Martial arts action star Michael Jai White (Blood and Bone), Josh Herdman (Harry Potter franchise), and Gina Gershon (Face/Off) are set to star in Cagefighter, an MMA-themed drama from writer-director Jesse Quinones (Calloused Hands).
In Cagefighter, an MMA champion Reiss (Herdman) unexpectedly loses a heavily promoted match. A downward spiral sends him to the brink of losing his wife (Michelle Ryan) and his best friend (Jason Maza). Deemed erratic and out of control, he alienates his long-time trainer (Jai White) and the biggest MMA promoter in the business (Gershon). He must dig deep to find a path back to victory (via Deadline/FCS)
Cagefighter is currently in pre-production phase. Stay tuned!
Ryoo Seung-wan’s box office hit Veteran has a Chinese language makeover from director Wu Bai. In the remake, titled The Big Shot, Wang Qianyuan (Brotherhood of Blades) plays the lead role originally performed by Hwang Jeong-min (The Wailing) and Bao Bei’er (Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back) steps in for Yu Ah-in (Burning).
The original Veteran followed a seasoned police detective (Hwang) who immediately has a face-off with a young tyrannical heir (Yoo Ah-in) to an untouchable mega-corporation.
A U.S. Release date for The Big Shot is around the corner – until then, don’t miss the film’s latest Interational Main Trailer below:
Vincent Zhao (God of War, Unity of Heroes), who first burst onto the scene battling Jet Li in Fong Sai-yuk before replacing Li as Wong Fei-hong in the 4 and 5th chapters in the Once Upon a Time in China films and subsequent TV series, has long been a fan favorite but has never broken out the way he should.
Zhao has demonstrated his skills in countless film and TV projects, both traditional kung fu and modern day action, and while The Blade, Black Sheep Affair, and True Legend have been highlights, he’s often been shortchanged by many projects and at times fallen foul of politics such as his departure from Special ID.
The last year has seen him make a return to the spotlight, reprising his role as Wong Fei-hong in Unity of Heroes (and its sequel), he’ll be seen opposite Parkour legend David Belle in Invisible Tattoo, and gave a comedic turn as Wong Fei-hong in Kung Fu Big League.
Now he takes the role of Huo Yuan Jia, the role Jet Li played in Fearless, in the new 50-episode TV series also titled Fearless, which just wrapped after a lengthy 195 day shoot.
The series – directed by TV veteran Shan Bai and Feng Liu, written by Guo Jinyiu, who also serves as Exec Producer for China Internet platform Iqiyi – covers the life and times of the real-life martial arts legend, expanding upon situations seen in both Yuen Woo-ping’s Legend of a Fighter and Ronny Yu’s Fearless movie.
The series also stars Sik Seal-long (Shaolin Popey), Eddie Ko (The Mission), Mao linlin, Celine Lu and Lu Jianli, and while the finale does feature a tournament pitting Master Hua against the representatives of the foreign chamber of commerce in Shanghai, this time round they strangely didn’t ask me to reprise my role as Referee Randall!
The Fearless series will debut on Iqiyi later this year with an international release set to follow.
The bathroom – that one room where you should feel the most safe. Whether it be taking a hot shower at the end of the day, or relieving yourself from the mornings coffee intake, there’s an unwritten rule that we should feel safe in the bathroom. However, that rule doesn’t apply in the world of action movies. Bathrooms are the place where an assassin can sneak up when you least expect it, where shady deals go down, and bullets are calmly fired into each locked cubicle door. Needless to say, if you’re watching an action flick and a scene involves a bathroom, somethings about to go down (and it doesn’t involve flushing).
So what makes a good bathroom fight scene? Personally I look for 2 things – one is the level of collateral damage inflicted. Smashed porcelain and glass is essential (a couple of smashed urinals and a toilet is a healthy ratio). The other is for how the space is utilised, bathrooms can be big or small, but they always tend to fit within the frame of the camera. A lot can be done with space, especially when it involves people trying to beat the living daylights out of each other, and the bathroom is the perfect setting for a choreographer to show off their talents.
2018 has been a particularly good year for the bathroom, with the 6th entry in the Mission: Impossible series and the Korean movie The Outlaws both showcasing the versatility of it being a space to throw down. To celebrate the bathrooms place in the action genre, here at cityonfire we’ve decided to pull together our top 15 favorite bathroom beat downs for your enjoyment. Of course, considering the nature of such a topic, it felt only right to include a turd as well. Check them out below, listed by year of release. Washing your hands is optional.
