Friends rarely existed in assassin John Wick’s life, and those who did were bonded for life — whether or not they wanted to be.
Retired and estranged assassins Koji Shimazu, Wick and Caine have a complicated, blood-soaked friendship in the new John Wick film, currently in theaters. The three have a long history of fighting alongside one another in the shadows of the crime world. Their relationships and loyalty are tested in the new film, as they are ousted from retirement and forced to meet again in Osaka, Japan.
“The three of us are old friends. We’ve grown up together, trained together, and helped each other,” Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Shimazu, told NBC News of the movie, which just saw the highest-grossing opening weekend in the series. “For [Shimazu], brotherhood is the most important thing.”
In the fourth installment of the saga, Wick (Keanu Reeves) finally finds a path to defeat the High Table, a council of crime lords that govern the most powerful entities in the underworld. With a multimillion-dollar bounty on his head, the excommunicated hitman runs against the clock to meet with the council and hopefully, be freed of all obligations to the High Table and life of violence. In the process, he puts in danger his life and the lives of the people he meets along the way.
Shimazu is a loyal friend of Wick and the owner of the Osaka Continental Hotel, one of many Continental hotels that provide a neutral ground to rest for hitmen and assassins. Shimazu, the only person willing to defend Wick, provides him with short-lived refuge at the hotel.
Sanada knows his character’s decision to protect Wick at all costs comes from his code of honor. “That came from the Bushido,” he said. The Bushido is the samurai’s code of conduct, which he said was essential to his character. “He carried the samurai spirit,” he explained.
The High Table forcefully enlists Caine (Donnie Yen) to kill Wick, which leads to an epic head-to-head fight between Shimazu…
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