“Affinity” Theatrical Poster
Director: Brandon Slagle
Cast: Marko Zaror, Louis Mandylor, Brahim Chab, Brooke Ence, Jane Mirro, Elliott Allison
Running Time: 81 min.
By Paul Bramhall
At the risk of showing my age, I’ve been following the trajectory of the Chilean Dragon Marko Zaror ever since he landed on action fans radars with the release of Kiltro in 2006, almost 20 years ago. A product of his native Chile, in the succeeding years Zaror has struck a healthy balance of maintaining his presence as a leading man in his home country (usually under the direction of Ernesto Díaz Espinoza), while regularly clocking in villain roles in U.S. DTV productions (including a hat trick of performances against Scott Adkins in Undisputed 3: Redemption, Savage Dog, and Diablo spanning 15 years!). Having become such a reliable presence in the action world, I found myself going back through his filmography just to double (and then triple) check that his latest release, Affinitiy, is in fact the first time for him to headline an English language production.
It was perhaps a welcome inevitability after his scene stealing turn in 2023’s John Wick: Chapter 4 (that notably also had Scott Adkins in the mix), and his latest clearly marks a passion project for one of the most talented action stars working today. Affinity is helmed by DTV specialist Brandon Slagle, who in the past 10 years has helmed everything from alien found footage flicks (Area 51 Confidential), creature features (Dead Sea), Charles Manson biopics (House of Manson), and even survival thrillers (Frost). A quick glance at his filmography makes it easy to spot the recurring theme of Louis Mandylor (Debt Collectors, The Doorman) turning up in most of his productions, and Affinity certainly isn’t the movie that’s going to break that trend.
Zaror plays a former special forces member who’s settled down in Bangkok, prone to spending the evenings drowning his sorrows in the red-light district to numb the memories of his dead brother, who was killed during a rescue mission. Mandylor was also part of his military unit, who’s tried to put the past behind him and now runs a restaurant, one that Zaror works at on the days he’s in good shape, and another former team member played by Brooke Ence (here clocking in her first movie role after debuting as the DC Universe’s Penthesilea in Wonder Woman and Justice League) is also around. One day Zaror finds his life of heavy drinking and moping around interrupted when a girl washes up outside his riverside abode, unconscious and seemingly with no memory of who she is, both factors which Mandylor (almost as if he’s acting as an avatar for the audience watching) point out “mean trouble”.
Rather than taking her to a hospital, Zaror nurses her back to health in his home, and soon a romance starts to bloom between the pair. We even get a montage sequence (played out to an upbeat pop song that wouldn’t have been out of place in a 2000’s teenage romance movie) of the pair shopping for new clothes, having dinner, and enjoying a boat ride. Chances are you’ve never seen Marko Zaror like this before! The story is based on his own idea along with the late Daniel Zirilli, who directed Zaror in the lamentable Invincible from 2020, and like that movie Affinity also comes with a sci-fi slant. Zirilli is credited as a co-producer, which likely explains the Thailand shooting locations, however while Southeast Asia may see Zaror far from home, he’s brought along a few of his regular collaborators for the ride.
The go-to director for his Chilean productions, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza (Fist of the Condor, Redeemer) here takes on editor duties, while the composer of all their collaborations, Rocco, is also onboard. Clocking in at a punchy 80 minutes, the initial third sets up the perfunctory requirement of having Zaror and his mysterious guest, played by Russian actress Jane Mirro (for which Affinity represents her sophomore role after debuting in 2024’s ON i Ona from Russia), begin to fall for each other, before the bad guys from wherever it was she escaped from turn up to bring her back. Naturally, Zaror makes it his mission to rescue her.
The result is of course what we all clock into a Zaror flick for – the action. Here he takes on fight choreographer duties, and when the action does come for the most part it delivers. There’s a refreshing number of one versus multiple opponent scuffles, with an initial scene that sees Zaror taking on three would-be-robbers in a Bangkok alley echoing a similar setup with Scott Adkins in Ninja: Shadow of a Tear. Any one versus many fights require a lot of talent and time, the latter of which most DTV fight flicks in recent years don’t have, however here the flow and impact belie the tight schedule. The same format is revisited in the finale, with groups of attackers coming at Zaror (all conveniently masked, so I’m sure it was the same group of stuntmen each time!), giving him the opportunity to show off his skills both with a katana and a pair of tonfas, delivering a satisfying series of beat downs on the way to the final boss.
