The Kawasaki Nightmare

The Kawasaki Nightmare (Japanese: カワサキの悪夢; Kawasaki no akumu), is a 2020 Magisterian neo-Western martial arts-yakuza film directed by Casimir I'Anson, and written by Shelton Womack. It stars Alex Mushashibo as Akane Noguchi, a sadistic and ultraviolent yakuza assassin who later seeks revenge to the yakuza's leader Ryo Kobayashi (Shun Oguri) after she was betrayed and almost murdered by the members. It was released in Netflix on December 31, 2020, and was later released in cinemas on December 31, 2021.

I'Anson inspired the film from Tarantino's 2003 hit films Kill Bill: Vol. 1, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2, which explains the highly violent feel of the fight scenes which was first seen in Tarantino's Kill Bill movie series. The film became the second highest grossing film for the year 2021, only behind to Spiderman: No Way Home.

Plot
The movie follows Akane Noguchi (Alex Mushashibo), the most wanted assassin in Japan. Known for her extremely sadistic personality, Noguchi's exceptional skills of being clever and highly violent makes the Public Security Intelligence Agency of Japan to almost give up on the case of taking her down.

One day, yakuza leader Ryo Kobayashi orders his men to take down Akane Noguchi, and that was the closest moment where Noguchi actually fell. After the assassination attempt, Noguchi was presumed to be dead by the Yakuza and the PSIA until a year later.

Resolving to kill Kobayashi, Noguchi met Clancy (Floyd Leighton), a computer expert who knew a local martial arts master to help her out on training before her big day to get her vengeance on Kobayashi, as Noguchi knew Kobayashi was more powerful than herself. Master Noriaki (Yayan Ruhian) trains Noguchi in a very cruel way, and she later gained Noriaki's respect for being tough in his cruel tutelage.

Ready to fight off Kobayashi, Clancy helps Noguchi track Kobayashi. When Clancy finds Kobayashi's current location, Noguchi gets ready for her final standoff against her former boss. Coincidentally, Kobayashi and Noguchi met at the same place where Noguchi was almost killed. In their final decisive battle after Noguchi single-handedly killed all of Kobayashi's men, Noguchi was able to defeat Kobayashi.

After achieving the revenge she wanted, Noguchi took over the same yakuza Kobayashi led, with Clancy now as their head computer expert.

Cast

 * Alex Mushashibo as Akane Noguchi: A sadistic assassin, now the leader of Kobayashi's yakuza
 * Floyd Leighton as Clancy: A computer expert who later became Noguchi's (second) right-hand man
 * Shun Oguri as Ryo Kobayashi: A sadistic and ruthless yakuza boss, and Noguchi's former boss
 * Yayan Ruhian as Master Noriaki: An immensely powerful and extremely old martial arts master, who trained Noguchi for her revenge
 * Hayato Ichihara as Kiyoshi Saitou: Akane Noguchi's right-hand man. Known to be ruthless and open-minded
 * Kill Bill cast members Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Uma Thurman, Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, and David Carradine also had their respective cameo roles

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Kawasaki Nightmare holds an approval rating of 93%, with an average score of 8.2/10, based on 274 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 60 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".