“Gladiator Underground” Theatrical Poster
Director: Chaya Supannarat
Cast: D.Y. Sao, Andy Le, Brian Le, Michael March, Johnny Lee, Craig Ng, Carl Piaf, D.Y. Sao, Ron Smoorenburg, Bear Williams, Selina Wiesmann, Apasiri Kulthanan, Elliott Allison, Geoffrey Giuliano, Sam Lee Herring
Running Time: 91 min.
By Z Ravas
I suppose you could say I’ve become a fan of D.Y. Sao, an indie martial arts star who I’ve been following since his first feature as lead actor, 2022’s Shadow Master. Our very own Paul Bramhall awarded that film a 5.5 out of 10 rating, which sounds fair to me: the movie was a bit rough around the edges, even for a Direct to Video effort, but D.Y. Sao’s martial arts skills displayed some promise. I was curious to see what the Cambodian-born, Long Beach-raised actor would do next, and I didn’t have to wait long for Bangkok Dog, which offered a more polished production than Shadow Master as well as a show-stopping final fight scene between Sao and Brian Le, a member of the Martial Club stunt collective and a face you may recognize from his supporting turn in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now, just a year later, Sao and his Bangkok Dog director Chaya Supannarat look to build on the strength of that collaboration—and the energy of that final fight scene—with Gladiator Underground, a no-frills martial arts tournament flick that also recruits the talents of Brian Le’s brother, Andy Le.
If I had to describe the screen appeal of D.Y. Sao in a single bullet-point, I’d say his fighting prowess and onscreen mannerisms are meant to nudge viewers and ask, ‘Hey, remember when Tony Jaa was the baddest MFer on the planet? Wasn’t that a great time to be alive?’ Even though Jaa and Sao are more or less the same age, Sao has emerged on the action scene at a much later date and seems to be purposely channeling martial arts fans’ collective nostalgia for the days when Ong-Bak was the action movie to beat. The deliberate mid-aughties vibes of Bangkok Dog are a bit muted this time around, however, simply because of the film’s tournament setting: in the vein of the recent Kickstarter film The Last Kumite, Gladiator Underground harkens back to the Eighties heyday of kill-or-be-killed fight flicks like Bloodsport.
The first few scenes of Gladiator Underground had me a little worried, as the slang-heavy dialogue comes loaded with almost as many ‘brahs’ as the script for 2 Fast 2 Furious. Fortunately, D.Y. Sao’s cuss-heavy alcoholic protagonist is soon contrasted by his more disciplined brother, played by Andy Le, who comes across as your traditional martial arts hero—he was reminding me of Street Fighter’s Ryu. In an unsurprising twist, our ‘two brothers from opposite walks of life’ become entrants in the same underground fighting tournament, with Brian Le’s character then acting as something of a spoiler/wild card.
(An aside about Brian Le’s character, Shojin: on paper, Shojin is intended to be a family man who’s been forced to fight for money in order to pay off his debts to the Triad, lest those criminal elements harm his wife and son. Okay, that’s fair, but this notion of him being a devoted husband and father flies in the face of how he acts in the ring, as his character is depicted as engaging in unhinged psychosexual violence, including a shocking moment where he…literally bites into an opponent’s crotch like a rabid dog. A truly ‘WTF?!’ scene, if there ever was one, and as such I have to say the depiction of Shojin comes across as confused at best).
In a twist that’s pulled right out of the PM Entertainment film Firepower—at least I think it was Firepower, my memory of all these 80’s and 90’s tournament flicks might be blurring together—the contestants in Gladiator Underground are able to have their sponsors spin a wheel mid-fight in order to obtain a weapon, an option the characters end up relying on often in the film. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the heavy focus on weapons-based combat, as I’d argue the performers here at their best when showing off their hand-to-hand skills; that’s where the choreography by Joseph Le (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) really sings. Andy Le, in particular, impresses with his athletic prowess in Gladiator Underground. He’s the kind of guy who can’t just throw a simple kick, he’s got to do at least three spins across the floor first.
At the risk of saying something controversial: I think I’m ready to leave the tournament movie behind in the Eighties. It’s true we still have Mortal Kombat II and a live-action Street Fighter reboot on the way, so who knows, maybe those filmmakers are going to find a way to make the genre play as fresh and relevant again, but for the moment I tend to feel like this particular format for the martial arts film saw its heyday some forty years ago and every new release is simply attempting to chase the high of Bloodsport. I get that there’s some comfort in returning to such a well-worn genre trope and in knowing you’re going to get a bunch of colorfully-garbed opponents with distinctive fighting styles all in one movie. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a movie that’s going to reinvent the tournament fighter, Gladiator Underground isn’t it; this is a film that’s content to land the expected beats and appeal to your fond memories of the Kumite. For the most part, it hits that target, but that’s because D.Y. Sao and the Le Brothers are dynamic screen fighters who prove fun to watch, not because this script offers a new twist on the well-worn tournament template.
By Z Ravas’ Rating: 6/10
“I’d say his fighting prowess and onscreen mannerisms are meant to nudge viewers and ask, ‘Hey, remember when Tony Jaa was the baddest MFer on the planet? Wasn’t that a great time to be alive?’”
That’s an accurate assessment! Sao has the same kind of rage fueled screen presence that Jaa had, an attribute that I feel is underrated when it comes to screen-fighting, so I appreciate how he’s carving out his own little niche in the DTV action space.
PS Oh, and is that a Boyka-clone I spotted at 1:12 in the trailer!?
No
I wanted to like this movie a lot, but I was bothered by several aspects of it.
My intro to DY Sao was the idiotic Fast Vengeance, but his subsequent work with the Le Brothers proved that he has more personality than his earlier projects indicated. I just wish he played a character closer to his own persona.
For that matter, he along with Andy and Brian should dial it back with the “gangsta” caricatures and lingo. Just like in Bangkok Dog, they all sound like middle schoolers doing bad impressions of Public Enemy. Eventually I realized this is one of those films where you skip to the fight scenes like Bloodmoon. A lot of the action is great, but there was still a lot lacking.
It’s obvious how physically talented Sao and the Le Siblings are, but often times it looked more like they were showing off instead of trying to defeat their opponents. It the equivalent of modern wrestling matches where a lot of the high flyer/cruiserweight wrestlers put on “spot fests” instead of trying to convince the audience that that want to beat their rivals.
When Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and even Tony Jaa do fancy moves in their good films, there’s purpose to them and they don’t do them for the sake of doing them. Thats part of the art of storytelling in a fight scene.
SPOILERS if anyone gives a shit:
And I did not need to see Brian Le bite a man’s dick off and mockingly perform fellatio on it. And later on, we find out that he’s forced to be in the tournament because his family is being held hostage, and all of a sudden, the audience is supposed to feel sorry for the sadistic psychopath?
This flick is a joke, a cringe-worthy one…