7) Sun Quan (played by Simon Yam) – Wake Of Death (2004)
I’ll probably have so many fans disagree with me on this one, but hear me out. Wake Of Death and In Hell both started what I like to call The Van Damme Renaissance. It was a movement in a different direction, one where JCVD began taking quite deep and layered roles in more drama-focused pieces. This particular film saw his character Ben Archer going up against the Hong Kong triads after his wife is mercilessly murdered for taking in a young refugee girl, who just happens to be the daughter of triad boss Sun Quan.
Again, Wake Of Death suffered from a similar problem that Until Death did, and that is not giving the lead villain adequate screen time. While it’s guilty to a lesser extent here, and although I did thoroughly enjoy this film and the noir-ish direction it had, I still couldn’t help but feel short-changed by the end of it. I consider Simon Yam to be the Robert De Niro of Asia. The man can damn well act, and he’s got the action chops to go along with it, but director Phillippe Martinez just didn’t utilize him to his full potential.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t Martinez’s fault. The script did have some great characters that could’ve been more fully realized, and while that may be forgivable to a certain extent for supporting players, you just can’t do that to your leading villain.
For the limited time we do get to see Yam in action, here is what we’re treated with: he murders his wife without so much as batting an eyelid after she reveals that her daughter is in fact his daughter and she’s taking her away from him. The icing on the cake is they had just finished making love, almost like a reverse black-widower. Then he goes on a killing spree by murdering Archer’s wife (and his in-laws for good measure), and also murders (spoiler alert) Archer’s adopted gangster family and kidnaps his son. While Yam doesn’t have all that many lines, a picture is worth a thousand words, and his vicious expressions will send chills down your spine.