The Outlaws (2018) – First of all let’s be clear, if you haven’t seen The Outlaws yet, you may want to avoid the below clip, as it’s the finale of a tale which sees grizzled cop Ma Dong-seok on the tail of a ruthless Chinese Korean gangster, played with relsih by Yoon Kye-sang. Taking place in one of Incheon Airport’s bathrooms, Dong-seok finally catches up with Kye-sang after spending most of the movie attempting to hunt him down, and when the two face off it doesn’t disappoint.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) – Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill find out the hard way that stuntman Liang Yang isn’t one to stay unconcious for long, in a sequence that could well be argued to be the action highlight of the 6th entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Say what you want about Tom Cruise, but he always put in 100% when it comes to both his acting and his action performance, and this throwdown is the proof.
The Raid 2 (2014) – We’ve all been there, you retreat to a toilet cubicle for some quiet time and to gather your thoughts, only to be bothered by an unruly mob furiously beating down the door and looking for blood. Such was the scenario Iko Uwais finds himself in during an early scene in The Raid 2, one of the first sequences that answered the question of if the sequel was going to be as brutal as the original. After watching this fight, the answer was a clear yes.
Non-Stop (2014) – This one takes the award for staging the whole fight within the confines of an inflight bathroom. While most scenes involving 2 people in a bathroom 30,000 feet in the air usually involve a clumsy attempt to join the mile high club, here Liam Neeson stars as an air marshal, and in this particular scene confronts Anson Mount suspecting him to be a terrorist. What goes down may involve some awkward fumbling, but it’s definitely not of the friendly variety.
Death Grip (2012) – The StuntPeople’s Eric Jacobus’ sophomore full length feature in the directors chair constantly subverted audiences expecatations in unique and innovative ways, and the bathroom fight scene is a perfect example. When a priceless coin falls into an overly sensitive motion sensored toilet, the ensuing real time slow motion fight scene between Jacobus and Johnny Yong Bosch is a masterpiece of creativity and comic timing.
The Man from Nowhere (2010) – There’s not many Korean film fans out there that haven’t seen The Man from Nowhere, and in this pivotal scene Won Bin’s attempts to track down his kidnapped neighbors daughter finally bring him face to face with those responsible. What he didn’t count on was that they include a Vietnamese enforcer, played by Thai actor Thanayong Wongtrakul, who proves to be a worthy match for Won Bin’s special forces training.
Ninja Assassin (2009) – For some reason this fun and incredibly blood drenched ninja flick got a lot of hate when it was first released, but nobody can deny that the action is freqeuntly brutal. Here a teenage version of our main character, played by Joon Lee, is forced to test out his skills by retrieving a gold watch from a burly British Kingpin, played by Stephen Marcus. The ensuing brawl makes striking use of the red on white color palette, and is viciously entertaining to watch.
Blood and Bone (2009) – Arguably the best showcase for the skills of Michael Jai White, this scene in the prison bathroom establishes Jai White’s no nonsense demeanor from the get go, as he’s confronted by the late Kimbo Slice and his gang. Making quick work of 8 punks in little more than 20 seconds, what the confrontation lacks in length, is more than made up for by the impression it leaves that this guy is not someone to be messed with.
Casino Royale (2006) – If audiences were questioning how James Bond could possilbly be made relevant for a modern audience, then the opening of Casino Royale delivered the answer. Shot in the style of a film noir, new 007 Daniel Craig recalls how he made his first kill, and you guessed it – he made it in a bathroom. The black and white lensing does nothing to take away from the impact of the hard hitting scene, and arguably the subsequent entries have been struggling to match the intensity shown here ever since.
Mercenary for Justice (2006) – Somehow lists like these wouldn’t feel complete without an appearance from Steven Seagal, and sure enough, he secured his entry with the 2006 DTV feature Mercenary for Justice. At this point his career was already in the doldrums, however scenes like this show he was still capable of displaying that good old Seagal brutality when he wanted to. Plus, is there another movie where a character refers to Seagal as a ”poop hole”?
