get in the way of his last job/150th assignment. As Chisato and Mahiro attempt to fight off Fuyumura, they soon discover that this is not going to be an easy-to-beat foe. In the melee, they get beat up pretty badly, and their original target also manages to get away.

The Guild has decided to put a hit out on Fuyumura and assigns the girls to the job, making Fuyumura their top priority before taking out their original target. In addition, two older, local Miyazaki assassins have been assigned to lead the effort. Heading up this new team of four is Iruka Minami (Atsuko Maeda), who is 7 years older than the girls, and looks down upon them as young and inexperienced. She quickly grows annoyed by Chisato’s and Mahiro’s antics. Her partner, Riku Nanase (Mondo Otani), is much more laid back and goes with the flow. He is a former bodybuilder who became an assassin after a friend/business partner left him in debt. This team is going to need put aside any differences and work together to not only track down and eliminate Fuyumura, but also find and protect their original target, Matsuura, until Fuyumura is out of the picture. However, Fuyumura has a lot of resources at his hands, including a competing assassin organization, which means this isn’t going to be an easy task. Also returning to join our foursome in this effort are oddball crime scene cleaners Miyauchi Mana (Tomo Nakai) and Mamoru Tasaka (Atomu Mizuishi).

Baby Assassins 3 is another entertaining installment of this franchise, finding a similar blend of action and humor. At this point, Chisato and Mahiro are well-seasoned professional assassins, so the focus is no longer about them learning how to kill. Instead, it’s more about their friendship. The girls are enjoying this vacation with one another, having fun on the beach and checking out the local food scene. (There are so many reaction shots of these girls blissfully eating something—they love their food!). Meanwhile, Chisato is constantly concerned about disappointing Mahiro when she discovers that she forgot about her birthday and didn’t plan anything. At the same time, they also begin to take their jobs a little more seriously. They are up against their toughest foe yet, and there is some genuine concern that they could actually lose one another.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of fun in the new foursome dynamic. Iruka is this smart but slight stuck up lone wolf who doesn’t like her new Gen Z partners. She finds the girls irritating and annoying. But Chisato and Mahiro don’t seem to care, and are determined to win her over and help her come out of her shell. Riku is a nice balance to Iruka. He has this dumb innocence to him, and nothing seems to phase him. He is game for anything when it comes to their plan to take down their targets. And I was happy to see the return of bubbly cleaner Miyauchi from the second film—she is always so fun and hilarious and brings a smile whenever she’s on screen.

Like the previous installments, Baby Assassins 3 also has a lot of fast-paced fight scenes. Much of the fighting is marital arts style kicks and punches, often between Mahiro and Fuyumura. However, there are a lot of guns also involved in the movie, including a wonderful flashback sequence early on with the girls clearing out rooms full of targets as they begin their job in Miyazaki. Initially it seems like maybe the girls are outmatched by this freelance assassin. It was nice to see Chisato and Mahiro struggle a bit and contemplate their mortality and what that could mean for their friendship.

Well Go’s Blu-ray release only includes the original Japanese audio, but the English subtitles are well-written and easy to follow. The audio track does a nice job of putting the viewer into the action, whether it’s the gunshots echoing across the room, or the thud of every kick and punch landing on their targets. The picture looks great, with natural colors and a picture that looks clean and clear, with a solid level of detail, no matter how fast the action.

The Blu-ray release is pretty much barebones, only including the film’s trailer, along with some previews for three other Well Go releases. The disc comes packed in a locking HD keepcase, and doesn’t include a digital copy. Our review copy included a glossy, embossed slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:52:44)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Japanese Stereo
• Subtitles: English, French

Extras:

• Trailer (2:01)
• Previews
  • Invincible Swordsman (1:39)
  • 11 Rebels (2:17)
  • Dark Nuns (1:17)