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John Wick 4: 'But why though?'

John Wick isn't 'back'. He never left. He merely bided his time till the world needed him, needed the Baba Yaga to remind the world about the necessity of doing things with Style.

The importance of Style in John Wick 4 is inversely proportional to John's regard for the generally accepted rules of a firefight. The word Style was the running theme of John Wick 4, and the film's director managed to find a dozen ways to manifest Style on the big screen and crammed them all into a 2-hour-plus action movie.

Truth be told, he shouldn't have. Truth be told? He shouldn't have.

John Wick 4 starts with John making his move against the High Table after the events of Parabellum. John's strategy in this case is to make as big a mess as he can with his first move, then pop the heads of whoever comes to clean up the mess like a macabre game of Whack-a-mole.

In response to this, the High Table empowers the Marquis De Grammont with carte blanche access to the Table's resources and unleashes their new hunting dog against the infamous Baba Yaga. The High Table's new Hound wastes no time in drawing blood wherever it can by destroying the continental hotels, starting with New York, and the deaths that result becomes one death too many in John Wick's already full ledger of souls he has dealt the Ruska Roma haircut.

John, therefore, decides to cut off the head of the snake and goes to challenge the Marquis to single combat. According to the old laws of the High Table which governs the relationships between the members who sit at the table.

Along the way, John meets up with old friends at the Continental Hotel in Osaka, duels a blind man brilliantly played by Donnie Yen, and deals with a Man-Hunter who is saving John for when John's bounty gathers the requisite number of digits and zeroes to make him worth the killing.

John also beats up Scott Adkins wearing a fat suit.

Why though?

That question, that 'why though?' That was what struck me halfway through John Wick 4. The Osaka Continental was a gorgeously designed, Japanese-Themed Hotel for Assassins. Seeing Donnie Yen fight like a blind man was a creative exercise in character design, and Scott Adkins turning a single hand of cards into a work of art was a testament to the amount of work he had put in to prepare for his rather short, but impactful role.

However, none of these new characters and locations were really interesting.

Every new character and location had a point in John Wick 2 and John Wick 3; Parabellum. The D'Antonio siblings in John Wick 2 gave us an insight into the High Table and the conflicts among the table's members.

Cassian and Ares served by introducing the concept of Bodyguards as a counterpart and a countermeasure against Assassins.

In Parabellum, the Adjudicator and the Ninjas introduce the methods the High Table relies on to enforce their rules and rule over their subjects 'Under the Table'.

Even the Ruska Roma were poignantly important as the organization gave the audience insight into John Wick's childhood as a Belarusian orphan raised to serve the High Table.

Every character and location in John Wick 2 and 3 had a purpose as they answered questions about the John Wick universe and deepened the immersion of the audience into the story of John Wick's journey through the world under the High Table.

John Wick 2 and 3 interested me. John Wick 4, however, was a mind-numbing ride through willy wonka's chocolate factory with rivers of blood instead of chocolate, and trees that bore as its fruits lead and death. It's really cool, but why? What is the point of it all?

In John Wick 4, John goes to Osaka to meet an old friend, who is also the concierge of the Osaka Continental. A fusion of neon lights and Japanese tradition that is heavily inspired by the Yakuza motif. Japan's efficient modernity, clean steel edges lit up with gaudy neon, a monolithic testament to the present day beneath which lay the rigid adherence to the traditions that underscored the 'extreme way' of the Yakuza of old.

But why did John Wick need to go to Japan? As exquisitely thought out as the Osaka Continental was, what purpose did John Wick's detour to Japan serve?

That is the issue that underlies John Wick 4, what is the purpose of the Osaka Continental? What is the purpose of the Marquis, or Caine, or the Harbinger? All of their roles in the narrative could be replaced by characters already introduced in previous movies. The Harbinger could be the Adjudicator from Parabellum, Caine could be played by Cassian from JW2, and having John resolve his differences with these characters from the previous movies may have given John Wick 4 greater impact. According to the theme that the movie had about the end of John Wick.

Ultimately, John Wick 4 was a stylish movie that introduced new, cool things that pushed the story of John Wick to a new level.

But why though? When the story of John Wick was supposed to end?