Unleashed (2005) – I’ll be controversal and say that some of Jet Li’s best grounded fight scenes in a contemporary setting are from his English languge flicks, and this is one of the best. With choreography handled by Yuen Wo Ping, this tussle (in an unexpecting residents bathroom) against stuntman Mike Lambert makes superb use of the confined space, and is staged in such a way that you can feel every blow. Both Li and Lambert compliment each others movements well, resutling in the perfect screen fight.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) – T3 may have lost the seriousness of the first 2, opting for a more tongue-in-cheeck approach, however it still delivered some fantastic action sequences in that era just before CGI started to take over. Here Arnie takes on the new T-X, played by Kristanna Loken (sadly now reduced to appearing in Alexandar Nevsky flicks), and their ensuing battle rips through a sleek corporate bathroom in the process. Special mention goes to the usage of a urinal as a baseball bat.
The Matrix (1999) – Yuen Wo Ping makes his second appearance on the list, this time for his work on the movie that essenitially redefined the Hollywood action movie aesthetic for years to come – The Matrix. Here Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus is forced into a fight with the super powered Agent Smith, played by Hugo Weaving, in the bathroom of a dusty old subway station. It’s a skillfully executed showdown, with the choreography reflecting Fishburne’s desperation against an unbeatable opponent.
True Lies (1994) – Yuen Wo Ping isn’t the only one to make two appearances, with Arnie also clocking in a second entry thanks to this bullet riddled bathroom showdown from James Cameron’s 1994 action classic True Lies. This time he’s not an unstoppable machine, but debatably still just as much of an unstoppable secret agent, and in this scene he tackles a couple of burly terrorists bare handed, all thanks to a pair of 007 inspired sunglasses.
Story of Ricky (1992) – The prison bathroom rears its head again for this scene, in Lam Nai Choi’s notorious splatterfest, adapted from the Japanese manga. As the new prisoner on the block, Fan Siu Wong finds himself targeted by the resident tough guys, who’s introduction is a punch to the face that sends him (literally) flying across the room. Clearly unaware of Siu Wong’s powers, his attackers soon regret their decision, with one in particular being on the receiving end of the most literal gut punch ever put onscreen.
The Turd –
Rocky Handsome (2016) – When it comes to shameless remakes, nobody does it quite like Bollywood does it. In 2016 director Nishikant Kamat remade the Korean classic The Man from Nowhere, casting John Abraham in Won Bin’s role, and Kazu Patrick Tang in the role of Thanayong Wongtrakul. A souless retread of its source material, with the added influence of The Raid movies, Rocky Handsome is as fun as a poke in the eye, and the bathroom fight is a stellar showcase of how not bring an ounce of originality.
In The Medallion (aka Highbinders), Chan plays Eddie, a Hong Kong detective who works with a lovely Interpol agent (Claire Forlani, Mall Rats) and the bumbling agent Watson (Lee Evans, The Fifth Element) to try to rescue a boy from the clutches of the villainous Snakehead (Julian Sands, Warlock).
In the mid-21st century, humankind has been forced to look to colonising other planets as a means of combating overcrowding on Earth – their first stop, Mars. With a population of cockroaches having been introduced on Mars some 500 years prior to help prepare the way for human colonization, a manned mission sets out to the red planet with the aim of clearing away the bugs. Upon arrival, however, they discover that the roaches have evolved to huge, vicious creatures capable of wielding weapons.
Based on the popular Manga series of the same name, Terra Formars is an action-packed space adventure brought to life by one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary filmmakers.
Terra Formarsstars Hideaki Ito, Takayuki Yamada, Kane Kosugi, Emi Takei, Shun Oguri, Masaya Kato, Rinko Kikuchi, Tomohisa Yamashita, Eiko Koike, Mariko Shinoda, Rila Fukushima, Kenichi Takito, Rina Ohta and Tadayoshi Kobashi.
Blu-ray Special Features:
High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original uncompressed Stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA options
Newly-translated English subtitles
The Making of Terra Formars – feature-length documentary on the film’s production featuring a host of cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
Extended cast interviews
Footage from the 2016 Japanese premiere
Outtakes
Image Gallery
Theatrical and teaser trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options
First pressing only: Fully illustrated collector’s booklet with new writing on the film by Tom Mes
While we’re anxiously waiting for the stateside release of Project Gutenberg (our U.S. distributors are slackin’), international superstar Chow Yun-fat (Cold War II, Hard Boiled) is currently shooting his next project: Glorious Years.
Plot details are thin, but according to AFS, the upcoming “drama” marks the sophomore effort of Fletcher Poon, who co-directed 2017’s Extraordinary Mission with Alan Mak (Infernal Affairs). Poon will once again collaborate with Felix Chong (The Lost Bladesman), who penned the storyline.
