Tokyo Burst: Crime City (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)

Eiji Uchida’s Tokyo Burst: Crime City, which hits the city’s Kabukichō district with an unmistakable Ryu Ga Gotoku swagger, is kind of a spinoff of the Roundup series fronted by Don Lee (Ma Dong‑seok). From street brawls to gang politics and host‑club intrigue, the director’s narrative chicanery turns small disturbances into city‑wide turf conflicts by tapping into the district’s neon‑lit volatility. It’s ironically similar to the Yakuza video games, and the film embraces that heightened energy without hesitation, right down to a karaoke scene where two cops belt out “Linda Linda Linda”. It’s as if Kiryu Kazama wandered in during one of his infamous excursions through Kabukichō, and even the plot involving casino land‑rights could have been lifted directly from that universe – complete with antagonists who wield outsized influence and treat Tokyo like their personal playground.

The film makes no excuses for its street‑brawling ultraviolence, which arrives fast and without apology as the front area of a florist becomes a battleground, a pickaxe fight erupts in close quarters, and nails are hammered into a man’s mouth. The fights aren’t choreographed masterclasses but strong‑armed brawls where anything, including bikes, can become a weapon, Uchida staging his action with clarity and strong blocking. The chase through Shochiku is a standout sequence as it captures the suburb’s anarchic reputation, culminating in two fights that perfectly set the action’s tone – chaotic, heightened, and deeply indebted to operatic street‑level mayhem.

That tone runs through the film and its central duo of rookie Japanese detective Shiro Aiba (Sota Fukushi), and elite Korean detective Choi Si‑woo (Uhm Ki‑joon). Dressed in baggy clothes and a Tenryu Powerbomb T‑shirt, Aiba carries himself with the confrontational swagger of a delinquent, and moves through Kabukichō like someone who never fully left his biker gang behind – much like the men he’s supposed to arrest. The line between him and the yakuza is razor thin, and even though he isn’t part of any organised crime, he talks about people on the other side as if they were family. Choi Si‑woo doesn’t enter Japan through official channels and simply shows up, inserts himself into the case, and expects Aiba’s department to deal with it – even being reluctant to reveal he speaks Japanese. His arrival sharpens the tension, and the partnership between him and Aiba is built around the fact that they’re both abrasive, liable to break into violence, and operate with a pragmatism that suits Kabukichō’s volatility. Like any half-decent “buddy cop” movie, one of the film’s most enjoyable threads is watching the pair figure out how to work with each other, which grounds the chaos in a charming and volatile dynamic.

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Visually, Tokyo Burst: Crime City is one of Uchida’s slickest works, the vibrant colour grading and sharp art direction rendering and accentuating Kabukichō’s density and sensory overload with an almost videogame/anime aesthetic. The district is Tokyo’s equivalent to London’s Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, or New York’s Times Square, and it takes a heavy hand to dull it down, which is something common in Western pop culture, so it’s a good thing Uchida is Japanese. His direction is crisp, energetic, and in tune with the environment’s energy, reinforcing the film’s visual identity and tonal lineage in a world of neon, noise, and perpetual motion.

Structurally it’s an old‑fashioned cop movie of the kind that used to dominate the genre before global public perception of policing cratered, and Uchida leans into the fun of it, carving out a popcorn movie that suits him far better than his abrasive indie work. It’s slick, energetic, and fully understands the appeal of classical crime action – corruption, powerful men getting away with anything, and cops forced to navigate a system stacked against them before going rogue. Much like other films in the genre (Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, The Roundup, etc), the convolutions are part of the design, the themes also running through the Yakuza video game series (SEGA’s most famous modern franchise), but approached from the other side of the law. The final stretch makes it clear that even though this is a spin‑off, Uchida has set up a world that could easily sustain more entries. This type of crime story thrives on twists and narrative density, and any frustration with the plot would probably come from unfamiliarity with this old‑fashioned style, rather than any missteps in script or production.

Tokyo Burst: Crime City is big, but far from clever as it embraces its own excesses to deliver some refreshingly bombastic, neon‑soaked mayhem. It’s chaotic, colourful, violent, and knowingly indebted to one of Japan’s most beloved crime franchises, and it’s arguably one of Uchida’s most purely enjoyable works. If spinoffs of The Roundup keep taking this direction then Kabukichō has plenty more stories waiting in the shadows, and I’d be happy to tag along for them – especially if they end with a mega powerbomb through the roof of a car.

ROB’S ARCHIVE – Tokyo Burst: Crime City