Vengeance of an Assassin was released in 2014 in Thailand and was directed by the late Panna Rittikrai, whose most famous work includes Ong Bak, Raging Phoenix, BKO, The Protector, and Chocolate, amongst others. I’m not a professional film critic, but it’s certainly reasonable to say that Rittikrai made both Tony Jaa and Thai action films popular. Acrobatic, fast, using surrouding set props creatively, and bone-crushing blows are some principles I would use to describe Thai action/martial arts films, and those hold true in Vengeance. There are also a lot of weapons used in Vengeance, primarily firearms, although one scene has lead star Dan Chupong using a car’s wiper blade to slice up foes.
Vengeance has plenty of action, and from about the fifteen minute marker on to the very end, the film is almost entirely composed of intense action. The story sees two brothers working for their uncle in a humble car mechanics shop. Their parents were killed, although the circumstances around their deaths is somewhat hidden from the brothers by their uncle, who is falling further into alcoholism and depression. Natee, known as Thee in the subtitles oddly, decides one day it’s time he got the truth and revenge for his parents’ murder. A former friend of his parents who is still on the wrong side of the law gives him tips on who and what to hit, and Natee’s ruthless skills seem to get him pretty far. Then comes the introduction of May Nisachon Tuamsoongnuen’s character, Ploy, who Natee must rescue. Honestly, the story threw me for a loop somewhere around this point, and things began to move fast and coherency got left behind. I was no longer certain of the purpose of some characters or how things fit together, but I’ve sat through much worse stories in other action films, old school kung fu movies for example. Still, it’s a shame the story sort of fell apart as it did, leaving just the acting (which was ok), and the action (which was great) carrying the movie. The action does an admirable job but this would have been a much more robust movie if the story were better handled.
The Blu-ray release sports Thai 5.1 HD Surround and a Thai Stereo track with English subs only. The image quality is great, it’s vivid and detailed, right down to the violent effects. The menu is nicely done, although I had to fast forward through three trailers to get to it. A chapter select is available although it’s not very granular, and worse of all is that there are zero extra features. The complete lack of extras, unless you count a trailer for the movie, is a disappointment. Some kind of tribute to Rittikrai or some making of footage would have been much appreciated.
With that, let’s get to the summary…