Director: Eric Karson Writer: S. Warren Cast: Olivier Gruner, Theresa Saldana, Frank Aragon, Tony Valentino, Peter Kwong, Mike Moroff, Mark Dacascos, Bruce Locke, Claudine Penedo Running Time: 102 min.
By Z Ravas
It’s a story as old as the Western: a stranger rides into a town plagued by violence and unrest. Boarding with a local, he soon finds that the town’s troubles become his own – and he’s forced to fight in order to establish peace. The twist in 1990’s Angel Town is that the stranger in question is Olivier Gruner, former French Navy Commando and 1986 Middleweight Kickboxing World Champion. In other words, “establishing peace” is going to involve more than a few well-placed roundhouse kicks.
Very much cut from the same cloth as other early 90’s martial arts films such as Jeff Speakman’s The Perfect Weapon and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Nowhere to Run, Angel Town arrives from director Erik Karson. Karson is no stranger to the genre himself: in 1990, the same year as Angel Town, he produced the Van Damme fan favorite Lionheart. He was also responsible for directing 1980’s dated but entertaining Chuck Norris ninja flick The Octagon and the Sho Kosugi/Van Damme joint Black Eagle in ’88. I have no doubt Karson was selected for this project based on his experience working with JCVD, as Angel Town very much wants to position Olivier Gruner as “the next Jean-Claude Van Damme.” You almost can’t fault the producers for their shameless imitation of past successes: after all, Gruner speaks with a thick French accent and can do the splits.
But Olivier Gruner is not Van Damme – and why would we want him to be? Gruner’s onscreen persona is much more aloof. Whereas many of Van Damme’s early films like Bloodsport saw him flash his puppy dog eyes as much as his fists, Gruner comes across as a bit more world weary and cynical. As the film opens, his character – a French kickboxing champion, naturally – travels to Southern California to begin graduate school. However, he’s arrived so close to the start of the semester that no student housing remains. His only recourse is to rent a room in an East L.A. barrio, one that is currently being terrorized by a gang leader named Angel, who holds court with a submachine gun. As Gruner stands up for his landlord Maria (Raging Bull’s Theresa Saldana) and her son Martin, it’s only a matter of time before he’s put on a collision course with Angel and his violent cronies. Fortunately, he’s not alone: his old friend and trainer (played by Big Trouble in Little China’s Peter Kwong) maintains a gym in the area, and a disabled Korean War veteran named Frank (Mike Moroff, a staple of Robert Rodriguez films like Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn) is impressed enough by Gruner’s kicks to aid in the brewing gangwar.
Fans of the genre would be forgiven for growing restless during the film’s first act, which features very little in the way of hand-to-hand combat and includes an utterly bizarre moment where Gruner’s girlfriend sexually propositions him in a cemetery(!) before he leaves France. We know Gruner’s acceptance into grad school was necessary to get him across the Atlantic Ocean, but did we really need scenes of him meeting the stuffy dean or wooing his classmate? Thankfully, even these introductory moments are enlivened by Gruner’s fish-out-of-water charm. If you’ve read any recent reviews of Gruner’s films, you’ve probably heard the actor’s accent compared to notorious B-Movie maker Tommy Wiseau of The Room fame (recently spoofed by James Franco in The Disaster Artist), and there is an uncanny similarity, particularly in Angel Town. My favorite moment in the entire movie comes when a classmate derisively refers to Gruner as a “frog” and he responds by grabbing the student’s tie in his fist and quipping, “That’s Mister Frog to you.”
It’s a good thing Gruner is a likable actor, as the screenplay saddles him with some truly unfortunate dialogue. You have to balk when his character asks the teenage Martin why he doesn’t just give up and join Angel’s gang; rather than suggest the boy pursue a path of community activism or police outreach, Gruner attempts throughout the film to convince him that violence is the only recourse against Angel’s posse. In reality, we all know a World Kickboxing title isn’t going to do jack when you’re caught in the crossfire of a Mac-10 machine gun, but hey – this isn’t reality, this is a low-budget kung fu flick. After the exposition-heavy first thirty minutes, which include some Perfect Weapon-style flashbacks to Gruner’s character’s troubled youth, the film settles into a martial arts movie groove, with a series of increasingly escalating fight scenes that come to include more and more of the crime-inflicted neighborhood. By the time the climax rolls around, Gruner has given up pulling his punches and has started breaking limbs and throwing fools through picket fences as the entire block watches. At only 30 years of age, Gruner is in peak condition here, and there’s no doubt he’s the real deal: somehow it never gets old watching him high-kick the same group of gangmembers into oblivion.
