Movie Review: ‘Vengeance of an Assassin’

Last year, Thai director and fight choreographer Panna Rittikrai shockingly passed away at the young age of 53. He was one of the men that introduced the world to Tony Jaa in Ong Bak and went on to direct some good and not so good action films, though the stunts in every single one of them were some of the best I’ve ever seen. Before he passed, director Rittikrai completed one final film as a director, Vengeance of an Assassin, which is now being released in the US thanks to the folks over at Well Go USA.

Vengeance of an Assassin follows two brothers, Thee and Than, who are currently living with their uncle because their parents were murdered. Thee has revenge on his mind and when his uncle won’t reveal who actually killed their parents due to a promise he made, he leaves the nest and ends up becoming an assassin. While on a job, he discovers he is being double crossed and continues to protect the girl he was hired to pass on to someone else. Eventually, the two make it back to Thee’s uncle and Than joins up with the two to protect the girl and ultimately get revenge on whoever killed their parents.

Much like Rittikrai’s past three films, writing and telling a story clearly isn’t his strong suit. His ability to get good performances from his actors follows shortly behind on his list of weaknesses. While I’ve only seen his last four films (including this one), he really isn’t the guy you hire when you want your film to be engaging and compelling. I may not have known this when I saw Ong Bak 2 and 3, but I knew it with BKO and figured it would be the same case with this flick, which it was. If you’re going to watch this movie you only need to know one thing, expect to see some insane and jaw-dropping stunt work.

While there has been an increase in usage of CG (with varying degrees of quality) and what looks like some wire work, Vengeance of an Assassin still contains some of the most daring and creative stunt work/fight choreography in a film that you’ll ever see. It’s fast paced, hard hitting and clear that every performer is willing to put their life on the line to secure some wild shots. Though for a movie that has some pretty hyper violent fights, there surprisingly isn’t much blood.

As the movie progressed and Thee is on the defensive, the movie turns from an unrealistic fun fest to an unrealistic shit show. Apparently, if you’re the lead in the film, dying isn’t an option and having realistic levels of strength is thrown out the window even though everything prior to that defining moment suggested otherwise. SPOILER There is a scene where Thee is protecting his target and the female assassin that he is fighting manages to pick him up and throw him like a ragdoll despite the fact that she is scrawnier and clearly not capable of such a feat; it would be even hard for men to do it. Then, to make matters even worse, Thee gets impaled with a rod and doesn’t die. The rod goes completely through the middle of his body, missing all the important organs, and yet he still manages to get the strength to defeat his foe. After being stitched up and with only two days of rest, he’s able to go back out and fight at nearly full strength. END SPOILER Personally, I’m all for unrealistic but I do have a threshold in action movies where I just can’t accept ridiculous recoveries when the injury is that intense and the individual continues to fight like it isn’t there. There were also a few scenes that just didn’t belong at all and added nothing to the story.

Outside of the cool fight choreography, the best part of which was in the opening dream sequence involving a hardcore and violent game of battle soccer, I really liked the way the film was shot. Unlike Rittikrai’s past films that I’ve seen, Vengeance of an Assassin changed up the angles of the shots and had some really long takes, keeping certain aspects hidden during fight scenes that created an air of mystery to them. One such scene was when a guy goes into a restaurant and murders everyone. It’s a three or four minute scene shot entirely from the perspective of the killer’s feet. We hear him reload and shoot but the only thing we see are his enemies shooting him or dying. It’s pretty gnarly and is the first of two or three similar scenes. I was happy to see some solid creative decisions with the cinematography.

Action excluded, Vengeance of an Assassin is a pretty “meh.” The acting is weak and over-the-top for the revenge story it’s trying to tell, the dialogue is corny beyond all recognition and it tries so hard to add emotional depth even though the action is what everyone came for. It actually feels like a B-rated movie trying to replicate the Fast and Furious formula except its missing the fun comedic relief among the crazy action and melodramatic crap. While I wasn’t expecting a great movie and only wanted to watch the action, as per usualy with his films, I would have hoped that Rittikrai would have understood his strengths and not tried to push the other terrible elements in our face. This could have been a fun B-rated Thai actioner but instead we got a silly and occasionally laughable action flick with cool stunt work and cinematography.

Vengeance of an Assassin hits Blu-ray, DVD and digital on April 14^th from Well Go USA.

Note: To be fair, it’s unclear if Rittikrai actually completed this film before he died or someone else took over complete editorial and filmmaking duties to make sure the film was completed and released.