The John Wick cinematic universe was built piecemeal in that it started out with a standard revenge story that was so popular it spun off its own underlying mythos. The problem with this methodology is that it was difficult to drop into any separate narrative, be it one of the sequels or the spinoff TV series, and understand what was really going on since the mythos was deep and wide and rather pretentious, what with all the talk about arcane codes of honor and blood rituals. It went beyond the standard assassin story into some kind of extra-dimensional realm with its own moral dogma. So what’s refreshing about Ballerina, a spinoff that takes place within the exact same world, is that it lays out its own mythos in one convenient package, and while it doesn’t say anything new about the world it describes, at least it’s intelligible.

The ballerina is Eve (Ana de Armas), whose father was assassinated by representatives of a death cult whose leader, the Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne), accuses him of betraying the cult by trying to withhold Eve from its designs. Eve barely escapes and come to the attention of Winston (Ian McShane), the manager of the Continental Hotel, which services the needs of the international assassin elite. He delivers the girl to the director (Anjelica Huston) of Ruska Roma, a ballet school-cum-assassin academy, where she learns how to pirouette and kick ass, though she seems better at the latter than the former. During her tutelage, Eve makes the brief acquaintance of super assassin John Wick (Keanu Reeves), who is presented to her as someone who has strayed from the precepts of this world and thus isn’t to be emulated, but somehow Eve is changed by the encounter and while she does as she is told and stoically completes her murderous assignments (which always seem to take place in high-end dance clubs), she’s not entirely a team player, and during one particularly gnarly fight she spies a tattoo on the arm of an assailant and recognizes it as belonging to the cult that killed her father. The director forbids her from pursuing the matter because, apparently, the Ruska Roma and the cult have an ages-old understanding that they will not interfere in each other’s butcherous affairs. Naturally, Eve does not obey, and with the underhanded help of Winston searches out the cult.

At this point there is still more than an hour of movie left, meaning plenty of time and opportunity for the violent set pieces that the Wick franchise is famous for—though I have to say, much of the action here is less balletic than it was in the last John Wick movie. At this point, I can’t say I’m any more impressed by the facility with which these set pieces are staged and edited, if, in fact, I ever was, but there’s something to be said for a simple revenge story told in a linear fashion with all the essential plot points spelled out clearly and logically. Not sure if that should be the qualifying requirement for a good action flick, but it was enough for me. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Marunouchi Piccadilly (050-6875-0075), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978), Toho Cinemas Shibuya (050-6868-5002), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Ballerina home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2025 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc.