Staged magisterially against the backdrop of 1920s Japan, an assassin comes out of retirement to protect the young son of a former colleague.
Revolver Lily
The film releases January 27, 2026, on various Video On Demand platforms, via Well GO USA. Visit their official site for more information.
Upon first sight, Yuri (Ayase Haruka) is a picture of placid beauty, ordering a dress to be made from lovely new fabric that's arrived in her favorite dressmaker's shop.
Appearances can be deceiving, of course, and soon enough, Yuri takes action on a crowded train to protect a young boy -- a stranger -- from armed operatives. She is brisk and efficient, skillfully wielding martial arts skills in hand-to-hand combat and then, without hesitation, leaping off the train with the young boy in hand.
It's only the start of the action and adventure in Revolver Lily, which actually began when the boy took refuge under a house as it was stormed by the same unit of armed operatives who later discover him on the train. What has the boy done to merit such suspicious actions by armed operatives? And what is Yuri's background, which allows her to ably defend and protect the boy, and herself?
Before the train sequence, Yuri Ozone was presented as a reserved and very proper brothel owner in Japan, circa the early 1920s. Whatever she did before, teased in the opening titles, she has put her weapons away.
Now she devotes herself to pleasing her customers, and making sure that her loyal workers do the same. A newspaper report on the death by suicide of a former colleague unsettles her, however, shortly before she boards the train on a short business trip, so her frame of mind is disturbed, rifling through memories of the past.
Directed by Isao Yukisada (Sunflower, 2000; Go, 2001; Parade, 2009) from a screenplay written by Tatsuo Kobayashi and Isao Yukisada, adapting Kyô Nagaura's novel, which was first published in 2016, Revolver Lily moves definitively from exquisitely-framed period drama into full-fledged action-adventure after Yuri and the boy, Shinta (Jinsei Hamura), now clearly identified as the son of the recently-deceased Kinya Hosomi (aka Yuri's former colleague) leave the train and a trail of bodies behind.
Before he died, Shinta's father told the boy to find Yuri Ozone. By coincidence, he's done exactly that, and ahead of schedule, which is good, since another deadline looms, having to do with a large cache of money, which explains why armed operatives are in hot pursuit of Shinta, believing that he can lead them to the money.
As a movie, Revolver Lily moves just as briskly as Yuri Ozone herself takes stealthy, decisive action. It resembles the train that kicked the action off: fast-moving, with a destination clearly in mind. The action sequences becomes more and more intricate, with more moving parts flying apart -- bodies, bullets, buildings -- even as the key participants are increasingly wounded and/or killed too.
All the action is presented cleanly and clearly, so it's always easy to see where the protagonist is, as well as those who are trying to kill her. Yuri Ozone is a wily survivor, who doesn't have much time for mercy, but she knows who is truly important, and why. Guided with a firm purpose in mind, she is an armed weapon that knows her destination, and it's thrilling to watch her fly.