Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance
Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance is a 2021 martial arts fantasy action movie in which three fighters looking to avenge a killing must save the world from an ancient force. The movie is extremely violent. Besides fists and punches, all sorts of weapons are used: everything from guns to machetes to broken bottles, among other implements. One character is killed when a spear is shoved down their throat. The fighting is often bloody and graphic, including exaggerated sounds of bones breaking and spurting blood. After a massacre, dead bodies are covered in blood with their limbs torn off. Strong language includes "f--k" and "motherf----r," and there's booze and wine drinking. During a brief lull in the fighting, two characters find time to have sex, with some nudity (breasts). It's more or less a stand-alone sequel to the first season of the TV program Wu Assassins, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to have some familiarity with the show before watching.
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What's the Story?
In WU ASSASSINS: FISTFUL OF VENGEANCE, Tommy (Lawrence Kao) teams up with his friends, the Wu Assassin Kai (Iko Uwais) and the cocky killer-for-hire Lu Xin (Lewis Tan). The three leave San Francisco for Bangkok to avenge the murder of Tommy's sister Jenny. Their search for Jenny's killer, with the help of Freeya, a past love interest of Tommy's, leads them to a mysterious billionaire named William Pan. After meeting with Pan, it doesn't take long for Tommy and his friends to be framed for a massacre in a hotel and tasked with saving the world from a mystical force that has been unleashed and is likely to fall into the wrong hands. Along the way, they reunite with old friends and form unexpected alliances. Against desperate odds, Kai, Tommy, and Lu Xin, with the help of their allies, must exact revenge on Jenny's killer and also save the planet from total annihilation.
Is It Any Good?
In this movie, the viewer attends a 90-minute martial arts fight and a story almost breaks out. Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance could've and should've spent more time on creating a more coherent story with original characters and a little less time on the fight choreography. What starts off as a simple revenge story quickly splinters into something about a mystical billionaire, organized crime, gangs, love interests, and the restoration of The Dao. While the movie can be enjoyed for the fight scenes, of which there are many, it certainly wouldn't hurt to watch the first season of the TV series Wu Assassins before watching this "stand-alone" sequel, assuming you care about story more than a dizzying array of fight scenes involving a plethora of weaponry besides punches and kicks.
The dialogue is almost hilariously bad and sets new lows in clichéd writing. These characters and the words they speak make The Fast and the Furious franchise look like nuanced and introspective characters from Ibsen plays by comparison. However, the fight scenes, separated from the flaws in what passes for the story, are quite good, and are likely to be enjoyable for those who just want to see some martial artists going to town. For everyone else, it's incredibly difficult to get past the constant reliance on clichés to get through the rough patches of scenes in which there isn't as much fighting. There's even a sex scene gratuitously thrown in during the lull in the action around the halfway point. It's a lazy and uninspired attempt at a story to fill the small gaps between the detailed, extensive, and graphic fight scenes.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the violence in Wu Assassins: Fistful of Vengeance, martial arts or otherwise. Was it necessary for the movie to be so graphic, or was the violence often excessive and exaggerated for the sake of entertainment?
What are some of the clichés in the movie's story and characters? Why do movies, and action movies in particular, often rely on so many clichés?
Were the women in the movie shown to be just as capable of fighting as the men, or were they more in the tradition of "damsels in distress"?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: February 17, 2022
- Cast: Lawrence Kao, Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan
- Director: Roel Reine
- Studio: Netflix
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts
- Run time: 94 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: February 28, 2022
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