A corrupt politician is supposed to be taken to trial - but he has
everybody who's going to testify him killed and figures that should do the
trick. One of the witnesses is Riza (Cüneyt Arkin), a petty criminal who
has once worked for the politician (and who of course is revealed to be an
undercover cop eventually), but has long fallen from grace when he was
responsible for the politician's son losing both his hands. Now Riza is
escorted into town by two policemen, handcuffed, and while the
politician's men take care of the policemen and beat Riza to a pulp, he
somehow survives, nurses himself back to health, meets a lovely girl (Emel
Tümer), whose dad has also fallen prey to the baddies, and together they
decide to hide out in the forest fate has dropped them in. Soon the
politician has found out Riza is still alive, but Riza has since set up
traps that kill several of his foes, has armed himself, and now with the
help of the girl (who eventually dies a heroine's death) he takes out the
baddies one by one. The politician soon finds out who Riza really is and
contacts his superior for help, but this superior is on Riza's side after
all, and while the law might have his hands tied, Riza who's outside the
law for the time being is the perfect weapon against the politician. And
of course, Riza kills all the baddies in the end. Basically,
this is the Turkish version of the Sylvester Stallone-starrer First
Blood, with a slightly different plot but tons of scenes directly
lifted from that movie (including some of the musical score). However, Vahsi
Kan lacks the relative finesse of First Blood, is very blunt in
its approach, gratuitous in its violence, and very straight in its
storytelling. Now this of course doesn't make Vahsi Kan a
particularly good movie, nor does its sloppy directorial effort and many a
wooden performance - but if you're into trashy, cheap and derivative
action entertainment as much as I am, you'll find at least something to
laugh about in this one.
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