The Wrath of Vajra

The Wrath of Vajra follows a boy taken from his family and raised inside a Japanese death cult, known as the Temple of Hades, that buys poor children and turns them into assassins serving the Empire of Japan. Forced to fight for his food, he causes his brother's death, and years later he has become one of the sect's deadliest killers. He escapes to China and joins Shaolin, where he turns against his former masters and the cult's campaign to break the country's spirit.

Directed by Law Wing-Cheong, this was his first film as director, followed by Iceman in 2014 and Little Q in 2019. The screenplay is by Yang Zhenjian and Qu Linan, and the cast, 22 people in all, is led by Xing Yu as the escaped fighter, alongside Steve Yoo, Poppin Hyun-Joon, Jiang Baocheng, Zhang Yamei and Tony Liu.

The film is a Hong Kong and mainland Chinese production with a budget of about 14 million US dollars, and its worldwide box office came to roughly 2 million US dollars. Audiences have been mixed on it: it sits at 5.7 out of 10 on IMDb from around 1,900 votes, and at 5.5 out of 10 on TMDB from about 60 votes. Released in September 2013, it runs 115 minutes and mixes action with fantasy and horror.