The movie begins when a Chinese little girl witnesses the killing her mother by her gangster father named Sun Quan(Simon Yam) and she flees to Los Angels aboard a ship with other abducted immigrants. An ex-gangster named Ben(Jean Claude Van Damme) is ready to retire himself; his wife(Lisa King)is a social worker, taking the refugee little girl to their house. Then, she 's cruelly killed and his son along with the Chinese girl are kidnapped. 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. It's thrilling and tense , at time suspenseful movie and the firepower, explosion, struggles, motorbikes races are very well done. Suffering Van Damme plays finely an affected gangster, acting similarly to 'Hard cops'. Van Damme confronting nasties, using his martial-arts skills, furthermore some chase cars are pretty exciting. Remaining cast though unknown make nice acting, besides appears uncredited Burt Kwouk ,the famous Chinese fighter against Inspector Clouseau-Peter Sellers. This interesting film results to be a standard actioner, but packs atmospheric action set pieces and is fast movement . The motion picture is well produced, though with middling budget, and directed by Philippe Martinez. He's a prestigious producer, such as 'Harsh times, Modigliani, The piano player, Van Wilder 2'. This is the second and best film as director , along with 'Citizen verdict'. The picture is extremely energetic and be liked for true devotees of main actor. It's a must see for Van Damme fans.

I was a little disappointed with 'Wake of Death'. In my humble opinion 'Wake of Death' has a lot of wasted potential. The film could have been so much better, if a little more thought had been given towards the plot's structure and also the film's action scenes. The film has a few faults in the dialogue, which annoyed me. For example, one character is told by another that two men wearing ski masks entered a brothel and killed Andy Wang, however when this character repeats the story later, he only says one man entered the brothel and killed Andy Wang. There were other faults in the dialogue also, which bothered me. The plot is simple and Van Damme gives a surprisingly solid performance but unfortunately the film suffers from amateurish direction. Sure, the film looks flash, but it's a case of style over substance. With a little polishing and tinkering, the script could of been improved, and this, I feel would have greatly benefited the film. In terms of action scenes 'Wake of Death' was on the right track but unfortunately it never really takes off. Sure, we are given some fights and shootouts but it never feels like enough and I was left wanting more. If only Van Damme had thrown more punches and performed his trademark 360* degree airborne kick. The film's biggest disappointment is its climax, or should I say anti-climax. I was expecting a grand finale fight between Van Damme and the main villain(Simon Yam) but to my surprise there is no end fight. This is made even worse, because the film teases us, by showing the main villain doing tai-chi early in the film, so we're given the impression he may be a martial artist. I couldn't believe that this film didn't have a big fight showdown at the end. The climax was a major disappointment. Overall, I feel that 'Wake of Death' was a real missed opportunity for Van Damme. The film's bad points out weighed its good points but I can't say I hated the film. I give 'Wake of Death' a solid 5/10.

Van Damme should stick to martial arts. This is a slow-paced, boring action movie with bad action and a boring story. It's a vengeance movie, but that kind of movies were far better in the 80's and early 90's. Even "The Punisher" (the new version) were much better than this one. Van Damme should now stop trying to become a more serious actor. I don't want to see him in more of these drama-like crap movies with way too few action scenes. Just one of those movies were good. "Wake of Death" is not the one ("In Hell" is). The plot contains nothing of interest. Everything has been done 1,000,000,000 times before (at least), and when there's hardly any action at all, action fans should just stay away.

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. It's a movie set in a dark environment with some true jeanne claude action and some of the best acting I have ever seen him do. The action and violence is intended for mature audiences as it can get somewhat gruesome at times but that is what I liked about this film, it wasn't hollywoodized and comes at you raw. After the movie I felt like it was 2 hours well spent and for being a major movie critic that rarely happens to me! 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!

