Pound of Flesh

Former covert operative Deacon travels to China to give one of his kidneys to his niece Isabella, who is gravely ill. On the eve of the operation he is lured into a trap, and he wakes in a bathtub filled with ice, his body roughly stitched and his kidney gone. Robbed by an organ-trafficking network, he sets out through the city's brothels, fight clubs and black markets to find the people responsible and recover what was taken. Time is against him, since his niece's condition is worsening, and his former criminal contacts are the only help he has.

Pound of Flesh is a 2015 Canadian action film directed by Ernie Barbarash, the eighth of the eighteen features he has directed in chronological order, following Falcon Rising and preceding Christmas Inheritance. Joshua Todd James wrote the screenplay, and the cast is led by Jean-Claude Van Damme as Deacon, alongside John Ralston, Aki Aleong, Charlotte Peters, Darren Shahlavi and Brahim Achabbakhe. It was made for about 8 million dollars.

The film received a critics' rating of 3.7 out of 10 from thirteen reviews, while audiences were somewhat more forgiving: it holds a 5.1 out of 10 on IMDb across roughly 7,500 votes and a 5.8 out of 10 on TMDB from around 267 votes. Both sit in mixed territory, suggesting a modest reception rather than a strong one.