In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

One of the best and most ignored JCVD films. Angry, dramatic, tragic... Every moment is shocking and unforgettable. JCVD shakes the screen in one of the best performances of his career. A very realistic and sad film noir. The point that Philippe Martinez brings to the film is indisputable.

Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a Van Damme good dark,bloody, brutal, action flick direct to video, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.Wake of Death (2004) like my title say's it is very brutal, revenge, action, violence movie! In a completely different tone from Van Damme! I have never saw him acting and playing a character like that! I am wondering now if Van Damme is in real life like his character Ben Archer is. This is my favorite direct to video Van Damme movie. I like the action in here, but the whole movie was more brutal than ever. I have watched the cut version, I don't know why was this movie cut in the first place? Maybe because they were too violent scenes in it. I don't think is a bad movie, I like it. I know a lot of people like this movie and they love it, like it or love it to death. I like it a lot and I think this movie "Wake of Death" is decent. At least is much better film than Street Fighter, Knock Off, The Quest, Inferno aka Desert Heat and Derailed was, those movies suck ass and I will not see them in a long time soon! I think this movie is good for what it is. It is a Badass violent, action, bloody, brutal movie. I've always said the thing that sets Van Damme apart from everyone else, like are Dolph Lundgren, Seagal, Gary Daniels etc..... Is that Van Damme can Act. I know that Steven Seagal did had a lot of direct to video movies, but after watching this movie, I have enjoy it much more than I would enjoy a Steven Seagal direct to Video awful movies. Not a Seagal fan anymore, but I am the biggest Van Damme fan and I care what is happening to Van Damme. 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. Plenty of great, well choreographed (and violent) action scenes and you can actually see Van Damme doing most of his own stunt work for once. Visually the film looks very sleek (in a dark way) and considering it's over a decade old, very little about it has aged. The plot is fairly simple (revenge) and the dialogue and script are tight for the most part. The film runs at about 86 minutes (pre-credits) and moves at a brisk pace though it never feels short and sells itself and it's contents very well. It doesn't set the world on fire for originality but what it does, it does very nicely and in my opinion, it adds a little class to Van Dammes filmography. Simon Yam did a terrific joy playing the villain and a triad leader in this movie. I remember him from watching his early movies like were: Bloodfight (1989),John Woo's Bullet in the Head (1990), Naked Killer (1992) and Full Contact (1992) those were the movies that I liked from him. I did not saw how Simon Yam got aged in here, but he still did a good solid performance.The basic plot about this film is After his wife is brutally murdered, an ex-cop wages war against the Chinese triads. A triad leader Sun Quan (Simon Yam) murdered with knife his wife, when she wanted to leave him and taken his daughter away from him. His daughter Kim (Valerie Tian) saw him murdering her mother and she flees away from him. She comes to America with an immigrant's ship, one of Sun Quan's ships. When Sun Quan (Simon Yam) find out that out, he come to America to get her back. Cynthia (Lisa King) is a social worker with the INS, helping to process illegal Chinese immigrants. Then she discovers Kim (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. Without hesitation Sun Quan (Simon Yam) orders his gang to get the girl back and kill everyone. 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. Ringo Lam was the original director, but he left the project after a few weeks of filming in Canada. The film was released to the cinema in France but direct to video in America in 2004.8/10 Grade: A Studio: Bauer Martinez Studios UKFS Frame Werk Produktion GmbH & Co. KG Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lisa King, Valerie Tian, Simon Yam, Tony Schiena, Philip Tan, Pierre Marais, Tom Wu, Claude Hernandez Director: Philippe Martinez Producers: Alan Latham, Philippe Martinez, Stéphanie Martinez, Stanley Roup Screenplay: Philippe Martinez, Mick Davis, Laurent Fellous, Kristina Hamilton-Grobler Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 31 Mins. Budget: $14.000.000 Box Office: $1,206,134

(57%) Another example of Van Damme's strait-to-video movies being actually better than his cinematic ones from back in the day (or the 90's as it's also called). This is a somewhat solid, violent revenge flick with a great central role from Jean-Claude giving a more than decent dramatic performance that you just don't really get in this type of lower end budgeted movie. There are a few noticeable cracks here and there as you'd expect, the fact that it's only about 1 hour 22 long is proof enough of not the highest quality, but as far as hard edged crime action thrillers that never made it to cinema go, this is really is a bit of a highlight.

This on tries to capture the attention of world on the problem of illegal emigrants . You will also see Van Damme in existential pain . The movie wants to be art – the scene at the balcony when Van Damme is talking with his son is a proof of that.There are some nice erotic scenes here . The story is actually a decent one (at least for Van Damme movie). You can definitely see the effort from the filmmakers and I can appreciate that. Too bad I won't remember about the movie tomorrow. It's not as bad as "Derailed" , but "Wake of death" isn't really worth watching. It's got lame dialogues , choppy editing and forgettable action.I give it 1/10.