What would one do if their life was contingent on saving the lives of others and the world? It's a question that presents itself with the most obvious answer, but when faced head-on with the situation, it provides a different context that is more complex beyond our understanding. 2005's Resident Evil 4 and 1987's anime classic Wicked City attempt to answer this difficult question in their own ways.
While Wicked City takes a unique cosmic horror approach to the question, both Resident Evil 4 and Wicked City's iconic characters take on serious missions much more powerful and greater than themselves to save others.
What is Resident Evil 4 about?
Resident Evil 4 raises the stakes for Leon S. Kennedy even though its central objective is essentially a rescue operation. It all comes as a shock to him at the time due to his recent experience as a police officer at the Raccoon City Police Department, which was still raw from the events that had occurred at Raccoon City six years earlier in Resident Evil 2. When Resident Evil 4 came out, everything changed. Leon has been hardened and made more battle ready by his past, ready to move in this new direction. While the years before made him strong, nothing could prepare Leon for the terrifying wake-up call that would turn his life upside down.
Leon has this calm-before-the-storm moment before having to rescue university student, Ashley Graham. He is given the knowledge that she was kidnaped by an unidentified group, which we find later on is the Los Illuminados, while she was returning home from university. At the time, the kidnapers' motives were unknown. While there was reliable information that the perpetrator was an insider. Intelligence states that she was sighted somewhere in Europe. This information is crucial for the villains in Resident Evil 4, as each one pushes their narrative for very different reasons because of this.
Ashley becomes not only one that helps and cares for Leon throughout their life-or-death journey in the village but the initial cogwheel that moves the plot forward. She not only instigates the fuel for many of the villain's ambitions but is the main reason for Leon's mission and progression as a character. Although this was initially intended to be a rescue mission, Leon had yet to learn the challenging adversaries he would encounter or the evil organization he would be up against. The Ganago are more normalized and isolated then the zombies and BOWs he faced six years ago, giving his adversaries a more human quality.
Leon has invaded territory that does not welcome him from the moment he enters this hellscape of the furious Los Ganados brandishing sickles and pitchforks. While there, he and Louis Serra are taken prisoner by the corrupt village priest Betorous Mendez. Leon and Ashley are also given the virus by the long-standing organization known as Los Illuminados. The parasitic Los Plagas, a mind-controlling organism that controls its host, was worshiped by the cult. This hostility was fostered by their leader, Osmond Sadler, a former bioweapons researcher who recruited powerful individuals to the Los Illuminados and implanted this parasite within them.
Sadler then tells them that they are also virus carriers. They must now devise a strategy to not only reach Salazar Castle but also, hopefully, eradicate the virus. Despite the difficulties of reuniting with old flames, "old friends," and the eccentric Ramon Salazar, Leon quickly realizes who this there to help him and who is there for their own material gains. His story highlights his hardened abilities in the terrifying world of Los Ganados, blending in his sardonic yet humorous personality, showing a person that has evolved through experience but still takes on the heavy burdens of the things he can never change.
What is Wicked City about?
Like Resident Evil 4, there is an eerie quality resonating with both introductions from the moment the 1987 anime classic Wicked City begins, but each dance with the other in very different ways. Its macabre music and brilliant monologue as it pans over Tokyo's dark city towers intertwine with Resident Evil 4's deathly sense of calm just before you feel both stories branch their separate ways.
Almost immediately, one gets this unnerving sense of danger hidden in the streets of Tokyo. Within its nostalgic vibrant neon lights underpinned with pitch-black darkness, one can feel that something evil is lurching unbeknownst to its people, and for agents like Taki Renzaburo, it will only get worse from here on out. Like Leon, the man is sarcastic and humorous, with a bit of a romantic side. It is precisely this that gets him into trouble one night, leading into the films opening events. Both characters command attention from their personalities, gunshots, to every punch, there is a certain creative weight behind both that makes them so fluid and appealing.
Wicked City takes place in the future, where the human world exists alongside the world of demons. The two have since lived under a constrained peace treaty, but that time is drawing near to a close, and negotiations are near. Now two agents, a human and a breathtaking assassin from the demon realm must protect the only man who can seal the treaty within the dark world or die trying.
In what essentially begins as an escort mission, things go wrong throughout the night, leaving no time for one to detach from the shockingly terrifying rollercoaster of events that ensue. This is similar to Resident Evil 4 only slightly amped up. While there is a lot of action in this movie, there is also a lot of shock and awe when it comes to these categories. Wicked City, which was highly controversial and beautifully unsettling for its time, was very casual in the way it handled many things from violence to sex. In many ways, Resident Evil 4 and Wicked City were controversial in their own right because they both broke new ground in their respective fields of entertainment.
The idea that humans are the inferior race, which is the primary motivation behind the peace treaty, is the most important theme that Wicked City centers on. The Los Ganados and the notion that Leon and Ashely are the threats in Resident Evil 4 somewhat draw this distinction. They behave hostilely toward them as though they are outcasts in their village. All of this boils down to a single leader who uses such rhetoric toward their followers in Wicked City and Resident Evil 4.
Although the characters of Guiseppe Mayart and Ashely Graham could not be more dissimilar from one another, their sense of hierarchy and their significance in how they advance the plot bind them together. Each villain has their own goals in mind, and because these people have some influence over what other people want for themselves, they continue to move the plot along.
While Makie and Ada are essentially side characters to drive the narrative forward, they both aspire to a different kind of peace. Makie, the Blackguard of the Demon world, is a figure with a graceful gravitas and a mysterious demeanor, but she has experienced a great deal of hardship in her quest for peace. She appears to be strong and reserved, but on the inside, she is a very affectionate and caring person. Ada can be similarly justified because she shares many traits with Makie. Both are powerful women with a tender air, but they will do whatever it takes to achieve their goals, which both of the male protagonists find incredibly attractive but ultimately costs them.
When will the Resident Evil 4 Remake be Released?
Resident Evil 4 was one of the most revolutionary games in 2005. From its immersive gameplay, original enemies, and bold use of action after Capcom used its iconic slow-paced romero-esque zombies, Resident Evil 5 opened the door to a new kind of fast-paced horror that would gradually trickle down into its other installments. With its distinctive dualistic approach, the series would be championed by Leon S. Kennedy for completely transforming the survival horror subgenre rather than just improving it.
From PlayStation 2 to the Nintendo Switch, there have been ten remasters of Resident Evil 4. However, the game is now getting a quality remake scheduled to debut on March 24, 2023. While the merit of Resident Evil 4: Remake has been questioned, there is value in a game that single-handedly revolutionized the survival-horror subgenre and still serves as the benchmark for all upcoming hybrid action-horror titles. Capcom's main focus this time around is to tell the same beloved story many fans have grown to appreciate over the years, with a much-needed update on Ashley Graham's character, improved gameplay, and gorgeous visuals, one can only hope it can breach the success of Capcom's successful Resident Evil 2: Remake.