Wake of Death
Tags: revenge, neo noir, murder, violence

Plot synopsis:
After being a gangster for many years, Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) moves from Marseille to Los Angeles and decides to become legit to spend more time with his wife, Cynthia (Lisa King), and his child, Nicholas (Pierre Marais).
Cynthia is a social worker with the INS, helping to process illegal Chinese immigrants. Then she discovers Kim (played by Valerie Tian), a young girl on board a ship that is full of immigrants, and decides to bring her home. She convinces a judge that the girl is in grave danger if deported and successfully pleads with him to give her one-week to sort out her case against deportation.
However, it proves to be a fatal mistake. Kim's father, Sun Quan (played by Simon Yam), is a Chinese Triad. Once Sun Quan discovers where his daughter is, without provocation, he kills Cynthia, her parents and many of the workers in the restaurant at which they're dining.
After a shootout with the fleeing Triad members, Ben finds his wife brutally murdered. His son Nicholas and Kim are missing. He attempts to save the children and avenge his wife's death.
Ben, however, is not alone in his attempts to avenge his wife. With the help of French mobsters Max (Anthony Fridjohn)(who happens to be Cynthia's uncle), Raymond (Max's muscle / bodyguard) (Claude Hernandez), and Tony (Tony Schiena), a friend the character loves like a brother. Ben's child and Kim are found, Ben then decides to kill Andy Wang (Tom Wu), who he saw leaving his wife's murder scene. The hit is successful, and the investigation afterwards gives Ben a lead on where to move next.
The next morning, thanks to tips from a somewhat crooked cop, Ben finds that Mac Hoggins (Danny Keogh), Cynthia's partner in the INS, was at the investigation, completely out of his field. Ben and his comerades then capture Hoggins, take him to a garage, and they torture him for answers. Ben is called by the same cop that tipped him off about Hoggins, and is asked to meet him at the morgue.
Hoggins confesses to telling Sun Quan of Cynthia's involvement with Kim, and gives them information of Sun Quan's involvement with heroin in the United States, as well as his location. With all of the information, they kill him.
When Ben arrives at the morgue, he is quickly greeted with death, as everyone in the morgue (with the exception of a few scared nurses) has been killed, with dead immigrants on the table.
After a motorcycle chase, Ben disposes of both of the murderers, and heads back to Max's house. Upon arriving, there are 2 black SUVs speeding off, and Tony, who was riding with him, jumps out and runs inside, while Ben gives chase. Apparently, the Triads had kidnapped Kim and Nicholas, and Ben is only able to retrieve Kim, barely escaping with their lives.
Ben drives back to Max's house, where he learns that Max and Raymond have been killed. Then, Ben and Tony decide to take on Sun Quan with the information provided by Hoggins.
They go to Pier 19, to his boat, the Katrina, in which is used for Quan's heroin operations. After vicious fights on the ship, Ben and Sun Quan are faced off on a bridgewalk on the boat. They exchange gunshots right when the police arrive, Ben being hit in his shoulder or arm region, and Sun Quan being fatally wounded.

Review: Unlike his co-action hero's Steven Seagal who can't even be bothered hanging around to loop his on voice on his movies- VAN DAMME is making a comeback.
The action is great, Van Damme is in it, and the story is pretty good.
If your looking for a great action film with Van Damme and this movie is not at your local Blockbuster I suggest you spend a few extra bucks a purchase the film, you will not be let down.I have read that some people were let down by the films climax stating that it's far too quick for some.
I'll be the first to admit that the super butt kicking action was not the only thing I appreciated in Jean-Claude Van Damme's films back in the day.
The wonders of Hong Kong film.Looking to pack a recent weekend with as much action and gunplay possible, I found "Wake of Death" and decided to give JCVD another try.
This film is not for those who like their action mindless.I agree with all the comments about Jean-Claude's acting skills  he has definitely earned to communicate emotion and real character depth.
Another thing I noticed is that this movie looked like it had a nice budget..100 times better then Derailed and better then In Hell..It was nice to see that Money was being dished out for Van Damme again.
I have always wanted Van Damme in a french style action-noir movie, like the old Alain Delon movies, I was very pleased when I saw Philippe Martinez mix Jean-Pierre Melville classic anti-hero lead with "MTV" camera work.
