Netflix has been on a hot streak with its original Japanese dramas recently, but its film offerings are less inspiring. After ho-hum efforts like “City Hunter” (2024), the streaming giant hits a nadir with “Demon City,” a joyless, weirdly anonymous adaptation of Masamichi Kawabe’s ultra-violent manga series, “Oni Goroshi.”

Toma Ikuta plays former hit man Shuhei Sakata, who wakes from a lengthy coma to exact vengeance against the masked criminals who betrayed him and murdered his family. Such behavior is par for the course in the film’s fictional Shinjo City, where legend tells of a demon that possesses someone every 50 years, sending them on a killing spree.

Shuhei already possesses the necessary skill set. We first see him brutally dispatching an entire yakuza clan, in what he believes will be his last job before he gets to settle down and become a family man. No prizes for guessing how that plan turns out. Shuhei has barely had a chance to shower before he sees his wife and daughter get gunned down by a gang of criminals wearing sinister noh theater masks.