Big Bad Film Fest 2026: ‘Match Monde’ Review
The manga-to-live-action pipeline has yielded some incredible films out of Japan, including Lady Snowblood, Battle Royale, and the Rurouni Kenshin series. It’s specifically how well action translates that is impressive, turning pages of violence into precise choreography backed by nuanced character work and intricate world-building. The influence manga has had on certain writers is why films like Yugo Sakamoto’s Baby Assassins franchise feel like they could go on forever yet still retain life-threatening stakes with each entry. Which is why it’s no surprise that Ryûsuke Kurahashi’s Match Monde—written by Sakamoto and based on the manga of the same name by Shogo Horiuchi—sometimes just feels like a spin on Sakamoto’s Gen Z-coded assassin franchise. Unfortunately, as a direct adaptation of its source material, Match Monde becomes tediously rigid in its translation, coming to life only for brief moments of impressive, kinetic action.
There’s a neat premise at the heart of Kurahashi’s film that creates an entire universe within itself. Instead of dating apps, people in Japan have become obsessed with a fighting app called ‘Match-to-Match,’ which lets users match with other fighters in their area to have a brawl. The fights can be private or live-streamed through the app, turning street fights into a spectator sport. It all feels like a side activity in a video game, formed as a quick way to make money but also creating its own hierarchy within Japan. When high schooler Mikio (Kotaro Daigo) becomes the target of delinquents using the app, a chance encounter with Mahiro Kagome (Masayoshi Katsuki) gives him a plan to escape his personal problems and make it big in the app by arranging fights for Mahiro. An unlikely duo, the two quickly find themselves deeper in the fighting world than they’d like, now forced to juggle life and the consequences of their pastime activities.
Conceptually, Match Monde sells itself. Stellar choreography, editing, and camerawork make all the fights that do occur feel both exhausting and enthralling. With action direction from Naohiro Kawamoto, who has worked alongside Sakamoto and Kensuke Sonomura on the Baby Assassins films (and most recently The Furious with Sonomura), the fights are impressively fast and creative. An opening brawl with Mikio and a group of delinquents chasing him will leave a smile on any action fan’s face, especially those who have been won over by Sonomura’s stuntwork. There’s a feeling of improvisation as fighters maneuver quickly through environments, utilizing anything that isn’t bolted to the ground as a weapon. Much like the app feeling like a sub-story, the fights are reminiscent of action in the Yakuza video games.
There’s a very clear reason why the fights have a distinct style that fits a manga adaptation. Kurahashi has worked as an assistant director on a solid number of Takashi Miike films, including his adaptation of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and The Mole Song. Miike himself has done a Yakuza adaptation in the past, with stylistic choices that mirror those in Kurahashi’s feature directorial debut. It’s obvious that he has been heavily influenced by his past work under Miike. Unfortunately, the fights are brief occurrences and often skipped over completely for the sake of narrative progression. If a fight does go on for longer than usual, it’s padded out by slow-motion that doesn’t mesh with the quick movements and backing rock or electronic score (composed by Kôji Endô, who is another Miike regular who has worked on all of his previously mentioned films). The fights are incredible when they are in motion, but Kurahashi does not seem as interested in them as he is in the manga.
As a result, Match Monde spends more time with the characters that are played more comically than realistically. Characters will have melodramatic motivations for why they fight, but it doesn’t matter if we rarely see them fight. It’s in Mahiro’s idea that fighting is only worthwhile if it’s to protect something you love. Subscribing to that notion, Mahiro is a character who doesn’t want to fight, but as a high school dropout with no money to his name, he has to make ends meet somehow. Since he’s not going to fight, he is instead forced to work at a cafe alongside his childhood friend Suzuna (Honoka Kawasaki). It’s the wind-down time when characters could find depth or meaningful interactions, but instead the screenplay just turns it into a series of absurd encounters that do nothing but accentuate how prevalent the Match-to-Match app is in Japan.
Common elements that seem to populate Sakamoto’s screenplays are younger generations struggling with adulthood, and Mahiro feels like a broad sketch of that idea. He doesn’t really want to do anything other than be cool, which is fine if the film lets him be cool. Meanwhile, Mikio is constantly worried and disappointing others. His character is the only thing that resembles an arc, but because the film can’t seem to shift from first gear, it’s a sudden arc that only really manifests in the final act. This is where Match Monde hides the more traditional storytelling, as villain backstories fuel melodramatic encounters punctuated by violence. The protagonists are forced to become understanding of others, but there’s barely anything suggesting they are even capable of this. It’s a problem with Sakamoto’s screenplays outside the Baby Assassins universe: once they try to become more serious, they fall short of the creativity found elsewhere.
Match Monde struggles to be more than just a condensed version of its source material. While setting up a universe worth exploring, the film finds itself spinning its tires when it could be nuanced in its character work or provide the spectacle its premise promises. While the action is a much-needed shot of adrenaline, Kurahashi’s priorities reside elsewhere. A Miike protege just getting his feet wet as a feature director, Kurahashi shows potential that never grows to be anything more than that. Meanwhile, Kawamoto’s action direction is so impressive that, much like Sonomura, all I want is for every action film to be of the same ilk. It’s a shame that Match Monde doesn’t realize the greatness in its hands.
The 4th Big Bad Film Fest took place between August 21st and 23rd. Match Monde celebrated its North American premiere on August 23rd. The full list of films selected for the festival can be found here.
