Fistful Of Vengeance(Netflix)
Starring Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao, JuJu Chan, Pearl Thusi
Directed by Roel Rene
Rating: **
As a followup to that very successful series We Assassins, Netflix couldn’t have asked for more. Or settled for any less.Fistful Of Vengeance is the film that we all have NOT been waiting for, but don’t mind sitting through, just for the action choreography which is spectacularly effective.
There was a time when the fists of fury flew…well… furiously, but not too slickly in the Bruce Lee/ Jackie Chan martial arts film. Here the stakes are high and sweaty, and the action kicks in—in more ways than one—from the start. The pencil-thin plot has the three heroes Kai Jin(Iko Uwais), Lu Xin Lee(Lewis Tan) and Tommy Wah(Larence Kao) flying off to Bangkok to avenge the murder of Tommy’s sister. which happened in the series preceding this film. But don’t let it bother you: if you haven’t seen the series you haven’t missed much.The gaps in the narrative are amply filled in. Everyone keeps talking about what transpired in the earlier series, as though that’s where the real action lay.
This film demands no more of your attention that whan you would give to a news report on television on violence breaking out outside the Thai embassy after some kickboxer ate too much Thai curry and blamed the country for the cuisine crisis.
The burp effect is felt throughout. The fights are excessively zealous and suitably rugged. The three heroes know their kicks as well as their grunts. Alas,their acting skills cannot match their fists. But that’s okay. No one is invested in this 90 minutes of almost non-stop gala –venting for anything except just for kicks.
What this energetic excursion into the land of thunder Thais lack is humour. The three heroes are so serious about their silly comicbook mission to save the universe from an evil woman called Ku An Qui(Rhatha Phongam)who has magical powers, that they forget this is all for fun.
If only Ku could save this film from its cheerless self-importance. That having said, Fists Of Vengeance is an innocuous diversion provided you like THAT kind of action where the action seems more vibrant that violent and where yow know the deaths are going to be reduced to the bare minimum.
Technical values are first-rate with a lot of the film being shot on the streets of Bangkok. Roel Reiné who directs also manns the camera , so that structuring the stunts exactly the way he wants them to be slotted into the narrative is easy and fluent. There are lengthy chases across crowded lanes and marshy waterways. The three main actors are accompanied by two women colleagues Pearl and Preeya(played by Zama Zulu and Francesca Corney) who have a certain romantic connection with two of the heroes.
But don’t let that hesitant hike into horniness fool you. The heroes of this martial-arts’ exhibition are not interested in matter of the loins. They may seem to think with their genitals. But their chosen tool of self-assertion is their forever furious and itchy fists of fury.Bang on.