Cinematic Support: Mark Dacascos in JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM (2019)

John Wick came out in 2014 and took the action genre by storm. While not reflected in its gross – JW topped out at around $80M worldwide – the slick revenge tale caught the imagination of moviegoers who did venture out to the cinema and especially so when it hit home video. This was mainly due to the brilliant action choreography by stuntman turned director Chad Stahelski (with co-directing duties by David Leitch) and the effortless charm of leading man Keanu Reeves. The John Wick franchise would eventually become a $1B juggernaut that only increased its worldwide gross with every iteration (JW 2 – $172M, JW 3 – $327M, JW 4 – $447M). While most people came out to see said unbelievable action sequences – that only grew in absurdity with each entry – and the stoic committed performance by Keanu, we were also treated to a menagerie of hissable antagonists. In the first two films, we had their fair share of memorable villainous performances – Michael Nyqvist and Alfie Allen from JW 1, Common, Ruby Rose and Ricardo Scarmacio in JW 2 – they ultimately ended up being in service to the more interesting characters in the movie, mainly John Wick himself and the staff of the Continental Hotel – Ian McShane’s Winston and Lance Reddick’s (RIP) Charon. Then, an ever so slight shift started to occur with Chapter 3. We get Asia Kate Dillon’s droll, smug performance as the Adjudicator. However, the true villain turn starts when the Adjudicator visits a small sushi joint on the side of a rainy NYC street. We are introduced to the focus of my next article in my ongoing series celebrating the greatness of supporting character performances. Welcome into the fold Zero, played by martial artist/actor Mark Dacascos.

I have known of Mark’s work for many years before he shared the screen with our favorite assassin Mr. Wick. I remember him most from two specific films that I simply adore, but for very different reasons. He was one half of the Lee brothers in the much-maligned 1994 adaptation of the popular video game, Double Dragon. That movie is a glorious trainwreck through and through, and Dacascos was just a baby when he made it (he was 30, but he looks 18), but you could see the pure uncut charisma that he exuded, and the martial arts skills he was allowed to display were very impressive. The other film is 2001’s Brotherhood of the Wolf, an epic and bizarre French werewolf period piece action flick (say that three times fast). Dacascos plays an indigenous Iroquois warrior named Mani, and this is the one film where his true gift as a martial artist is put on display. Dacascos brings such a welcome breath of energy to a film that is extremely French in all aspects – set design, filmmaking style, cinematography, etc. – and he is truly the standout. Unfortunately, Dacascos never really got that push into the mainstream he sorely needed and has been relegated mainly to subpar DTV action fare that is easily forgotten and it’s a real shame. I had hoped that his re-emergence in mainstream fare such as John Wick: Chapter 3 would give him a second lease on cinematic life, but it seems that I have my trifecta of Dacascos films and I will just have to be satisfied with that and nothing more.

Zeno immediately endeared himself to me in his opening seconds of screen time. As the Adjudicator walks up to his Japanese side street sushi establishment, we see him cutting up some fish and, before serving his customer, gives a little to the black and white cat that is lounging about on the far-right side of long table. Dacascos displays immediate charm, and we see that he is flanked by two men, who will eventually be revealed to be his top two students, referred to as Shinobi in the credits. These men need to be called out as they are played by Indonesian martial artists Cecep Arif Rahman and Yayan Ruhian, who are some of the most skilled finesse fighters I have ever seen. If you’ve caught either of The Raid films, you are aware of who they are and how awesome they are to just watch, but I digress. After his initial introduction, we are treated to various quick fight sequences he has with various people across NYC as he works with the Adjudicator to dispense justice to the ones who helped Wick escape NY after his various indiscretions in defiance of the High Table, the mysterious leaders of the guild of assassins we’ve become familiar with across the franchise. This is all well and good, but the specific scene that pushed me to include him in this series is where Zeno chases down Wick to the Continental.

Unable to finish him off due to not being able to conduct business on hotel grounds (Wick has his hand on the bottom step out front), Zeno and Wick walk side by side and are seated in a waiting area with a couch and two chairs. Wick takes the left seat on the couch, while Zeno just stands there. Once he does, Zeno slowly walks over to the middle cushion of the couch and sits down, very rigid and militaristic, next to Wick. Wick, after a few seconds, decides to move to the left single chair. Once done, Zeno scoots over closer to him and goes on a fanboy rant on how he admires what Wick has done and accomplished, admires his new pitbull dog when it comes strolling in (even asking if it’s THE dog), and tries to compare himself to Wick as being both masters of death. The way this brief interlude is shot and composed, combined with the sheer wide-eyed enthusiasm from Dacascos, solidifies a sort of playfulness that will continue through the rest of Ch. 3 and go full tilt in Ch. 4. Dacascos is relishing the fact that he is in this grand action franchise and just decides to have a blast doing whatever is asked of him. The final time we see Zeno is obviously the end confrontation with Wick in a beautifully ornate room that has glass ceilings, floors and display cases. It’s a nicely choreographed fight scene that puts both actors’ hard work front and center. As Wick comes out victorious at the end, we see Zeno, stabbed in the gut and kneeling on the floor, telling John as he walks off “I’ll be along shortly, just trying to catch my breath” or something to that ilk, just before falling dead to the ground. Iconic.

All in all, Dacascos has around 13 minutes of screen time across John Wick 3’s 130-minute runtime, and he truly makes the most of the material he is given to work with. Lethal, charming, a real threat to the protagonist (though, really, is there ANYONE who we really think is a threat to Keanu’s Wick? Probably not) and a pure joy to watch as he displays his natural charisma as an actor while also showing flashes of his martial arts brilliance that he rarely gets to show on such big of a stage. The prevailing theme of my article series this year will be actors bringing a lot to the table with very minimal screen time overall, and Mark Dacascos’s Zeno fits the bill perfectly.