Directed by Jalmari Helander
Starring: Jorma Tommila, Stephen Lang, Richard Brake

Every film has its place. In the classic sense, movies were created to escape, entertain, and create a visceral reaction from their audience – whether that be laughter, shock, horror and hopefully a certain sense of satisfaction. The Sisu franchise follows this path. Straight from the modern shadow of the mega-successful John Wick films, Sisu 2 continues the formula of well-choreographed action and a calculated revenge plot.

In the revenge film genre, one of my favorites is Once Upon A Time in the West, the 1968 revenge spaghetti western starring Charles Bronson. In the almost 3 hours of running time in that film, he spoke almost no dialogue. Finnish actor Jorma Tommila as Aatami Korpi continues that tradition and even beats it to the note of 0 lines of dialogue! Imagine action actors like Buster Keaton or Jacques Tati in the desert fight scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, and you have Sisu 2: Road to Revenge!

Sisu 2 picks up 2 years later, after the events of Sisu (2022). Korpi (Tommila) goes back to Karelia, now part of the Soviet Union, and decides to dismantle his family home and rebuild it elsewhere outside the Russian borders. The Red Army gets a note of Korpi “The Immortal” crossing back to Karelia and engages Igor Draganov (Lang), the one responsible for killing Korpi’s family, to intercept and kill him in retaliation for the hundreds of Soviet deaths he caused during the war. But things don’t go as planned as Aatami Korpi shows Draganov why he is called “The Immortal” or “The man who refuses to die”.

Again, helmed by Finnish writer/director Helander, Sisu 2 aims to capitalise on the success of the first film. Less complex than its predecessor, Helander tries to humanize Korpi a bit more by referencing the deaths of his family in Karelia. Otherwise, subtracting the gold mining subplot from the first film, Sisu 2: Road to Revenge, is the same movie in practical terms. 

The action sequences are spectacular as Helander takes inspiration from John Ford’s Stagecoach and Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark.. There is enough mayhem and violence to satisfy any John Wick fan. By not including much dialogue, Sisu 2 is meant to entertain. Some sequences were ridiculous to the point of comedy, but it all feels intentional and not accidental.

That said, this sequel is inferior to the original as it feels like a supplemental companion piece or merely a continuation of Sisu 1. There is less mystique about Korpi, and the antagonists feel even more cartoonish this time around. However, Sisu 2 succeeds in giving us a sense of satisfaction and closure. The end result is as expected, but we still ooh-ed and ahh-ed as it reached its conclusion.

I admired this sequel’s straightforwardness and simplicity. You have to respect the craft of choreographed violence and action when it’s done well, and filmmakers achieved that here, though not at the same level as the Sisu 1. As my teenage son declared after the screening, “It’s John Wick, but the dog lives!” Nuff said.

Have you seen the SISU action movies? Well, what do you think?

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