It must be said Angel Town is populated almost exclusively by stereotypes (along with a fresh-faced Mark Dacascos in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him background part), with Angel and his enforcers representing the kind of violent Latino gang Ann Coulter imagines when she closes her eyes. In fact, an early theatrical screening of Angel Town at a drive-in theater in Westminster, California was reportedly marred by gang-related violence, which led to a much smaller than anticipated theatrical roll-out for the film. Would Olivier Gruner gone on to greater success, sharing the box office marquee next to Van Damme and Steven Seagal, if Angel Town had received its intended wide release? Somehow it’s doubtful, but if you’re the kind of person who visits City on Fire on a regular basis, chances are you’ll have a good time revisiting this 1990 guilty pleasure.
If recent films like The Villainess or Atomic Blonde didn’t satisfy your craving for a female-centric action flick, then say hello to Older Sister(aka No Mercy), a revenge thriller from first-time director Im Kyung-Taek.
Since her parents died, In-Ae (Lee Si-Young of The Divine Move) and her younger sister Eun-Hye (Park Se-Wan) have lived together by themselves. The two sisters rely on each other, but, one day, Eun-Hye disappears. Older sister In-Ae struggles to find Eun-Hye and seeks to take revenge on those responsible for her sisters disappearance (via AW).
Older Sister recently hit Korean theaters on January 1st, 2019, but with the current trend of females taking the lead in action films, we expect a U.S. release date soon. Until then, enjoy the film’s English-subtitled Trailer:
On February 19th, 2019, Warner Archive will be releasing the long-awaited U.S. Blu-ray for 1985’s Year of the Dragon, from Academy Award-winning director Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter), based on the novel by Robert Daley (Prince of the City) and coscripted by Oliver Stone (Scarface).
In this criminally underrated thriller, Mickey Rourke (Double Team) portrays White, a war veteran who has a Vietnam-sized chip on his shoulder when dealing with an emerging blood feud in Chinatown. John Lone (The Hunted) plays the crime lord standing in the line of fire of White’s relentless campaign.
Year of the Dragon also stars model Ariane (King of New York), Dennis Dun (Big Trouble in Little China), Raymond J. Barry (Rapid Fire), Victor Wong (Golden Child), Fan Mei Sheng (The Story of Ricky), Jeff Chen Chao Jung (Eat Drink Man Woman), Baau Hon Lam (God of Gamblers) and Joey Chin (China Girl).
Blu-ray Features:
Brand New 2019 Remaster
Audio Commentary by Director Michael Cimino
Theatrical Trailer
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
When Thaddeus (RZA) is found wounded near the village, miner Kung (Dustin Nguyen) and his wife Ni (Eugenia Kang) offer him refuge. As he heals, he becomes entrenched in a conflict that pits the townsfolk against the evil Ho (Carl Ng), his nefarious Clan and the terrifying Lord Pi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). With Thaddeus at his side, the mild-mannered Kung transforms into a deadly warrior!
On February 12th, 2019, Magnolia Pictures is giving Shoplifters a DVD and VOD release (currently no mention of a Blu-ray edition). This Palme d’Or Award-winning film is directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (Third Murder).
A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find on the street. Although the family is poor, barely making enough money to survive through petty crime, they seem to live happily together until an unforeseen incident reveals hidden secrets, testing the bonds that unite them…
Director: Lee Seung-won Writer: Bruce Khan Cast: Bruce Khan, Park Hee-soon, T.J. Storm, Yoon Jin-seo, Kim In-kwon, Park Chul-min Running Time: 101 min.
By Paul Bramhall
The Korean martial arts movie can more or less be said to have died out at some point in the 1990’s. Sure there’s been a few attempts to revive it, the likes of 2006’s City of Violence and 2013’s The Suspect were both sold on their action, but when was the last time a Korean movie was sold purely on a guy kicking the daylights out of everyone!? For that you have to go back to the days when guys like Dragon Lee, Casanova Wong, and Hwang Jang Lee lit up the screens with their impressive array of kicks, and those days are long gone. Until now.
