Vengeance (2009)

After a violent tragedy befalls his daughter's family, Costello (Johnny Halladay) seeks the help of a trio of Chinese hit-men to help him extract his bloody revenge against the man responsible.

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Anyone who claims the Chinese-Gangster-Shoot-‘em-Up genre died when John Woo left for America has clearly not seen Vengeance. It’s like the late 80s/early 90s all over again in this action masterpiece from director Johnnie To. And I’m not using the term masterpiece lightly. This film was actually in competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. God bless the French for accepting the fact that art can be fun. It’s like watching The Wild Bunch, Leon: The Professional and Memento ALL AT THE SAME TIME. And for the snobs out there, the film has “echoes” of Ford, Hawks & Melville. Oh and please don’t let the fact that the film’s main characters are French and Chinese scare you because:

(Q) How do French and Chinese people communicate with each other?

(A) In English!

Plus this is an action film, so most of the time people aren’t even talking. Most of the time they’re too busy unloading bullet after bullet into each other. What more could you really want?

(As of this writing, it's streamable on Netflix! Check it out!)