Doesn't matter what the hell you think of his past films or what u saw, Wake Of Death exposes a raw, gritty and capturing Van Damme like you will never see.
This is the first time that I'm going to write a review for a movie just because it was one of the best recent action films that I have seen and the rating is far below what it deserved.
For some reason it just all came together nicely and I definitely recommend this film especially if you enjoy action movies and are a van damme fan!.
Our revenger hero wages war against the criminals .The sad Van Damme must rescue the kids and revenge his spouse, meanwhile he's attacked and pursued from all sides by Chinese triads, being only helped by a French gangster's trio.This film direct to video-rentals, displays action-packed, extreme violence, pursuit cars, thrills and is quite entertaining.
However, Nicholas and Kim escape from the killers, and Ben calls his friend to revenge the death of his beloved wife."Wake of Death" is not a totally bad Van Damme's movie.
Fans and non-fans of Van Damme are gonna Like Wake of Death.It baffles one why Van Damme had not been making these types of movie earlier.He might still be the mid-level star he was.Gorgously shot,WoD finds Van Damme a retired enforcer named Ben Archer with revenge on his mind after a knife-wielding Triad Boss(Simon Yam)brutally KIlls his wife and in-laws.He goes back to the mob way for some Damme action.What seems like an average revenge flick is an action lovers flick:Bike chases,car chases,Gun fights,Fist fights,Drills,Shotguns to the face,and a scene that would make Tarantino proud.Van Damme surprises here by rising above his usual monosyllabic self.He emotes!Very well.Its a welcome change to see him with such acting chops.Yam is mostly on the sidelines,letting his goons do the hard work.He underplays San Qaun at times,but he always comes off cool,collected,and evil.Rest of the cast is mixed.The mob cronies are the best:Tony Scheina has a lot of presence as JC's mob buddy and could easily go on to be a good action star.Anthony Fridjohn delivers some pretty hard-boiled lines as the kingpin.Fellow enforcer Claude Hernandez is likable and quiet.But hes all action when need be.Valerie Tian is engaging as Kim; San Quans Daughter.
Bad:Choppy style.Lack of character background.I wonder if there is another cut to WoD.A lot of questions needed answers.The ending is too open-ended.I wish Ringo Lam would have stayed on.But whatever little perks are missing, Philippe Martinez makes up for it with visuals,style,and a great soundtrack.But all in all a great revenge flick that rivals Man on Fire.And great acting from Van Damme.Your on your way back!.
one of Van Damme's best movies ever and best acting wise this movie has everything in it and not to much karate but it has some this movie should have been in the theaters.He couldn't have done a better job in the scene after his wife was killed this movie has explosions gun fighting drama everything a movie needs.
It's gritty and unapologetic with its violence, clearly trying to effectively capture the mob world in which it takes place, and also features what might be Van Damme's best actual acting performance of his entire career.
There's an emotional scene in the movie that is so intense it's almost difficult to watch, so I don't want to hear any more from these people who are constantly whining that Van Damme can't act.
Quan, clearly, is not happy about his daughter living with some white people ("foreign devils," as they were called back when people really were trying to flee from China), so he sets out to find her, killing anyone who gets in his way.At this point, the movie becomes astonishingly violent, even for a Van Damme film.
Quan kills Cynthia, and Ben's grieving her loss is one of the best scenes in the movie, and one of the best examples of Van Damme's acting ability from his entire career.The soundtrack is suitably depressing when it needs to be, such as in the opening credits, which features one of those god-awful moody soap-opera-ish love songs, like the worst of the Bond themes.
Sadly, like the great Bruce Campbell, Van Damme is a little bit of what they call "box office poison," although I would like to suggest that the reason for this is because of the bad press that he gets from people who jump on the bandwagon, uniformly criticizing his acting and his movies without even really knowing what they're talking about.
Wake of Death was the first "Van Damme" movie I'd seen in a couple of years.
and Van Damme is in it!(PS: He's come a long way even since this movie; Watch "Until Death" to see where it's taken him today.).
