Continuing the eye-candy, Hollywood-like with an Asian flavor martial arts aesthetic, the sequel to “Wu Assassins” begins where its predecessor left off, adding even more to the aforementioned elements.
Kai, Lu Xin and Tommy travel to Bangkok to hunt down the killer of Tommy's sister Jenny, having found on her body an ancient talisman that leads them to Thailand. There, biotech billionaire, super-powered William Pan approaches them by taking the place of a number of club visitors the two first have visited in their search. Pan asks them to bring to him his twin sister, underworld boss Ku An Qi, a jiangshi who has been consuming massive amounts of qi to expand her supernatural powers in order to take over the world. Joined by Tommy's friend Preeya, the group plan to kidnap Ku from a meeting with the city's Triad bosses. However, things do not go as planned and Kai is ambushed by long-time foe Zan. The group manage to escape to Preeya's village with the help of Zama, an Interpol agent who is also Lu Xin's former acquaintance. Their adventure, however, is just starting.
As is usual the case in martial arts films, the story revolves around the action scenes, essentially functioning only as a background for them. “Fistful of Vengeance” is not an exception, with the only meaningful narrative aspect here being the antagonism between the three men, which does not last particularly long however.
Regarding the action scenes, although most of them are elaborate, it seems that Roel Reine's focus (who also doubles as DP) is also on their visuals, with the majority of them moving in eye-candy, rather than violent paths. This aspect becomes evident from the first ones, one inside the club and one featuring Tommy fighting inside a car, where style definitely takes over, headed by the appearance of the three protagonists, but also of the people they fight and even the regular clients. This approach becomes even more intense as more female characters appear in the story, with JuJu Chan as Zan, Francesca Corney as Preeya, Rhatha Phongam as Ku An Qi, and most of all, Pearl Thusi as Zama Zulu, being as dangerous as they are sensual. Particularly the latter is rather sultry in the film, and also the only one present in a sex scene that also exhibits some brief nudity.
The combination of beautiful women and men fighting each other may appear shallow, but actually works quite well in terms of entertainment, particularly since a number of the battles showcase the talents of the protagonists in martial arts, with the ones between Uwais and JuJu Chan, and Lewis Tan's on occasion, being the most memorable. Truth be told, some of them look completely unremarkable, also because some of the actors are not martial artists and the SFX do not help that much, something that becomes painfully evident in some scenes, but in general, the action aspect is on a more than passable level.
On the other hand, the music-video/music promotion element so frequently appearing in US TV series, does not work at all, since both Reine's cinematography and coloring and the number of these scenes in a 95-minute long movie, render them quite tedious after a fashion, particularly for those who are not fans of the club/trap/hip-hop/electronic paths the soundtrack follows.
If you prefer your action movies sexy, rather than brutal, look no further, “Fistful of Vengeance” is definitely the film for you.
