- "It's an honor to fight with you, Mr. Wick."
- —Shinobi #2 to John Wick
The Shinobi (忍び) are a pair of ninja assassins employed by the High Table and the top students of Zero. They serve as the tertiary antagonists of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.
History[]
Background[]
The Shinobi are two ninja assassins and students of Zero who are employed by the High Table. Like their mentor, they works as street-food sushi-chefs when they do not kill.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum[]
- "Nice to meet you, Mr. Wick."
- —Shinobi #1 to John Wick
After the Adjudicator went to Zero's sushi restaurant to hire him and his students to kill John Wick and anyone who had helped him, the Shinobi and their boss were tasked with raiding Ruska Roma, who aided Wick's departure from the country to Casablanca. They swiftly dispatched the Director's guards and interrupted the ballet rehearsal. The Adjudicator then arrived and demands for the Director to reaffirm her loyalty to the High Table, and that her penance must be paid in blood. She tells the Director to hold out her "helping hands" and Zero stabs her hands with his sword.
Shortly after, Zero, the Shinobi, and his students attack The Soup Kitchen. They quickly overpowered the defenders and eventually fought there way to the rooftop where the Bowery King waited for them. The Bowery King pledged his fealty to the High Table, but the Adjudicator tells him he had his chance to step down. The Adjudicator then told him that for the seven bullets he gave to John to aid him in killing Santino D'Antonio, the Bowery King will receive seven cuts, which were carried out by Zero with his sword.
Later, after Winston Scott refused to step down as manager of the Continental and John agreed to defend him, Zero and the Shinobi were instructed by the Adjudicator to kill both of them and they will be sent with many mercenaries in the hotel. The Shinobi finally engaged John in a fight in which they tell him they are fans of him. They even stopped from landing a fatal blow at one point and in another let him recover before resuming their duel. The fight ended with Wick crashing downstairs with the Shinobi, and the assassins are defeated. The assassins braced themselves, but John spared them out of gratitude, at which point, they accepted their defeat.
Personality[]
- "Shinobi #2: He's getting slow,
Shinobi #1: He's been retired for five years.
Shinobi #2: But he is still John Wick.
Shinobi #1: We will see." - —The Shinobi
Like Zero, the Shinobi are very competent and skillful fighters and take enjoyment from fighting. They are also big fan of John Wick to the point that they let him recover between fights instead of hitting him when he's open. They are so surprisingly honorable and instead of finishing John when having a good chance they help him up even leave him to recover a bit in the fight, which was a reason why John ultimately spared them out of gratitude for their fair play. They hold an immense respect for John.
Abilities[]
- Peak Human Condition: The Shinobi are in fantastic physical condition from their years of service as assassins. They were able to sustain the injuries they received from their fight with John Wick, including being dropped through glass floors, demonstrating their endurance and stamina.
- Master Martial Artist: As students of Zero, the Shinobi are masters of pencak silat and several disciplines of Ninjutsu, such as Taijutsu and Shinobi-iri. Together, they gave the legendary hitman John Wick an extensive fight, and easily defeated The Director's security guards as well as others in The Soup Kitchen. They are the second antagonists to fight against Wick on screen and survive (after Cassian), as Kirill, Viggo Tarasov, Violin Assassin, Ares, Ernest, and Zero failed to do so.
- Knife Mastery: The Shinobi are excellent knife-fighters, particularly with karambit knives. The first Shinobi can also wield a wakizashi, like his master.
- Concealment and Stealth: The Shinobi duo along with the other ninjas together with their master Zero, are experts in their art of hiding and sneaking in places where they are not seen or known depending on their environment. Especially in darker places, they can blend or camouflage in the dark to ambush and kill their targets.
Trivia[]
- The Shinobi duo was played by two Indonesian actors Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman with both being experts on martial arts and best known for playing martial arts expert villains on several movies such as The Raid 2: Berandal and Merantau.
- During John's duel with Shinobi duo, the Shinobi duo did speak to Wick with their native Indonesian Language and even mocking Wick for being slow following his retirement four years ago with Indonesian language. Following the duel between the Shinobi duo and Wick, Wick also said in Indonesian language to the Shinobi duo "Sampai Jumpa" translated "Be Seeing You Again" or a farewell greet to the Shinobi duo.
- In the real life, both Shinobi duo actors are experts on traditional Indonesian martial arts known as Silat. Yayan Ruhian has been pursuing Pencak Silat Martial Arts ever since he was thirteen years old and currently is a trainer at Pencak Silat Basic School. Ruhian also once trained Silat for Presidential Security Detail. Cecep Arif Rahman has been teaching Silat since 1991 and once even championed several prestigious Silat Competitions.
- Both Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman also appeared in 2015 Star Wars movie The Force Awakens as members of Kanjiklub criminal organization.