OK, let me fist just say that this movie should NOT be anywhere close a cinema. It's so a B movie. Jean-Claude Van Damme and the rest of the cast really sucks. Van Damme's wife get's killed...AGAIN! Yes that's right she dies... Oh my god I say...This is just so lame. How can someone call this a good movie and say that Van Damme's acting is good? He just sucks big time. He and Steven Seagal is starting to make the same movies...They all sucks now. Where is the cool old movies the made? Why can't they just make some good movies and not stuff like this. I read in a magazine that Wake Of Death was one of the rawest movies of the year...Well this I can tell you is just plain bull. I have seen South Park episodes being more gory than this... :) If you like the old Van Damme movies and wanna keep that good feeling then don't even thing about seeing this awful movie... I give it 1 out of 10 stars simply cause I have to give it something... I will throw this movie in the trash now... :)

This is terrible. I think it is time for Van Damme's acting career to be given the death sentence..five times over. the car chase is not bad..if it was in a 1960s action film..its time for Van Damme to go back to whatever he was doing, maybe * if he's still got the stamina, maybe a * film including his old pal Dolph Lundgren..that should re-ignite their careers...it may even make 10th page in the national newspapers..but back to the film. The little girl is terrible, as bad as Van Damme! 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! Van Damme looks so weak, i would probably knock him out with my bitch slap! also i read in a national paper that Van Damme took a beating during filming for his latest film. apparently he tried to take on ten men and was happy to see the police arrive to save him! Van Damme..it is time for u to retire, u bitch ass, beat taking, batty boy! I actually believed in you. you were my father....i worshipped you...but now..you disappoint me... bitch...

My mother tongue is not English. Anyway, as often as I can, I try to watch English speaking movies within English language. I know that my accent might sound very terrible for anyone whose mother language isn't french. But, every time I happen to watch a movie where Jean-Claude Van Damme is acting, I can't help smiling each time he opens his mouth, not because he says something funny, but because he doesn't sound even a wink credible while acting. I just wanted to watch this movie because critics weren't that bad in the TV program magazine that I read. It makes me forget the plot and I can't stay concentrated more than few minutes in a row. Maybe I should keep on watching movies where he is involved only in french version. On the other hand, I happened to watch worst movies in which Jean-Clause Van Damme was acting. Hence, I watched it till the end. For once, I could find some acceptable parts when he was not too overacting as there was not only action for action, but it was so seldom. 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. I think that I am going to watch this movie again but I would stick on french version. I might reconsider my opinion later on.

This movie is better than any modern action movie out right now. This movie is very stylish something like Leon: The Professional mixed with Training Day intro scenes. I've never seen Van Dam so Damn!! ; ) serious and emotional. I don't recall ever seeing him cry before in a movie. This is one of his good movies and I think the public needs to stop black listing van dam because he's made some bad flicks in the past. Every actor somewhere along the line stumble but the good ones always find a way out and come out on top. IMDb voting is wrong. I give this a 8/10 Go Van Damn!! Keep Kicking!!

In China, the girl Kim (Valerie Tian) witnesses the murder of her mother by her mobster father Sun Quan (Simon Wan) and escapes to Los Angeles in a vessel with other illegal immigrants. The ship is intercepted by the US Immigration Department, and the social worker Cynthia Archer (Lisa King) decides to host Kim at her home with her husband, the bouncer Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme), and their son Nicholas. Sun Quan comes to USA, and with the support of the dirty chief of Lisa, he gets the information where his daughter is and uses the Chinese triad to kill Cynthia and her Chinese stepparents in their restaurant in Chinatown. 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. The predictable and violent screenplay uses a silly and absurd argument, the free execution of Cynthia and the stepparents in a restaurant, to trigger the character of Van Damme, who is worse than the bad guys, to revenge the death of his wife. But although using the traditional clichés of the action movies, the production of "Wake of Death" is very reasonable; the cinematography has a good quality; and if the viewer shuts-down the brain, this movie entertains. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Vingança" ("Revenge")

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. His own butt was an excellent plus. Timecop and Cyborg? I was there. I tried to hang on after that but... JCVD twins, Dennis Rodman, science gone bad? It was all too cartoony and the action wasn't enough to hold my interest. I turned my attention East and... Salvation! 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. I'm glad I did as I found it to be a fine film. It doesn't have the American film clichés - a hero with a heart of gold, selflessly protecting orphans and widows, while throwing off quippy one-liners and never sustaining anything more than a few strategically placed scratches. This is a man with a questionable and likely criminal past, but we're not back storied into seeing how he is really just a misunderstood hero. It is up to the viewer to make their own judgment about this man and his actions. 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. He is a long way from the stone-faced Muscles from Brussels. This woman gives the film 2 thumbs up! Now go kick some ass!