Wake of Death
When shady club owner Ben Archer's wife is murdered, he'll stop at nothing to get back at the Triad members who did it. It's JCVD versus Simon Yam in this surprisingly violent—and even more surprisingly, decent—revenge flick.
Ben's wife Cynthia, a social worker for the INS, brings home her work home—in the form of an Chinese girl who has illegally entered the country. Unfortunately the girls father, Sun Quan, is a Triad gangster and he's hellbent on getting her back, and he slaughters Cynthia and her parents wholesale.. This complicates his ongoing drug trafficking by attracting both police attention and Ben's personal quest for vengeance.
Jean Claude Van Damme has had a long career at this point. For years the man wanted to be taken more seriously as an actor, something even most of his fans weren't really that interested in seeing. Oddly enough, he has gotten better at acting; I dare say he's quite good as burned out club owner Ben Archer. He actually emotes. It's a trend he continued with the underrated Until Death (2007) and the somewhat overrated JCVD (2008), showing that unlike some of his action-movie peers he's never completely given up. He's managed to stay in shape too.
Yam (who was in last year's excellent Johnnie To film Sparrow) has spent much of his career playing villains, and he doesn't break that pattern in Wake of Death. As the Triad gangster amusingly named Sun Quan, he seems rather sullen and displays an unfortunate penchant for slashing women's throats with a switchblade. That particular habit puts him on a collision course with Ben.
Philippe Martinez directs in a slick, stylish fashion; this is also one of the best-looking films Van Damme had been in for years, especially back in 2004 when it was released. Martinez hasn't directed a lot of films since, which seems like a shame. The film is as nasty as it is slick, with some brutal gun and martial art battles and a torture scene that is genuinely uncomfortable to watch.
Another surprise—Van Damme shares the climactic fight scenes with Tony Schiena, a former real-life karate champion and all-around martial arts expert. Tony (as Ben's good friend Tony) actually puts on the film's best fights, including an excellent knife-fighting sequence. I rarely find onscreen knife-fights well done or realistic, so it's nice to see a good one.
Wake of Death doesn't do anything particularly new or interesting, but it's a solid revenge film with some good action sequences. It's considerably better than most of JCVD's films, and I have no problem recommending it to anyone who is in the mood for some revenge and a little asskicking.