One word for this movie - 'AWESOME' Quite simply put, Nobody to my knowledge comes close to this guy, Van Damme, hes a breathing legend in his own right , trying dissuading us JCVD fans otherwise.I saw all his movies in the late 80s and then from there went on to watch some of the movies he was in , in the 90s, and personally his presence on the big screen has almost always been memorable ones, in that all his movies are a big part of my 90s experience at the cinemas, or at home watching movies.When I saw this movie I was probably over treated to the slick production, cool style, directing was VERY good too for this kind of movie, lot of directors fail but not this director JCVD astounded me with his gift of on screen martial arts and athleticism, a living testament to how to remain in good shape even in your 40s, and trust me i may be 27 but I'm no where near the level of this guy and i cycle/jog/ play soccer a lot.To confess to being an action movie junkie and then to give this movie a miss would be sin, and your loss - as it has all the right ingredients one would except to see in a top quality spanking good action movie.Its not just the action that this movie excels in depicting on screen, I thought J.
Claude van Damme acted as good as any body prancing around on those over budget less than thrilling modern day big screen flicks in which all you get is a guy prancing around with a few corny lines to say and a weak plot.J. Claude van Damme's character was played exceptionally well, the acting was 10/10 by him, i thought the movie was gripping, but more so extremely entertaining and enjoyable and satisfying to watch on a giant 56 inch plasma TV with my girl friend and a couple of beers beside us - Friday evenings just don't get better than this !Shes no J.
Claude van Damme fan, prefers some guy named Vin Diesel or something, never heard of him but anyway - she too was in confession of admitting that this movie was as good as any action movie she'd seen in the last quarter of the decade or so.Great action scenes, cool story line, good character depiction on screen great acting - all in all a GEM of an action movie, MISS this movie at your own peril !
In this film, Claude Van Damme, (Ben Archer) is starting to burn out from his past method of making a living and decides to leave his present position and just enjoy his sexy good looking wife and son.
I am a big Jean-Claude fan and have almost all his movies.I have to say this now is one of my favorite JCVD movies, in my opinion one of his most dramatical movies, of course we don't normally associate JCVC with drama in the true sense of the word but the plot of this movie and how it developed towards the later part did prove to be pretty dramatic.He is definitely on the right track to rebuilding his movie career, I've really enjoyed all his recent movies, Wake of Death, In Hell.
In Hell was good for a direct to DVD film but it wasn't much of an action movie.
Either way I recommend this flick to Van Damme fans and anyone that wants to watch a good dumb action flick..
The thing about Van Damme is, having appeared in so many action vehicles, why should we believe that he would be able to portray a man whose very life and soul has been ripped out of him through his own personal tragedy.If memory serves, Gary Daniels has tried to do the very same thing, basically to reiterate to us the viewer that as an action star Mr Daniels much like Mr Van Damme can show emotion whilst in the midst of breaking many bones of many many bad men.Unlike Van Damme however, Daniels has failed to convince with his on screen inner turmoil, perhaps we should blame the storyline he finds himself involved in or maybe just maybe, he lacks that certain range to do himself and the movie justice, for every good action film that he made, 'Fist Of The North Star' he tried to act in such disappointments like 'Hawk's Vengeance'.The same of course could be said of Van Damme, for years he has parlayed his talents into showing us just how good his martial arts skills are, however there are grounds for believing that as a man grows older he also grows wiser.Trying something different in term's of both character and story Van Damme didn't quite pull it off, we have become used to watching action do what they do best, namely bust some heads, with 'In Hell' we didn't get that, I was quite ready to see Van Damme suffer six degrees of inner torment, that was not what I was expecting.That said with 'Wake of Death' all the elements were in position.
The first time I heard about this film was when I saw it on the shelf of my rental place and I was thinking "wow another Van Damme camp-fest" in the style of Derailed or the significantly better, though not great, In Hell.
I have never heard about Phillippe Martinez before, but he sure knows what he's doing mixing slow moments of film noir with pretty well directed action scenes and that makes for a solid movie.
Stuff like Street Fighter and Derailed being on the other end of the spectrum with their unrehearsed and choppily acted performances.Van Damme fans take note for he is definitely on the right track if he keeps making movies like this.