The final boss is the ace up the sleeve in Affinity, with Brahim Chab (Customs Frontline, The Driver) cast as the villain that’s been kidnapping girls from local bars for nefarious purposes. Indeed Affinity sees Chab come full circle to where his career got kick started, having relocated to Thailand in the late 2000’s, back when it seemed the country was going to have a booming action movie industry on the back of success stories like Ong Bak. From small roles in The Kick and Kill ‘Em All, to stunt work on the likes of The Sanctuary (and the previously mentioned Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, which would mark the first of many times he’d stunt double for Scott Adkins), Chab has gone on to work on several Hong Kong productions and even a stint as part of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Having already faced off against Adkins twice (in Undisputed 4: Boyka and Abduction), to see him face off against Zaror is an exciting prospect.
The good news is they go at it not once but twice, with both getting to show off their dexterity and martial arts prowess. Their last fight in particular incorporates a nice mix of going toe to toe with grounded grappling, clearly making the most of what they had to work with. If there’s one gripe to be had, it’s that Affinity falls into the classic DTV trap of feeling like it needs to have a generic rent-a-soundtrack playing in the background of practically every scene. While it’s tolerable in the non-action scenes, when you have physical performers of Zaror and Chab’s calibre duking it out, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they’d muted the soundtrack altogether and simply let their skillsets do the talking both for the visuals and the audio. In recent years Japan’s Kensuke Sonomura has re-captured the magic of filming fight scenes without the need for any added soundtrack, and the same approach here would have been much more impactful.
The unavoidable time constraint issue also rears its head on occasion, with the power of the hits sometimes feeling inconsistent. Some kicks look like they could take someone’s head off, while others look like they barely qualify as a tap, with the power of the former only making any instances of the latter stand out even more. However these are minor issues and, for the most part, come readily forgivable from fans who understand the pressures such productions are made under. While many DTV productions are straight forward affairs, Affinity deserves credit for becoming quite ambitious with the direction it heads in during the final third, with a pretty out there twist delivering a welcome element of zaniness to the plot (and one that also allows for the classic line of – “Here’s your DNA motherf*cker!”).
Next to Zaror and Chab’s action talents special mention should go to Mandylor, who brings a welcome sense of gravitas to the production, and also helps to divert attention away from some of the ropier performances (Jane Mirro in particular botches a significant line where she’s supposed to say “My name is Athena, f*cker!”, but instead goes for “My name is Athena F*cker!”, making it sound like Affinity may be a distant relative of the Meet the Parents universe). Overall Affinity succeeds in its intention to be a sci-fi infused slice of DTV action, and more than proves Zaror is capable of carrying an English language production on his considerable shoulders. Here’s hoping next time it’ll be a production helmed by a director whose specialty is the action genre – would it be too much to ask for the unmade English language remake of Mirage Man to be placed back on the table?
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
Finally got around to catching Affinity, and I had a good time with it. I appreciated how Zaror and company set out to do a movie that was more than just a generic plot where you skip to the action scenes. I just wish it was better realized.
The romance scenes with Zaror and Brooke Ence aren’t very well done, and it felt like the film was trying to emulate what Patrick Tam and Wong Kar-Wai would do with the montage shots and people looking longingly into the distance while not speaking often.
I thought the beginning of the movie was going to be relevant to the evil plot at hand where it turns out the villain was behind that hostage situation as well. It was disappointing that it wasn’t connected.
Of course the action scenes were good stuff, and I loved seeing Marko Zaror vs Brahim Chab in a lengthy fight. I especially laughed when Brahim got on the ground trying to bait Zaror into getting into his closed guard, and he wouldn’t take it. That is a jiujitsu stereotype!