Rick Yune may be an almost forgotten Bond villain to you (Zao in Die Another Day, to be precise), but his resume is so much better than yours or mine that it would shame you off of HotJobs.com. At the tender age of 19, the Washington, D.C. native qualified for the Olympics in the Tae Kwan Do event. Perhaps bored by his ability to kick people’s asses, Yune did what every kid that age does. He enrolled in an Ivy League school and funded his drunken sexual encounters through a part-time job…modeling for Versace. After graduation, he skipped the whole backpacking across Europe deal in order to put his degree from the Wharton School of Business to good use. He became a Hedgefund Trader on Wall Street before setting out to become an actor. That’s right. He’s better looking than you, smarter than you and can beat you up and take your lunch money, too. It’s alright to hate the guy.
And Rick Yune is giving you further reason to hate him as the overachiever continues to blow the curve for the rest of us. Now, he’s decided to be a screenwriter as well. His debut in this field is in The 5th Commandment, a no honor among thieving mobsters story in the Lucky Number Slevin vein. Yune also stars in the movie (seriously, let’s all agree to hate this guy) as Chance Templeton, an assassin given an unwelcome assignment. When he refuses to perform said task, he draws the ire of the dangerous men for whom he previously worked.
As far as what the title means, this is open to interpretation. In most religions, the Fifth Commandment is "Honor Thy Father and Mother." Also cast in this movie is Keith David as Max "Coolbreeze" Templeton, a man who could presumably be Chance’s father/adopted father. Of course, if Yune is Catholic, the answer changes to Thou Shall Not Murder, a much more fitting theme for a film about an assassin. Then again, given how clever Yune is, it is entirely possible he is blending the two themes in one movie with a premise of honoring thy father while trying not to kill anyone, which may be tough if protecting pops requires the assassination of people out to eliminate him.
Under any circumstance, The Fifth Commandment is squarely a Rick Yune project with some interesting talent on-board. Dania Ramirez, last seen crying people to death on Heroes, co-stars as the female lead, Angel. Bokeem Woodbine, who will always be Crunch in The Big Hit to me, is cast as Miles Templeton, whom I am assuming is Chance’s brother. And longtime movie villain Roger Yuan, perhaps best known as Lo Fong in Shanghai Noon, is mob boss Z. The movie is directed by low-budget martial arts pro Jesse Johnson, whose works generally make their debut on home video. But those films do not feature the awesome talent of Rick Yune. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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