Upamanyu Biswas
Netflix’s ‘Demon City’ is a rip-roaring action thriller that does not pull any punches when it comes to gory, full-blooded fight scenes. However, its final moments may leave many questioning the resolution of the chaotic events that transpired. After battling through hordes of enemies at the Mahoroba Resort, the hitman protagonist, Sakata, finally comes face to face with his mortal nemesis, the same man who turned his life into literal hell. However, as the film draws toward its conclusion, the climactic battle leads to an unforeseen turn of events that takes the narrative in a new direction, hinting at the rise of a new character as Sakata’s legacy is left ambiguously hanging in the air. Meanwhile, questions might abound regarding how a certain character managed to survive after seemingly meeting his end in a fight against Sakata. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Demon City Plot Synopsis
Shuhei Sakata is a feared hitman in Shinjo City, Japan. He is known for dismantling hordes of dangerous enemies all by himself. However, after years of working in the business, he wants to end his destructive lifestyle and embrace family life with his wife, Aoi, and daughter, Ryo. For his last mission, Sakata takes on a notorious Yakuza gang, using his unique rope and blade weapon to dispose of them one by one. Once the mission is complete, his friend, Akira Fujita, bids him goodbye. After greeting his family at the doorstep, he drives home and heads for a shower. Unfortunately, his retirement is short-lived as a group of demon-mask-wearing individuals take his wife and daughter hostage in the living room. Although he tries to rescue them, they are both killed, and Sakata is shot through the head soon after he vows revenge against them.
Twelve years later, Sakata is miraculously still alive, albeit as a catatonic patient. He is released from a medical hospital, where he is picked up by his friend Fujita, who has seemingly kept an eye on him all these years. Meanwhile, Shinjo City has been transformed under the leadership of their new mayor, Ryu Sunohara, the man responsible for killing Sakata’s family. The man has turned the city into a leading economic and cultural hub, soon to unveil a massive project, the Mahoroba Resort. However, reports of questionable crimes and mysterious disappearances have ramped up in this new reign of power, which no one is allowed to question. Sakata is taken to a dingy apartment in a rough part of the town, where Fujita hires an Indian man to nurse him daily. One night, Sakata is attacked by one of his former targets, who unleashes his frustration on the unresponsive hitman.
Sakata is sent to the hospital after his run-in with the aggressor. The gang of demons are alerted by the news, realizing that their past victim is somehow still alive. One of the masked men, Shinozuka, a cop, visits Sakata’s chamber and tries to take him out by injecting him with poison. However, Sakata finally wakes up and kills Shinozuka. After his battle, he slowly regains his memories, including those of his wife and daughter. Subsequently, he embarks on a revenge quest against all those who wronged him. As he enacts his plan, he learns that his friend Fujita was the one who betrayed him and gave up info about his family to the gang of demons. Sakata kills him and annihilates another high-ranking demon gangster. Then, he learns the shocking truth from Sunohara that his daughter, Ryo, is still alive.
Demon City Ending: How Does Sakata Rescue His Daughter?
After discovering that Ryo did not die that fateful night Sakata lost his family, he tries to pinpoint her whereabouts using the help of a former colleague, Takigawa Yoshifumi. When Mayor Sunohara took over the city, large chunks of the region’s security network were revamped, and the previous regime was slaughtered in cold blood. As such, Sakata realizes that his daughter might be kept hostage in the Shinjo Security building. He launches an attack on the complex, taking down every single guard until he makes it to her apartment. Unbeknownst to the protagonist, Ryo lives a normal high schooler’s life under the protection of one of the key members of the demon gang. However, that man has plans to sexually exploit her once she reaches adulthood.
When Sakata engages the demon man in the apartment, Ryo quickly escapes and comes out with a bow and arrow. Owing to the twelve-year time gap, she does not recognize Sakata as her father and shoots him through the shoulder. Subsequently, the hitman is forced to flee and heal with the help of Yoshifumi. Mayor Sunohara contacts him on the phone and invites him to the Mahoroba Resort to save his daughter and end the cycle of revenge bounding them both. Sakata makes a quick stop at his old lair, arming himself with his old rope and blade weapon before embarking on the final mission. While Ryo is kept hostage in the Mahoroba, the protagonist cuts through hordes of men on different floors until he confronts the same masked man, Ryo’s guardian. Sakata fatally wounds him before making it to the top of the building, where he faces Sunohara and his other men.