Seeing Van Damme try to act seems a bit weird at first but I can tell you that he is a great actor and he is improving in every movie he releases in the future.
not only with action but with more dramatic elements well-executed in films like this Wake of Death.Well, the first time I saw it, i thought it's a little bit more than average action flick with vd's better acting performance.
When I sat down to watch this movie last evening I expected a fairly ordinary direct-to-video (actually it was released to cinema in France) action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme that would, at best, be somewhat entertaining.
Now the threshold for that wow was of course a bit lower than usual since I was not expecting that much from the movie but still, this is a surprisingly good movie.Sure it has its silly moves and plot holes like most movies of this kind but it is miles away from the usual brain-dead run-of-the-mill action movie.First of all, Jean-Claude Van Dame makes a quite decent, even good, performance.
Personally I am not much for these sentimental cry-scenes but Jean-Claude manages to make these parts well and at the same time he is brutally cool when he is out seeking his revenge.The action in the movie is also very enjoyable whether it is car chases, motorcycle chases or martial art displays.
I thought to myself when I saw it on the new release wall "Another Van Damme movie," but the blockbuster guy mentioned it was pretty good considering So I checked it out and was pleasantly surprised overall!
It had no comedy whatsoever, but that didn't bother me at all and was actually kind of refreshing, especially being how all Action / Thriller / Horror movies now days are just packed with comedy.The fight scenes were pretty good, although there were a lot of bullets coming out of Damme's gun with very few noticeable reloads, but it's certainly not the first movie to forget to count the bullets.
JVC is doing good and i think he tries to make a comeback with movie like In Hell, Replicant and Wake of Death!
so is the rest of the cast the fights are as exciting as street fighter the movie(which coincidentally starred the great Van Damme) This is a film that shouldn't go straight to video, it should go straight to TV, or the refuse tip!
We'll both be better off.Wake of Death (2004) like my title say's it is very brutal, revenge, action, violence movie!
I love the man and his movies and Wake of Death is not a bad action movie but is not my favorite film from Van Damme.Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting is far beyond what he was able to do with previous material and the film has a nice dark edge to it.
So they kill everyone but the kids run away, when Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) finds out about this he takes the matter in his own hands, the justice he delivers it is his own fury of hell.Philip Tan also played in this movie , I saw him in Tango & Cash (1989), Martial Law (1990) and Bloodsport II (1994), I mostly remember him from that movie.
Overall I am giving this movie a 8, I like it,it is my favorite Van Damme movie, it is hell of a better movie than Seagal all shitty direct to video movies and previous shitty movies that Van Damme did before.Wake of Death is a 2004 American/German action film directed by French director, Philippe Martinez and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
It contains a few brutal scenes, shows "serious feelings of Van Damme" and of course ...A....C....T...I...O...N. This movie hits hard on face.
I don't desesperate to watch other movies where Jean-Claude Van Damme is acting because I know that he has many fans, therefore there might be something I haven't catch yet.
Van Damme's performance is top notch, thanks to director Martinez who actually had the good sense to give him TIME to act.
Jean Claude Van Damme plays Ben Archer whose wife is killed early in the movie by some Chinese drug dealers and now Ben wants to get even.
Really sorry to see Van Damme ending into movies like this, cause I really used to like his older films, but somehow I understand after seeing some of the Steven Seagal's latest stuff, but this one is still in its own category, BIG TIME..
There's a few good action sequences such as the scene with Van Damme in moto but the ending is bad in every ways.
I saw this movie only because, once I was a fan of Van Damme and the reviews on it were good ( in fact they were better than most of his films, and so is the rating ).
van Damme is a very good actor and we can see that in "wake of death" or in "in hell".
Wake of Death is a very good action movie.
I'm happy that once in awhile, I'm able to rent out a "B" action movie and become pleasantly surprised.This movie is good for Jean Claude Van Damme fans.
Very good performance by Van Damme.....one of his best films in years!.
Van Damme DEFINITELY could've started his way back to the mainstream with this, it's a very good action film showcasing his acting skill (whoa...never thought I'd say that).
The good news is that Van Damme seems to be coming out of his rut, and, with this and IN HELL, making some of the best films of his career.
If you want to see a better recent van Damme movie then I suggest trying out In Hell which I thought was awesome and Replicant was pretty good as well.