Fistful of Vengeance: Truckload Of  Furious Energy, Just For Kicks

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.