If you haven’t heard of Bruce Khan, it’s entirely forgivable. A master of both Taekwondo and Hapkido, Khan made tentative steps into the local film industry in the late 90’s, at a time when Shiri had pretty much put the last nail in the coffin for the Korean martial arts flick. Thankfully one of the directors he worked with had connections in Hong Kong, which led to a successful audition for a small action role in Gen-X Cops. Like many Korean martial artists, Khan was a teacher of martial arts first, with his ventures in the film industry second. Having established schools in both the U.S. and Korea, he also found time to work on the fight choreography in Jackie Chan’s The Medallion, and in 2005 landed a role in front of camera to fully showcase his skills, in fellow Korean Young Man Kang’s kung fu and Christianity hybrid, The Last Eve.
He’d appear onscreen again as the Japanese villain that frequently duels with the title character of 2012’s K-drama series Bridal Mask, however Khan’s real ambition was to create a pure Korean martial arts movie. In that regard, you could say that Revenger is the realisation of his dream. It may have taken him until he was 51 years old to become a headlining action star, but any doubt around if he’s left it too late are quickly cast aside within the opening few minutes. This guy can bust out the kicks with a lethal precision that makes guys half his age look like geriatrics. Playing a former cop that gets sent to APA-101, a lawless island penitentiary populated by death row inmates, Khan’s real mission is to kill the ruthless criminal who murdered his wife and child. That same ruthlessness, has made the criminal he’s after become the feared leader of the island.
Khan is responsible for both the story and script, and together with first time director Lee Seung-won, Revenger has a visually unique aesthetic. The setting of the island (which was filmed in Indonesia) gives proceedings a post-apocalyptic feel, with the inhabitants decked out in tattered clothing, and running around armed with axes, spears, and maces. The ‘good prisoners’, for want of a better expression, have made their own hidden commune accessible through a cave, where they hide out and practice martial arts, in case they ever find themselves on the run from one of the “human hunting” expeditions the ‘bad prisoners’ like to indulge in. It’s bizarre in the same way many of the Korean kung fu movies from the 70’s and 80’s were bizarre. In fact that’s probably the best way to describe Revenger – it’s like a 2018 version of a Dragon Lee or Elton Chong flick.
For anyone that happens to stumble across Revenger on Netflix that’s unaware of the genre, I’m sure it’ll be a jarring experience. For those of us that have worked our way through the infamous IFD distributed Korean kung fu flicks of old though, it’s hard not to smile. There’s a completely out of place comedic troupe of inhabitants, led by Kim In-kwon (The Divine Move), that mug and gurn their way through every scene they’re in. We get a cross dressing grandpa character sporting one of Mike Wong’s grey wigs (see Magnificent Natural Fist or Invincible Obsessed Fighter for points of reference!). There’s even a double sword wielding hunchback with a mohawk, who looks like he just walked off the set of Enter the Invincible Hero. Throw in crash zooms, ridiculous English dialogue (no IFD needed here!), and random plot threads that are never explained – there aren’t too many Korean kung fu movie tropes that aren’t ticked off.
One thing that is missing though, is the ridiculous attempts at wire work. In fact, there’s none. Revenger is like the antithesis to those movies filled with unnecessary wirework (re: everything coming out of China and Hong Kong right now), with Khan decimating waves of attackers like a one-man army. One particular sequence has him raiding a rundown building to rescue a child who’s been abducted, and he gets to unleash his full array of kicks and throws. Legs get snapped, heads are smashed into boxes, and it all culminates in a face off against American martial artist T.J. Storm (The Martial Arts Kid). The concept behind the sequence reminded me in some ways of the Muay Boran showcase Tony Jaa dishes out in the finale of Tom Yum Goong. Sure, nobody seems to have a chance of laying a finger on Khan, but the technique on display is so impressive that somehow, that’s just fine.
Arguably it’s the quality (and quantity) of the action on display that makes Revenger’s shortcomings for the most part forgivable. Anyone who likes coherency, or in some cases basic logic, to accompany their action quota will likely leave frustrated. The 100 minutes have clearly been constructed around the action, and as such everything else is considered superfluous. Even details that somehow feel they should be important, for example how the prisoners arrive on the island, are considered unnecessary to explain. Like an episode of Ex on the Beach, in the opening scene Khan simply wades through the shallows onto dry land, and begins kicking seven bells out of a group of assailants bothering a mother and daughter. Don’t even ask why he’s wearing a straitjacket and mouthpiece. In terms of movies that deliver impressive scenes of kicking while in a straitjacket (I’m sure there’s many), this is right up there with Rage.