As the final battle kicks off, Ryo finally recognizes Sakata as her father and escapes from the situation with Yoshifumi. Meanwhile, Ryo engages everyone in the room and takes them down until only Sunohara remains. The mayor then takes it upon himself to kill the depleted and injured hitman. However, the latter does not give up, even after losing an arm in the battle. He keeps fighting, embracing the “demon” moniker to land the final blow on Sunohara. The mayor dies, and Ryo witnesses the entire ordeal. However, her adopted father arrives out of nowhere and shoots Sakata, somehow still alive despite having his eye gouged out. However, Ryo rejects his affection, telling him he tricked her, which allows the protagonist to kill the man and save his daughter. She embraces Sakata and cries as he passes away in her arms.
How Does Mayor Sunohara Survive?
The film skips a year ahead after the epic showdown at the Mahoroba. Surprisingly, Mayor Sunohara is shown to be still alive despite his earlier confrontation with Sakata and the fatal hit he landed. In fact, he is preparing to launch the Mahoroba as a project after a year’s delay, stating that the earlier battle unfortunately hurt publicity. He delivers the news to the media via an interview. However, as the camera pans around, we notice that Sunohara has a scar on the left side of his face. This points out that the mayor in the scene is not the Sunohara we have been seeing from the film’s opening but a duplicate. In fact, during the Mahoroba fight, it is revealed that the second masked man in the demon gang was none other than Sunohara’s twin brother, Jin. Thus, the mayor in the interview is Jin and not Sunohara.
According to a flashback, Sunohara and Jin had a complex relationship throughout their childhood. As the latter was born with a scar disfiguring the left side of his face, he seemingly played second fiddle to Sunohara forever. He always carried out whatever orders Sunohara set him out to do while never receiving the adulation and adoration showered on his brother. It probably led to an inferiority complex and feelings of jealousy with regard to their status in the world. Additionally, there were also no signs of affection between the two brothers. When Sakata takes down Jin, Sunohara blatantly throws his brother’s body down the side of the stairs, almost disregarding his value as a human being. It hints at deeper issues rooted within their childhood and feelings of inadequacies.
Once Sunohara is killed, Jin likely sees an opportunity to grab power that he has never tasted in all his life. When the cleanup crew shows up to dispose of the bodies left inside the Mahoroba, we get a shot of an unknown individual who looks like Sunohara smiling sinisterly under the medical tarp. The person the smile belongs to is more than likely Jin, who finally has a clear path to attain the glory that was always kept from him. Thus, after promising to reopen the Mahoroba near the film’s end, he returns to the same shrine where Sunohara was practicing his ritual dance earlier in the film. He hesitates before putting on Sunohara’s old mask, showing that he still has some anxiety about the new situation presented to him. Still, it fills him with glee to finally have the chance to be in his brother’s privileged position, a feeling that makes him giggle in a maniacal fashion.
What Happens to Ryo?
In the aftermath of the Mahoroba fight, Ryo disappears from the grid. The battle at the resort ends up as a life-changing moment for her, especially after watching her father die before her eyes moments after finding him again. The girl has lived most of her childhood under the thumb of the demon gang, never knowing they were using her as a pawn in their nefarious game. In fact, if Sakata had not shown up, she would have likely fallen prey to her demon gang guardian’s lecherous desire for young women. Once she recognizes the truth of the matter and how she has been living a false life, a lot of her preconceived notions fall away. Therefore, she runs away from the ambulance, knowing that the demon gang may use her for some other disturbing cause. It is also possible that she flees from the authorities to learn more about who her father was as a person.
After the one-year time skip, Ryo appears at the shrine where Sunohara used to perform the ritual dance. With the old mayor gone, his twin brother, Jin, enacts the dance in full gear. However, not for long, as Ryo has her bow and arrow nocked and ready to fire. Jin only gets a moment to register the young girl’s presence before she fires the projectiles straight through his body. He dies, and Ryo finishes the revenge mission against the demon gang, which Sakata is unable to complete. Clearly, she has been practicing her archery and turning herself into a fighter like her father. The film’s final scene even shows Ryo driving the same car that her father used to ride, hinting at the fact that she is following in his footsteps and embracing what he did best. It brings the whole narrative full circle and satisfactorily ties up the loose ends.
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