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Koji Shimazu is a major character in John Wick: Chapter 4, the fourth installment in the John Wick franchise. He is the head of the Japanese version of the Continental, in Osaka, just outside of Tokyo.
He was played by critically-acclaimed actor Hiroyuki Sanada, who also played Ujio in the critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated The Last Samurai (by Warner Bros. Pictures, which aired on UPN later on, in 2004 or 2005), starring Tom Cruise.
Biography[]
Helping an old friend[]
Koji first apears when John meets up with him at the hotel, with his daughter Akira, who is in charge of making sure guests are accommodated and also provides security. They discuss business as usual. At first it's a regular day, as he asks about how the guests were. Some are anxious, as he says. Akira shows concern, much to the praise of him. When it becomes clear that she's very anxious because of the violence, he jokingly/seriously says he should get her a support animal. The conversation gets more serious when they talk about John Wick.
She is concerned, but he sternly chastises her, telling Akira not to presume that she knows about a man he has known his whole life. When John meets up with him, they discuss plans and strategy on how to fend off against the High Table who are hunting for him, and by default, anyone even having him in their presence. Of course he's happy to see him, but is unnerved at his presence, much like Akira, given the problems he has caused. He tells John a very brutal warning: that he can't outfight the Table forever either. John apologizes to him for the problems he caused, in Japanese. He chastises John later on, in English, saying, "Friendship means little when it's convenient." He is an honorable villain and is only bad, because of the crimes and businesses he does, but he is not hateful or violent, and really is mostly just like Winston, albeit somewhat more villainous and violent.
He does live by an honor code, and, being Japanese, fights by the samurai system, as do his men. Later on, Marqui's arguably more evil, backstabbing Spaniard henchman, a very arrogant Friends-watching stuck up murderer, comes into the hotel to start his conquest in pursuit of John. Akira alarms the hotel and asks her henchman to evacuate the hotel. She warns Koji, and Koji goes and assembles his team, and they get their swords.
Battle at Osaka Hotel[]
When he arrives to the front lounge, Koji tries to be the voice of reason and tries to de-escalate the situation. The Marquis leader of the fighters warns him of the consequences and downright insults Winston, and calls him a fool. Koji does promise to listen, but is borderline mocked by Caine, who we see coming in from the shadows, and who says, "So what will you be?" as he enters. Feeling hurt, but not completely surprised given the recent situations, he says, in sad tone, "How good to see you after all these years," implying that Caine had abandoned them before this happened. He then says, sadly, "You are with them now." Caine denies it, and says he's only after John. Caine does appear remorseful (after all, he only did this because if he didn't, him and his daughter would suffer the consequences; hence, he had no choice). Caine tries to implore him to surrender John. First he rudely says that no one defies the table and that he used to understand that, to which Koji rebuts: that he remembers the time when he (Caine) had the bond of honor and brotherhood. Caine gets softer and warmer in his tone, begging him not to continue the defiance.
The henchman is mad and he starts the fight and assaults against Koji's hotel. Koji puts up a good defense, even though he loses a good amount of men. When that won't be enough to silence the surviving men, the henchman brings his in vicious sadistic metal-armored men to assail the place, and this leads to a brutal fight. Some comedic exchanges happen between Caine and him, and Caine does with John as well. It's here that we see that Caine really doesn't want to do this, and we sense that he was forced (as we find out later). The brutality lasts a good 20 - 30 minutes. After that, suspecting that Koji is possibly going to die, the Spaniard henchman and his men leave. Koji has one last brutal fight with Caine. He hurts Koji, and eventually after 1 or 2 minutes, Koji dies. Akira tries to get revenge, but Caine tries to talk her out of it. It's pretty clear even here, that he's remorseful for what happened. But Akira is mad.
Aftermath[]
In the after-credits scene, at the very end, Caine is in Paris, seeing his daughter play the violin. Akira approaches him, as she approaches him, she prepares to cut the knife. What happens next is ambiguous, but one thing is certain, she's going to try to get revenge on him for killing her father. It's a to-be-continued moment because the franchise is far from over. John might only be "dead" in a fake way to throw the more vengeful members of the High Table off.
 Villains
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Tarasov Crime Family D'Antonio Crime Family High Table Others | ||