We Don’t Deserve Donnie Yen

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for John Wick Chapter 4.The John Wick cast has always been replete with spectacular character actors, but the pairing of John Wick: Chapter 4 and Donnie Yen is serendipitous. A martial arts legend in an American franchise built upon its reverence for Asian filmography, and he’s Chapter 4’s top-billed actor after Keanu Reeves? Yes, please. The material he’s afforded is three-dimensional, his performance packed with equal measures of grit and heart; it’s almost more than fans deserve. As one of Chinese-language cinema’s most influential and enduring stars since the 1990s, it’s certainly the Hollywood respect an artist of Yen’s monumental caliber deserves — and he provides the performance to back it up.

What Motivates Donnie Yen’s Caine in ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’?

Like many who cross John Wick’s path throughout the four installments, Yen’s character, Caine, is an assassin and former associate of Wick’s. Several key factors differentiate Caine’s role in Chapter 4, however. Caine is retired, something Wick attempted and failed to achieve; Caine has no desire to kill Wick for professional advancement or monetary gain; and he’s an adoring father. The latter is by far the most important facet of this man’s moral code. Audiences meet Caine as he listens from afar to a young street violinist’s performance while clasping a worn picture of a young girl. He keeps his distance from his daughter to protect her from the consequences of his death-dealing past, and Yen infuses Caine with silent, exhausted longing.

His worst fears prove well-founded when the High Table member Marquis Vincent de Gramont (Bill Skarsgård) promises to murder Caine’s daughter in cold blood if Caine refuses, or even fails, to kill Wick. Initially, Caine thought the Marquis made him an offer and easily denies the contract on Wick’s life, but there was no true choice in the matter and never was. If Wick was driven by revenge in the first John Wick, then Caine’s propelled by the ferocity of protection.

Donnie Yen’s Performance as Caine Is ‘John Wick’ at Its Most Fun

One might think such a severe situation would exclude any notion of enjoying oneself, but Yen does an impressive tight-rope act reflective of the franchise’s tone: clearly having a blast without sacrificing gravitas. Director Chad Stahelski and Yen waste no time establishing this showmanship when Caine joins the Marquis’s assault on the Osaka Continental Hotel. He’s more than content to enjoy an unhurried meal — ensconced in a safe kitchen nook — while the Marquis’s men are massacred in droves. It’s a lovely bit of easy revenge against the Marquis and a show of swagger in one.

This just makes sense, because watching the 59-year-old Yen (and his wry smirk) in his element is a combination of joy and admiration. Caine tosses off quips as smooth as his sword blade and stars in spry action sequences that are too cleverly executed by half. The doorbell sound alarms are John Wick at its most fun, and unlike Yen’s turn as another blind warrior in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Caine doesn’t have the Force to guide his actions. He’s like Yen himself, with decades of mixed martial arts experience honed to a dozen precise points and delivered with lightning-swift grace.

RELATED: ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Punches in Franchise-Best $137.5 Million at the Global Box Office

Caine Is the Heart of ‘Chapter 4′, Not Keanu Reeves’ John Wick

Yet Caine also stands as John Wick: Chapter 4’s unflappable heart. John’s encountered, and killed, plenty of old acquaintances across the franchise. Making Wick’s final kill-or-be-killed standoff with a respected friend lends Chapter 4 the thematic gravitas necessary to satisfactorily conclude this area of the franchise. Wick and Caine’s first encounter is fraught with suspense and resignation. The former feels betrayed, and the latter won’t show mercy, even if he despises this inescapable task and just wants the dirty deed over with. Caine’s in a different position than Akira’s (Rina Sawayama) father, Shimazu Koji (Hiroyuki Sanada), for example, and therefore not at liberty to respect his friendship with John and protect his daughter simultaneously. And as events move toward their inevitable conclusion, Caine grows more desperate, hardly restraining his rage at the Marquis or concealing his fear over his child’s life. He challenges three films worth of allegiances to John Wick because his motivations are too sympathetically relatable.

All of this makes Caine and Wick battling up the Sacré Coeur steps as an all-too-brief team remarkably satisfying. Both men began their franchise journeys retired, alone, with minimal resources at their disposal, and powered by sheer will. Caine was the only one who could have successfully pulled off that semi-sacrificial ending, and he was only in this single movie. If John Wick: Chapter 4 as a whole pays tribute to the best parts of its past while going out with the biggest bang imaginable, then Caine’s presence crystallizes and culminates the series’ central theme: how far would we go for the ones we love?

Does Donnie Yen’s Caine Have a Future in the John Wick Franchise?

This, of course, leads into how the end credits tease a potential spin-off; a classic revenge tale for the brilliantly deserving Akira, yet tragically cyclical and deeply empathetic for Caine. It’s only natural to side with the one seeking revenge (hello, all of John Wick), but this is the man who almost made us want to see John Wick lose. And he’s steps away from reuniting with his daughter and at peace for the first time in years! Truly, Yen ate this role and left no crumbs.