Wicked City is a film I was drawn into first and foremost by one thing-- the art style. I'd definitely say the art in the film is it's number one draw, and boy is it gorgeous. It's solid 80s anime artwork, and the detailing and characters are drawn in such a lovely way, I have nothing bad to say about it there. The scenes utilize really lovely color schemes and interesting shots.
The overall plot of the movie is definitely fair. Just going over the basic synopsis, it's fine, nothing spectacular. I can't compare it to things at the time, as I personally don't think I have the scope to, but it's decent enough with a twist I didn't expect.
However, the plot is also where it falls apart in my opinion. It's strange to see so many reviews praising its sex scenes when half are fine, the other half are just more on the bad exploitative scale for me. I don't personally enjoy rape scenes, and I feel they went on way too long. I compare it to something like Perfect Blue which had one, but that left an impact I think on the film and even though I wouldn't call it enjoyable by any means, it definitely didn't feel like a fetish-- which the ones in this did. Credit where credit is due, they didn't do any sex shaming in the movie, which was surprising because with all the misogynistic comments I expected it. Speaking of, I can sort of excuse some of the misogynistic comments in the sense of a lower rating of the movie, just because of the time it was made, but it still didn't add to the movie in a modern-day watch.
Overall, I think it's fine enough if you're looking for a movie with really nice art and you're fine with the content warnings and the dated nature of it. It's not one I'd revisit, but I'm at least not feeling at a loss for watching it either.
The overall plot of the movie is definitely fair. Just going over the basic synopsis, it's fine, nothing spectacular. I can't compare it to things at the time, as I personally don't think I have the scope to, but it's decent enough with a twist I didn't expect.
However, the plot is also where it falls apart in my opinion. It's strange to see so many reviews praising its sex scenes when half are fine, the other half are just more on the bad exploitative scale for me. I don't personally enjoy rape scenes, and I feel they went on way too long. I compare it to something like Perfect Blue which had one, but that left an impact I think on the film and even though I wouldn't call it enjoyable by any means, it definitely didn't feel like a fetish-- which the ones in this did. Credit where credit is due, they didn't do any sex shaming in the movie, which was surprising because with all the misogynistic comments I expected it. Speaking of, I can sort of excuse some of the misogynistic comments in the sense of a lower rating of the movie, just because of the time it was made, but it still didn't add to the movie in a modern-day watch.
Overall, I think it's fine enough if you're looking for a movie with really nice art and you're fine with the content warnings and the dated nature of it. It's not one I'd revisit, but I'm at least not feeling at a loss for watching it either.