Having missed the third installment of the John Wick series I assumed I would have trouble getting up to speed with the fourth, but given the limited stylistic requirements that the series has set for itself I had no problems. I obviously missed the explication of the worldwide criminal underground cabal called the High Table for which our assassin hero toils, but anyone with any experience in the hit man sub-genre will immediately be able to suss the implications. This back story simply provides a bit more justification for the series’ meat-and-potatoes violent set pieces, each of which involves the slaughter of dozens if not hundreds of anonymous henchmen of whichever bad guy Wick is up against. Though I have my aesthetic-moral principles, I’m as much of a sucker for the old ultra-violence as the next hack, but at close to three hours, this kind of thing, regardless of how “balletically” it’s staged, can start to feel pretty redundant.

The travelogue quality of the series seems to have been prioritized. Wick (Keanu Reeves, more monosyllabic than ever before) has apparently pledged to destroy the Table once and for all in order to gain his freedom, and embarks to the Middle East to take out an “elder” who sits at it. This occasions yet another contract on Wick’s head that every assassin in the world aims to claim. Meanwhile the Continental Hotel in New York is punished because its proprietor, Winston (Ian McShane), helped Wick do something against the Table in the previous film. Winston is left homeless and directionless, while Wick journeys to another Continental franchise in Osaka whose proprietor (Hiroyuki Sanada) is an old friend. By any stretch of the imagination, this is a mistake, since a horde of assassins, most of them led by the blind Table factotum, Caine (Donnie Yen), descendd on the establishment to take him out. Hundreds die, including some characters sympathetic to Wick’s cause, thus making you wonder what Wick hoped to accomplish by traveling to Japan. It’s then off to Berlin, where Wick has to reestablish himself with the estranged “family” that can give him certification as a bona fide assassin (no ronin for the High Table). They require he kill a fat club owner with metal teeth. Then it’s on to Paris—where there are 3-count-em-3 set pieces, only one of which elicited an “ooh” from me—to fight an old-fashioned duel with the duplicitous Table placement, the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård).

Each set piece is characterized by a distinctive motif—in Berlin it’s the boogieing masses being oblivious to the carnage around them; in Paris it’s a car chase with guns on the roundabout surrounding the Arc de Triomphe and a long tumble down the steps leading up to the Sacre-couer. Despite the additions of ringers (Shamier Anderson as a lone-wolf-with-dog assassin who keeps complicating matters; rock star Rina Sawayama as the aggrieved daughter of Sanada’s character) it’s up to Reeves to keep things moving and the extended running time doesn’t help his dour demeanor at all. If the movie is saved by anyone it’s Yen, whose grace is not only economical but witty. It would be nice to see him return for what appears to be a fifth installment, but the requisite stinger seems to indicate otherwise. 

I also didn’t see the first Confidential Assignment movie, in which comic standby Yoo Hae-jin plays an everyman police detective who teams up with a North Korean agent played by Hyun Bin to do something. That movie was released in 2017, before Hyun became an international heartthrob by playing another North Korean in the Netflix hit Crash Landing on You. Consequently, this sequel seems to be targeted more toward a global audience, but the “International” in the title ostensibly refers to the notion that the pair’s action moves have more worldwide repercussions. Also, they are joined by a Korean-American FBI agent (Daniel Henney).

Unlike Wick 4, Confidential is purely plot-fueled: a rogue North Korean agent, Jang (Jin Seon-kyu), has taken his brief as a drug smuggler for the Hermit Kingdom into the US criminal underground, where he’s attracted the notice of the Feds, and after relocating to South Korea becomes the target of the Seoul police, the North Korean military, and the FBI. Hyun’s Im Chul-ryung is tasked with bringing Jang back with his ill-gotten gains, while Yoo’s Kang Jin-tae pushes back against the arrogant American interloper for dibs on Jang’s ass. The three end up working together, but not before a lot of mayhem entails of the John Wick variety, including a very well choreographed shoot-out on the streets of New York. 

This being a blockbuster South Korean actioner, it leaves plenty of room for broad comedy, which is mostly provided by Hyun’s fortified status as a hunk. In the first movie, apparently, Kang’s sister-in-law, Min-young (Im Hoon-ah) had the hots for Chul-ryung and anticipates his return with salacious abandon, but once she gets a gander at the Yank she shifts loyalties, though not really in a convincing way. Still, if I prefer the action set pieces here to those in Wick, it’s not so much because they’re original but because they’re distinct from one another, and the people who die have actual personalities—evil personalities, for sure, but that gives you something to root for. 

John Wick: Chapter 4 now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

John Wick: Chapter 4 home page in Japanese

John Wick photo (c) 2023 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc.-Murray Close

Confidential Assignment 2: International, in Korean, now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024.

Confidential Assignment 2 home page in Japanese

Confidential Assignment 2 photo (c) 2022 CJ ENM Co., Ltd., JK Film