“Hard Redemption” Poster
Director: Jino Kang
Co-director: Christine Lam
Cast: Jino Kang, Lou Ferrigno, David Kurzhal, Jessie Pettit, James Aaron Oh, Mikaila Maei
Running Time: 88 min.
By Z Ravas
It’s ‘Die Hard in a school’ starring Jino Kang! You know Jino Kang…right? The writer/director/star of such Direct to Video martial arts efforts as Fist 2 Fist and Fist 2 Fist 2: Weapon of Choice? …no?
Well, that’s okay, Hard Redemption also offers a special appearance by Lou Ferrigno. And if you don’t know Lou Ferrigno, I suggest you make like the kids in this movie and get your ass to class…’cause you need some schooling!
In all honesty, I’m not terribly familiar with Jino Kang either, which is why I wanted to make the time for Hard Redemption: I’m always curious about action stars who make the leap to writing and directing their own material, and the fact that former TV “Hulk” Lou Ferrigno was along for the ride for this one only sweetened the deal. As mentioned, this movie offers a fairly basic set-up: Jino Kang stars as a teacher with a hidden past whose class of GED earners is suddenly taken hostage by a knife-toting San Francisco gang called the Goblins. Turns out that one of Kang’s students is an ex-Goblin member and the gang want to make him pay for thinking he could leave their ranks without forfeiting his life; little do the Goblins know, Jino Kang is skilled at hitting more than just the books.
After a protracted opening act, in which the bad guys cause trouble by…doing doughnuts in the school parking lot(?), Hard Redemption locks into a groove that generally involves Jino Kang slowly stalking the hallways and taking down any bad guys he comes across. There’s quite a bit of action here, particularly for the DTV realm, which is appreciated, even if the fight choreography mostly hovers around ‘serviceable.’ (I will give Hard Redemption points for being the first movie I can recall having ‘ninja star-cam’ in lieu of ‘bullet-cam’).
For whatever reason, Jino lets himself take too much punishment during his very first fight scene, which I think unfairly paints him as a not particularly formidable opponent; if I were him, I would have tweaked the choreography for that sequence. Elsewhere in the film, Jino holds his own and attempts to throw as many kicks as he can for an older action star (the actor being somewhere in his mid-50’s at this point). Compared to some other low-budget “Die Hard” riffs I’ve seen, such as Albert Pyun’s ‘Die Hard in a pool’ (Blast) or Dolph Lundgren’s own ‘Die Hard in a school’ (Detention), I want to call Hard Redemption more entertaining—at the very least, it offers a greater quantity of action, including a protracted showdown in the gymnasium that feels like a tank-topped Jino Kang’s attempt at channeling the famous pagoda setpiece from Game of Death.
Would I watch other Jino Kang movies? Sure, though that’s mostly because I’m a DTVhead, not because Kang himself is a particularly charismatic performer; his screen presence tends towards the subdued side (although a younger female teacher asks him out to lunch after briefly meeting him, of course), and he’s an aging star in a very physically-demanding genre, so there’s perhaps a ceiling on just how impressive one of his productions can be. But he’s also a San Francisco guy, so I’ve got to root for him since that city is near and dear to me as a former Bay Area resident.
I will complain that Hard Redemption seems to be setting up its own version of Chekhov’s gun, in this case it’s Lou Ferrigno’s gun, only for Lou to go the whole movie without pulling the trigger. Oh well, at least Lou gets a couple of fight scenes to show that the former bodybuilder can still put the hurt on fools when he needs to.
Z Ravas’s Rating: 6/10
