In his feature-film directorial debut, Johnny Yong Bosch immerses us in the seedy underbelly of San Angeles (which looks a helluva lot like Los Angeles) and brings us a new kind of hero… one who died long ago.
After the recent death of a mob boss, his daughter is followed into a church and told that she is responsible for his debts. She will have to “work” to pay them off. When she refuses, the men show no mercy. Before they can do the unimaginable to the young woman, a masked man (Johnny Yong Bosch) arrives and dispatches the bad guys, leaving only a spade behind — his signature playing card.
James Bishop (Jason Narvy) is a San Angeles police detective who carries on his shoulders the weight of a deadly mafia crime wave and the PTSD of his past. He is assigned to the church murders and realizes that this may be the work of a vigilante. Great. Now another problem. With his personal life in complete shambles, he visits his estranged daughter, Lana (Maya Brattkus), who is put off by the fact that he is coming to her now, when she needed him as a child.
With a vigilante on the loose, the bodies start piling up, and they are all the henchmen of the new crime boss, Saito (Nobuaki Shimamoto), who specializes in human trafficking and has all the cops and politicians paid off. On this day, Saito has kidnapped Bishop’s daughter, Lana, and plans to sell her to the highest bidder. During the investigation, Bishop arrests one of the key witnesses who will lead him to Saito, but not before the vigilante arrives to execute that witness. During that losing battle, Bishop discovers the vigilante’s identity. It’s his former comrade during the war…the one he saw die in his arms.
“It’s his former comrade during the war…the one he saw die in his arms.”
Not to give too much away, but Spades is a crime thriller that can only come from the mind of an indie film genius. We’ve seen the citizen-vigilante story before, and often. Here, filmmaker Johnny Yong Bosch takes it to the next level and adds a supernatural element. The action comes primarily in mafia-style kills and executions, along with a lot of gunplay. In fact, Spades is all about the gunplay, which in less capable hands would come off as monotonous. There’s a wide variety of ways to die by gunshot in this one.
Bosch creates the just-right crime-thriller tone. The tension is always broken by a moment of mercy…before it’s taken away. The trafficking scenes are suspenseful, and the acting always feels right for the moment. Great restraint is shown by not allowing any moment to go too far over the top.
The only downside is the potential the story had, if only Bosch and crew had a few more million in the budget to throw around. We could have used an expensive car chase and some elaborate hand-to-hand combat. It’s a solid start to Johnny Yong Bosch’s action-feature directorial debut. Clearly, the story lends itself to sequels, and the OP nature of the vigilante needs to be addressed.
For screening information, visit the Spades official website.
"…creates the just-right crime-thriller tone."
