“Deadly Impact” Theatrical Poster
Veteran Hong Kong martial arts stars Andy On (Blind War, Black Mask 2: City of Masks) and Fan Siu Wong (VR Fighter, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, Attrition) light up the screen as opposing forces in Deadly Impact.
The film is directed by Ren Gaoliang (Lie Sha), who is perhaps best known for his cinematography work in the recent Jackie Chan/John Cena actioner Hidden Strike.
After a rocky start making his debut by replacing Jet Li for the 2002 sequel Black Mask 2: City of Masks, On really came to our attention co-starring alongside Jiang Luxia in 2010’s Bad Blood. Over the next 10 years he’d star in True Legend, Special ID, Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, Undercover Punch and Gun and the recent gem, Blind War.
Fan Siu-Wong is known for his roles in Story of Ricky and Ip Man, but the cult star threw himself into the world of web movies like they were going out of fashion. Since 2018, he’s headlined the likes of Wolves Action 2, Taoist Master, The Bravest Escort Group, The Bravest Escort Group 2: Howling Wind, Monster Undersea, Monster Undersea 2, Southern Shaolin, Special Mission and the underrated VR Fighter.
Deadly Impact hits iQiyi on July 31, 2024. Here’s hoping for a U.S. release by way of Hi-YAH!, a streaming platform that grabs the rights to many Chinese web movies. Until then, don’t miss the film’s Newest Trailers:
Looks like it could be gritty and exciting. Hope I like it more than Blind War.
On Iqiyi they renamed this as To Live Through Death. Its a decent enough thriller but being a mainland production it also serves as propaganda against Thailand cos emperor xi wants RMB spent at home and not abroad.
Andy On is the Scott Adkins of Iqiyi movies. Blind War, Hunt the Wicked, Cruel War and now To Live Through Death. All solid 5.5 to 6.0 movies as long as you can accept the mainland hoops the movies have to jump through
Just caught this, and it’s the usual iQIYI offering that’s a mix of brutal action and maudlin sentimentality, but this one scores a little higher thanks to some stellar fight choreography with Fan Siu Wong in top form. As far as Andy On joints go, this one’s definitely a step above his disappointing team up with Xiao Mie in Hunt for The Wicked and 2 steps above Cruel War which wallowed in too much cheap, unearned melodrama.
Have you checked out Black Storm? I’m just lazy, I give all these mainland actioners a 5.5-6.0 . The fight inside the lift is so good though it feels like its from a better movie
@Ska Martes, is Cruel War worth a watch? It’s the only one of those films you mentioned that I haven’t seen yet.
Also, by jumping from Black Mask 2 to Bad Blood, this article unfairly skips over 2003’s Looking for Mr. Perfect, a rare romantic action/comedy from director Ringo Lam(!), in which Andy On plays Shu Qi’s secret spy love interest.
I enjoyed Looking For Mister Perfect. It was a fun and uncomplicated feel good flick. After Black Mask 2 didn’t show Andy On’s best, he was more charismatic here and his fight scenes ended up being better despite being less serious. Of course, Simon Yam was great parodying his villainous role from Full Contact.
Can’t forget On’s contribution to New Police Story where he did a great job keeping up with Jackie Chan although unfortunately was doubled by a Korean superkicker Hyun Jin Park for the more complicated parts after injuring himself.
If you found the others mentioned ok theres no reason why you shouldnt find Cruel war also ok. Its not particularly better or worse than those over movies.
Have you seen Desperado – the John Wick ripoff starring Bruce Lee from Ip Man 4. That’s another solid 5.5-6.0 Iqiyi movie
I caught this on Hi-Yah in a vain attempt to break the streak, and didn’t like it one bit. Too many of these iQiyi movies feel like the same thing over and over again. Overly serious and melodramatic to ridiculous levels with no bright spots, too much padding, and too much reliance on digital effects.
What is with the tone of these movies? Melodrama from the 80’s and 90’s doesn’t compare to this shit. It’s like the people who make these films want their audiences to be sad and miserable. Even the action scenes exude these feelings since the way they’re portrayed makes them look like they’re not meant to be enjoyed, but endured.
Quick answer is censorship, audience expectation and that these movies have the same artistic value as a Netflix movie being made by second tier filmmakers to be consumed on a phone.
You can’t take these movies seriously, even the local audiences know these movies are bullshit if you look at the douban aggregrated movie scores. All Anndy On movies in thr last 5 years aversge between 4.0-5.7
For movies that aren’t meant to be taken seriously, these are overly serious. The film makers act like they’re making films akin to Revolutionary Road. As far as censorship is concerned, I’m not seeing much of that on display. Certainly a lot of nihilism that the censors don’t care about. I don’t know why audiences want these films to not be fun.
It’s unfortunate that the audiences don’t appreciate 100 Yards more than these other slog-fests.
the censorship is there in these movies – it not about the level of violence per se….you can wake up at 7 in the morning turn on CCTV7 and watch a bunch of Japanese get blown to bits….its more along the lines of what type of character is the antagonist and what he can or cant do or say. YFor the forsseable future you wont get a Mainland Chinese version of Police Storys Chan Ka Kui or a Martin Riggs joking around and beating the shit out criminals. one day maybe we’ll get an 80s style action comedy with lots of charm, (questionable) comedy and awesome action. By that point though even these Chinese Scott Adkins (Andy, Ashton, Tse miu) will be way past their prime.