JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM: Martial Arts, Stigmata and Russian Folklore
LionsgateJohn Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (from here on, just Parabellum) starts off mere minutes after the end of Chapter 2, with John having been deemed “excommunicado” and hunted down by every assassin in New York. Just like the previous film kicked everything off with a car chase and hard-hitting stunts, going in a different route from the original, the same happens with Parabellum’s opening minutes, which deliver an elongated action-packed prologue with Wick escaping from all kinds of assassins. Outside of a quick homage to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, where John reassembles a revolver to easily dispatch a henchman just like Tuco, the rest of the sequence features only hand-to-hand melee combat. If Chapter 2 was a western, Parabellum is decidedly a martial arts film.
Much of the opening New York set-piece takes place in Chinatown, with John fighting multiple Asian assassins with knives and even an axe. Among these assassins is Tiger Hu Chen, a martial artist and stuntman who has worked on a variety on films including The Matrix, but also starred in Keanu Reeves’ underseen and only directorial effort, Man of Tai Chi. Chen was unlucky enough to get one of the most brutal and painful deaths in the whole trilogy: a knife through the eye. This level of brutality is carried throughout the film, straying further down the dark path that John has been on since 2014. Homaging Asian action cinema fits with the level of violence that director Chad Stahelski was going for, carrying the Buster Keaton influence even further than before, with each action scene featuring impressive levels of detailed choreography seamlessly blended with the bloody combat John engages in. Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian are heavily featured in the film, two experts of the Indonesian “pencak silat” fighting technique popularised by Gareth Evans’ The Raid series. The centrepiece of the over-the-top Korean extravaganza The Villainess, in which the heroine fends off katana-wielding bike-riding assassins, is recreated almost entirely in Parabellum, albeit with green-screen instead of doing it entirely practically. By filming it in a studio instead of on location, the feeling that something is slightly off is palpable, as it lacks the physicality and impact of everything that comes beforehand or afterwards.
A movie that is heavily referenced twice is 1978’s Game of Death, the most famous Bruce Lee film released posthumously. The opening of Parabellum, when John Wick is attacked in a library by Ernest (played by the imposing NBA player Boban Marjanovic) instantly brings to mind the final battle between Bruce and another professional basketball player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Both fight scenes are a David-versus-Goliath scenario where the adversaries’ height is ultimately their undoing, as the smaller opponent can more easily move around them. The climax of Parabellum is structured similarly to that of Game of Death: whereas Bruce Lee had to fight his way against three martial artists on three different levels of a pagoda, now Keanu Reeves fights two pairs of shinobis and lead henchman Zero (played by martial artist and former Iron Chef chairman Mark Dacascos). These fights challenge Wick to the best of his abilities, while also showcasing great sensibility for the code of ethics of Asian martial arts: the two shinobis played by Rahman and Ruhian respect John so much that, instead of delivering easy final blows, they keep bringing him on his feet to further test their skills and prolong the thrill of the fight. Once John bests them both, he spares their life as a show of respect and professional courtesy, something that is rarely seen in American cinema.
Asian culture is not the only aesthetic introduction. Russian folklore is also more heavily featured, as John’s Belarussian origins are revealed (his full name is Jardani Jovonovich). When he goes to the New York Public Library, Wick asks for the book Russian Folk Tale by ethnographer Alexander Afanasyev, a book that coincidentally features many Slavic tales, including that of Baba Yaga (which became John’s nickname). One of the most important discoveries is that Wick was trained by the Ruska Roma crime syndicate in a theatre (aptly named after filmmaking legend Andrei Tarkovsky) that doubles as a ballet school. One of the more common phrases to describe the fluidity of the calculated choreographies of the John Wick series was “balletic”, and this addition to the lore links stunt work and fight choreography even further with dancing. After all, just like a ballet has to be executed flawlessly in a seemingly effortless way, even if dancers destroy their feet and lose their nails, so too does partaking in fight scenes involve selling something that is not real, while still putting stunt workers’ life in jeopardy.
When Wick reaches the Tarkovsky theatre, the marquee shows that they are working on a production titled “Tale of Two Wolves”. This is a Cherokee Indian legend about the battle inside each man between the Evil Wolf (anger, greed, jealousy, arrogance, guilt, and so on) and the Good Wolf (joy, hope, humility, generosity, truth). The winner of this battle is the wolf that is fed, that is, the side that man gives in to. This perfectly re-captures the dichotomy of good and evil, something that is explored even deeper in Parabellum. John Wick has both wolves inside him, with the Good Wolf being his love for his late wife Helen and his desire to find peace, while the Evil Wolf is the thirst for violence that led him to kill Santino and everyone in his path.
The tall Ernest is introduced reading an excerpt from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, reinforcing the mythical descent in John’s personal hell. He received the status of “excommunicado”, an act of censure that is often adopted in religious communities to cast away a member from their congregation. While it may have seemed he was ready to accept his fate as the hunted, Wick is now looking to make amends and atone for his sins. John’s journey to do so sees him marked with an upside-down cross on his back, the symbol of Saint Peter’s martyrdom, which he requested as he was unworthy of being crucified like Jesus. This signals his first step toward being forgiven by the High Table, culminating with him cutting his ring finger as a gift to The Elder, proof of his allegiance to the High Table, but also the loss of the only thing that kept him human: the memory of his wife.
John’s bloodied white shirt is now exchanged with a black one, clearly emphasising how he has given in to his dark side, all while pursuing internal peace. There are other Catholic-themed punishments that are executed upon those that wronged the High Table: the Director of the Tarkovsky theatre (played by Anjelica Huston) has her hands perforated with a sword while joined together, leaving a gaping wound in the middle of them. This is known as the “stigmata”, matching wounds with those of Christ on the cross, in this case the nails through his hands. When Winston refuses to leave control of the Continental and John rejects his order to kill him, the assassin hotel is considered “deconsecrated”, a term used to denote removal of a religious blessing from a consecrated place, ultimately rendering it non-religious, which in this case makes it possible for blood to be spilled on its ground. The subject behind all these decisions is the Adjudicator, a figure above any rule or consequence, one whose death would be pointless. This makes the casting of non-binary actor Asia Kate Dillon an inspired choice, as their presence further makes their character feel otherworldly, capable of dispensing punishment and justice according to the unspoken rules of the higher-ups at the High Table.
All of this leads to the ending of Parabellum: Zero has been killed, the Continental is once again consecrated ground, Winston gets his power back, but he shoots John to appease the Adjudicator, making him fall from the roof of the building to the street below. John Wick may have thought that he could finally bring an end to all the violence, but Winston’s decision is like that of God, who cast Lucifer out of heaven letting him fall on Earth. John has lost everything now, including the paternal love he felt for Winston. Reunited with a heavily wounded Bowery King among the homeless of New York, with a bruised face and bloodshot eyes, John Wick looks like the devil incarnate, gathering back his strength in the shadows before punishing all those who wronged him. The title of the film comes from the Latin phrase, “si vis pacem, para bellum” (“if you want peace, prepare for war”). Now that peace is not an option anymore, what will happen in next year’s John Wick: Chapter 4 will likely be an annihilation of religious proportions.
Also in the series:
John Wick: Noir, Action and Greek Mythology
John Wick Chapter 2: Westerns, Classicism and the Divine Comedy