Despite plot holes aplenty, Revenger is far from being filled with unknown actors, and if anything is quite the opposite. Yoon Jin-seo, an actress known for her roles in the likes of Old Boy, plays the mother Khan rescues in the opening scene. It’s revealed along the way that Khan was the cop responsible for sending her to the island several years ago, where she’d give birth to her child, but it’s a point which is never explored beyond it acting as a reason for there being tension between the pair. Park Hee-soon, last seen in The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion plays the ruthless criminal running the island, who’s brush with fire allows him to looks a modern day version of Tatsuya Fujiwara’s character in the Rurouni Kenshin series. His face, obscured by the bandages that cover it, allow for Hee-soon’s villain to be one of the more visually striking bad guys in recent memory, and he’s able to deliver the moves when called for.
Indeed the final fight between Khan and Hee-soon lasts over 6 minutes, and is uninterrupted, making it a pleasure to witness. If one was to be critical of Revenger, it would be that for the majority of the runtime Khan never has an opponent to match his skills. Admittedly, there’s joy to be had in watching him kick his way through various opponents with a steely faced Steven Seagal-like level of brutality, however at some point it’s important to give our hero a threat that allows us to feel a sense of risk to his well-being. The finale delivers that for the most part, with a thrilling two-on-one sword fight (involving the previously mentioned hunchback), which segues into the one-on-one against Hee-soon. It’s a small gripe on my part, but I wish they hadn’t gone the ‘soft’ sound effect route for the punishment dished out. I know it’s reflective of reality, but what can I say, I prefer my kicks to the face be delivered with a meaty thud.
This is nit-picking though in what, regardless of which way you look at it, is a glorious return to the kind of action that Korea used to produce, back when “You’re tired of living” was a prerequisite line to any of its kung fu output. Bloody, brutal, and with cleanly shot fight scenes that don’t need to cut away every couple of moves, if Khan wants to make another movie just like this one, I’d be first in line to watch it. It’s true I have no idea what era Revenger is supposed to be taking place in, and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you if Bruce Khan is a good actor or not (the ratio of lines spoken:kicks to the head is about 1:10), however none of that really matters. Khan has made a movie in which everything that’s old is new, and if that involves occasional bewilderment in return for killer action, then it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make.
Indonesian action star Joe Taslim (The Night Comes for Us, The Raid, the upcoming Korean-produced The Swordsman, as well as the Cinemax series, Warrior) is currently putting finishing touches on Ody C. Harahap’s action-comedy Hit ‘n Run, which will also reunite Taslim with his Raidco-star Yayan Ruhian (Yakuza Apocalypse).
As FCS (via TJP) notes, Hit ‘n Run hails from Screenplay Films and signals Taslim’s big screen debut playing Tegar, “a heroic police officer who has to collaborate with his friends to take down an all-powerful crime lord”.
Hit ‘n Run also stars Tatjana Saphira (Sweet 20), Jefri Nichol (One Fine Day), David Hendrawan (The Night Comes for Us), Ju-jitsu athlete Simone Julia and Joe’s brother, Peter Taslim, a stuntman who worked on The Night Comes for Us.
Look out for Hit ‘n Run in 2019. For now, check out a still from the film:
Jean-Claude Van Damme (Kill ’em All) returns in the Taken-esque The Bouncer (aka Lukas), an action thriller directed by Julien Leclercq (The Assault).
Van Damme (Black Water) is Lukas, a midde-aged bouncer who struggles to raise his 8-year-old daughter. One day, Lukas gets into an altercation and ends up in jail, while his daughter gets placed under the care of social services. But things take an unexpected turn when Interpol recruits Lukas…
The film also stars Sveva Alviti, Sami Bouajila, Kaaris, Kevin Janssens, Sam Louwyck, and Alice Verset.
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The bathroom – that one room where you should feel the most safe. Whether it be taking a hot shower at the end of the day, or relieving yourself from the mornings coffee intake, there’s an unwritten rule that we should feel safe in the bathroom. However, that rule doesn’t apply in the world of action movies. Bathrooms are the place where an assassin can sneak up when you least expect it, where shady deals go down, and bullets are calmly fired into each locked cubicle door. Needless to say, if you’re watching an action flick and a scene involves a bathroom, somethings about to go down (and it doesn’t involve flushing).
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