To state the obvious: films are a different beast to TV series. The movie Fistful of Vengeance continues after the events of the overall very entertaining Netflix series Wu Assassins.
The latter had room to fill itself with compelling characters and pace out a plot for them to live in. The former deals with the dregs that are leftover.
Wu Assassins did a pretty great job of getting the best out of its cast. Indonesian star Iko Uwais made up for his stilted English language ability with his inimitable martial arts skills.
Brash friend Lu (Lewis Tan) had personality by the bucket load and the strength to back it up, and restaurant owner Tommy Wah (Lawrence Kao) had a drug and gangster redemption arc to cover.
Mix in a healthy dose of East Asian mysticism and the result was a well-cooked show.
What Is Fistful of Vengeance About?
Fistful of Vengeance is immediately on the backfoot by having zero interest in its legacy characters.
It doesn’t help that Wu Assassins already killed off complex Triad boss Uncle Six before dispatching with Tommy’s sister, Jenny, who acted as a grounding force to keep all the characters in check.
The core remaining trio of Kai (Uwais), Lu, and Tommy are hunting for Jenny’s killers, although for all the emotion this is given they could have been hunting to buy furniture for all it matters.
What’s left is a bog-standard punch ‘em up with padded out scenes to fill out the gaps.
There’s some waffle about the eternally split forces of Yin and Yang that should never be reunited lest a world-levelling force be unleashed.
Such threat is barely explained nor understood but keeps things chugging along, despite a total waste of Warrior actor Jason Tobin.
Fistful of Vengeance Official Trailer
Is Fistful of Vengeance Wirth Watching?
So our crew careen from one loosely tied-in scene to another with their faith in each other shaken a bit, only to be renewed by a good old argument just before the third act.
Perhaps aware that the whole thing has gotten very testosterone soaked, the movie chucks in some thinly written female characters to a) be vulnerable with a tragic backstory and b) have sex, respectively. It’s all so perfunctory.
If all of the above is lacking then it is pretty hard to care about the fight scenes.
Sure, some well-choreographed and cool-looking fights can pull even the most turgid film out of the mire. Somehow though even that element is lacking; when you can’t make Iko Uwais look good then something is very wrong indeed.
The list goes on: a dull antagonist who barely gets any screen time; the reduction of super-cool assassin character Zan Hui (JuJu Chan) to little more than a damage dealing ghost; a finale location cheaper than a sub-Buffy The Vampire Slayer set; a slideshow of people to whom no time is ever given to empathise with any of them.
Those who haven’t seen Wu Assassins will have no reason to care. Those who have will be let down enormously.
Sadly, this movie is only a Ham-fisted Cull of Patience.
Words by Mike Record
