Bullet Points: Fistful of Vengeance

Netflix has followed up on Season 1 of Wu Assassins, which debuted on the streaming service in August 2019, in a rather unique fashion. Instead of a Season 2, it is the (first?) Wu Assassins movie, 2022’s Fistful of Vengeance…

• The Big Question: If you did not watch Season 1 of Wu Assassins, you may be wondering if you need to in order to enjoy Fistful of Vengeance. I would say no.. .as the movie begins we find that the Wu Assassin himself, Kai Jin (Iko Uwais, The Raid: Redemption) and his two friends Lu Xin Lee (Lewis Tan) and Tommy Wah (Lawrence Kao) are trying to find out who killed Tommy’s sister Jenny. A clue has led the trio to Bangkok and it is there we see Kai and Lu in action in a night club, while Tommy is providing a bit of a recap of the events of Season 1 to a very interested young lady at the club. The one major thing I do want to point out for the uninitiated is that Wu Assassins had a strong super natural element to it, for example Iko’s character Kai Jin the Wu Assassin has unbelievable powers, so it was not a straight up martial arts series. It could be my memory playing tricks on me since it has been a while since I watched the series, but it felt like the super natural element was amplified in Fistful of Vengeance… something to keep in mind.

• Enter the Tobin: While Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan and Lawrence Kao were all reprising their roles from the Wu Assassins series, Fistful of Vengeance introduces a completely new character in the form of Dr. William Pan played by Jason Tobin. I became a big fan of Tobin’s work from the series Warrior, with Tobin’s Young Jun being one of my absolute favorites on that show, so he was more than a welcome addition from where I was sitting. Pan has summoned the trio of heroes to a temple outside of Bangkok, it is there that he reveals that the one who killed Jenny was crime lord Ku An Qi. Ku An Qi was in San Francisco looking for the Wu Assassin and when Jenny got in the way, she paid the ultimate price. Pan knows that Ku An Qi will be in Bangkok in two days to meet with the heads of the five triads at a swanky hotel where she plans to consolidate her nefarious power, Michael Corleone style. If the guys want to avenge Jenny, hitting Ku An Qi at the hotel before her power play would be the best bet… also to get the supernatural involved Pan reveals that he is in fact the yin to Ku An Qi’s yang and he paints the picture that she is the darkness to his light.
• The Mission: Another new character is introduced in the form of Preeya, a woman that Tommy had met years earlier when he was in Bangkok and one with some connections. Preeya hooks the guys up with some “007 shit” and is a vital part of the plan to get Kai and Lu Xin inside the hotel. I should point out that Lu Xin is not happy that they have brought an outsider like Preeya into their inner circle and it just adds to the bad feeling he has had about this whole assassination mission… It turns out Lu Xin’s gut was right, by the time Kai and Lu Xin get into the hotel and up to the meeting place, Ku An Qi has already obliterated the heads of the five triads and now our heroes are trapped inside the hotel and Ku An Qi now has an entire army of triad soldiers at her disposal. This is also where we meet the Interpol super agent Zama. Zama is no stranger to Lu Xin (the two got very close years ago while she was working undercover) and quickly finds herself joining forces with our heroes.

• Here Comes the Action: At about the 30 minute mark we start getting just about every type of action imaginable… bullets are flying, there’s a car chase inside the parking garage and plenty of martial arts mayhem Once our heroes manage to narrowly escape hotel hell, they find themselves in another car chase, followed up by a shootout on the streets that ends with an explosive finale, only to be followed up by a boat chase on the river! It is 15 minutes of non-stop action expertly put together by Director Roel Reiné.
• Losing Steam: The movie really started to lose steam about half way through, I get that taking a beat was necessary after the action orgasm… we get confirmation that Pan wasn’t 100% truthful and that this is now a battle for the future of the planet, Lewis and Zama get a chance to get reacquainted (if you know what I mean) but the movie never really recovered after that and the big action finale was FLAT and really unsatisfying especially when you consider the stakes, you know THE FUTURE OF ALL MANKIND. Possibly worse than the flat finish was the scene that followed. It was a scene on the beach with all our heroes together celebrating a job done… that could best be described as “Supernatural Martial Arts Fast & Furious” complete with Iko’s Kai Jin raising a glass and toasting FAMILY.

Fistful of Vengeance was like the bag of potato chips you are excited to eat until you open it and realize that half the bag is filled with air. Sure there is still some delicious goodness in there, like Iko Uwais fight scenes (which I could watch all day), the 15 minute action orgasm that made the movie worth watching and the great Jason Tobin… but then there’s the unsatisfying air portion, most notably the less than spectacular demises of all the evil characters and an end scene that did not really match the tone of the series or the movie that preceded it.

These are Bonus Bullet Points that serve as a bonus to the bullet points that preceded them…

• Soundtraxx: There’s a heavy hip hop vibe on the Fistful of Vengeance soundtrack including “Phenomenal” by Eminem, but we also get Dia Frampton’s cover of the INXS classic, “Never Tear Us Apart”.
• Familiar Face: Juju Chan of Savage Dog fame reprised the role of Zan Hui from the series. Zan is working for the forces of evil to collect the Wu Assassin for them which means multiple fight scenes between Juju and Iko.
• Follow Up Question: Will there be more Wu Assassins movies or another full season? I would guess movies is the more likely route and if they have truly decided to become “Supernatural Martial Arts Fast & Furious” possibly numerous sequels.