Edgar Cochran ✝️’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Neon Imperatum".
Choreography superiority, pervasive underworld intoxication, action stunts atop the modern Hollywood industry, and the legendary Donnie Yen playing a wondrous Zatoichi tribute whose arc transitions between personal interests, the preservation of life and decisions involving who lives and who dies becomes one of the extremely scarce examples in Hollywood action films where an international superstar gets casted correctly. Chapter 4 is the fantasy mystification of a mortal figure transcended into the incarnation of a seemingly invincible underworld legend, a globetrotter assassin seeking for a spiritual reconciliation between the loving husband and the soulless life-taker. Cascades of immaculate lighting and neon-infested sceneries paint the colors of revenge, bloodshed, family honor and true alliances while the soundtrack makes all the sugar glass edifices shatter into beautiful diamonds of mayhem.
The immortalized match transition from the match blown off to the sunrise of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is paid the biggest respect in the opening act after watching a series of shockingly defeaning and intense punches of an angry and betrayed John Wick, just to arrive to the very rock David Lean's masterpiece was filmed. For the closing act, For a Few Dollars More (1965) is given the most gorgeous homage in old and recent remembrance. In between, we get Bertolucci-like cinematography from the Arc de Triomphe and the Rue Foyatier to the Room 77 of the Louvre where the works of Delacropix (The Death of Sardanapalus and Liberty Leading the People) and Gericault's The Raft of the Medusa as foreshadowing of a tyrant king disinterested in the mayhem around him that costs even the lives of his servants, and the orchestration of an insurgency, respectively.
In the middle, we get nods from The Warriors (1979) to the videogame Hong Kong Massacre (resulting in the most accomplished and jaw-dropping action scene of the last 20 years), a card duel more intense than the entirety of Casino Royale (2006) with a Penguin-like Scott Adkins portraying Killa as a comedic maniac 2.5 times more intimidating and funny than Colin Farrell's DC impersonation, raves beyond one's self-control, and a radio station which initials are WUXIA (I just can't control the coolness of the latter fact). Christ-like figures are shown for purposeful measures, not excluding Caravaggio's The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, until the many nods are done to the three previous installments and coming full circle with the first one in highly relevant ways.
Within the modern action department in cinema, this is one of the most exciting and most accomplished deliveries in the new millennium. This is, certainly, a cause of great celebration.
93/100
P.S. All the thousands of blessed people that have mistakenly said "OMG this scene is a reference to Hotline Miami", please make a line so I can apply Ip Man's chain punches to your face.
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