Today’s Deal on Fire is the Blu-ray for The Stool Pigeon, a 2010 Hong Kong action film directed by Dante Lam (That Demon Within)
The Stool Pigeon (read our review) revolves around a police detective who uses informants to gain information about gangsters. The movie took home the Film of Merit Award at the 17th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.
Director: Adam Wingard Cast: Nat Wolff, Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles, Willem Dafoe, Jack Ettlinger, Matthew Kevin Anderson, Chris Britton Running Time: 100 min.
By Z Ravas
The Hollywood remake of Death Note is a project that’s been passed like a hot potato from filmmaker to filmmaker for the better part of a decade. Back in 2011, it looked like Lethal Weapon scribe and Iron Man 3 director Shane Black would be the unlikely creator behind the camera; once he left the project due to creative differences with Warner Brothers, indie auteur Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho) was even floated as a possible contender. Instead, the movie quietly found a home in 2015 with both Netflix and director Adam Wingard, who may have already had a relationship with the company thanks to his films like You’re Next and V/H/S finding the majority of their audience through the streaming service.
Two years later and the movie has finally made its debut, only to immediately be met with derision and scorn from fans of the popular manga and anime, who have balked at the notion of condensing a 15 hour anime into a single film as well as the casting of a white lead (despite the story being relocated from Tokyo to suburban Seattle). In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll say my prior experience with the series is an appreciation of Shusuke Kaneko’s (Gamera: Guardian of the Universe) two-part live-action adaptation, which astonishingly came out over a decade now. Rather than compare Netflix’s Death Note to that release, or even the 12-volume manga, I chose to approach this movie on its own terms as the next film from promising young director Adam Wingard… since it is the next film from Adam Wingard.
If you wondered why the producers of Netflix’s Death Note would secure Wingard for this adaptation of the Japanese property, it becomes abundantly clear early on in that they must have been massive fans of his 2014 film The Guest. That movie served as a loving homage to Eighties horror/thrillers like The Terminator, and launched the big screen career of Beauty and the Beast’s Dan Stevens; it also featured the best Steven Seagal-style bar fight since Steven Seagal stopped having fights in bars. From the sleek neon lighting and ceaseless downpour of Seattle rain, to the moody electronic score and doomed high school dance, there’s much of this Death Note that at times feels like a redux of The Guest. If you’re like me, and consider The Guestto be one of the best genre flicks of the last decade, you’ll likely be simultaneously pleased and struck with familiarity, like hearing a pleasant cover song.
The Eighties horror movie theatrics feel entirely appropriate, given the dark premise at the heart of Death Note: a social outcast named Light (Nat Wolff) receives a supernatural journal that allows him to strike dead anyone he wishes just by visualizing their face and writing their name in its pages. It isn’t long before Light confesses his secret to his high school crush Misa (Margaret Qualley from HBO’s The Leftovers), like some perverse reversal of the ‘superhero revealing their identity’ trope. The duo quickly become lovers and vigilante executioners, seeking to rid the world of its worst terrorists and predators while creating a global cult to their imaginary death god Kiro. However, when Light’s own father – a Seattle cop played by Shea Wingham (Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) – teams up a renowned junior detective named L (Get Out’s Keith Stanfield), the net tightens around Light and his murderous crusade against crime.
In contrast to Shusuke Kaneko’s adaptation, in which the quirky and candy-addicted L stole the movie as a teenage Batman-esque detective (complete with his own Alfred-like butler!), it’s clear that Wingard’s fascination lies more with Light and his girlfriend Misa. The young couple’s repeated use of the Death Note allows them to feel above the rest of humanity thanks to a Crime and Punishment-esque superiority complex; but seeds of mistrust are sown between the two once they develop very different ideas about how to best utilize the lethal tome. It’s here that Wolff and Qualley really shine as the kind of disaffected duo who, in the absence of the Death Note, may have formed a suicide pact or shot up their school. To the actors’ credit, they manage to keep this kids highly watchable despite the fact that they’re stone cold sociopaths; less convincing is the film’s attempt to sell us on the worldwide cult of personality that has developed around Kiro since the screenplay rarely leaves the state of Washington.
Death Note’s secret weapon may be its breathless pacing. Perhaps it’s merely due to its presence on Netflix, but Wingard’s film often feels like an eight episode mini-series edited down to a brisk 100 minutes; Wingard wastes no time and puts Light in possession of the Death Note and committing his first murder by the ten minute mark, in an elaborate Rube Goldberg-esque sequence of events that recalls the Final Destination series. Unfortunately, these quite fun – and quite gory – death setpieces (deathpieces?) all but disappear during the second half as the movie turns into a straight ahead cat-and-mouse thriller between Light and his rival L. The mental chess game between these two may have been the highlight of the Japanese version, but here I found the exaggerated origin of L – an orphan raised by birth to be an international supercop who works outside the law but with the law’s assistance – only clashed with the relatively realistic tone Wingard strikes. Or at least as realistic as you can get with an eight foot-tall demon lurking in the shadows.
Yes, I would be amiss if I didn’t at least mention Ryuk, the avatar of death who serves as the custodian of the Death Note. He’s a creepy-looking creation right out of the early Tim Burton playbook, and here is ably voiced by Willem Dafoe, an actor who can do sinister and menacing in his sleep. That said, the screenplay doesn’t find much for Ryuk to do other than glower from the corner of the frame; he’s mostly here to remind Light of the Death Note’s various binding rules, and – going back to Final Destination – is perhaps not dissimilar to Tony Todd’s character in those movies.
The fact that Death Note ends with much of its story left unresolved, cryptically teasing the motivations for a possible sequel, is not likely to help Netflix win over fans who already regard this American remake with ill will. Fortunately, those folks will always have their beloved manga and anime to continue to enjoy. Approaching this Death Note on its own terms, as a straight-to-streaming horror movie, I found it to be a fairly solid Adam Wingard film – with a slick look, dreamy soundtrack, and a few creative applications of the Death Note concept. Some have called Netflix’s remake a crime against cinema; this Asian film aficionado would simply call it a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
During the 16th century, pirates rule the Chinese coastline, pillaging the small villages and terrorizing the citizens. When maverick leader Commander Yu (Hung) enlists the help of a sharp young general (Zhao), they devise a plan to defeat the pirates. A violent clash of wit and weapons will decide who will rule the land in this sweeping historical epic from veteran action director Gordon Chan.
Expendables 3’s box office belly flop a few years ago, possibly due to its early online leakage, left the franchise in limbo. It also didn’t help that the film’s final cut was a narrowed to a PG-13, which created a fan backlash since the first two in the series were known for their R-rated content.
Shortly after Part 3’s release, Sylvester Stallone himself admitted that making it PG-13 was a miscalculation, and promised that the next film would be a Rated R.
Then in March 2017, it was reported that Stallone left the series after a disagreement with Avi Lerner. According to Deadline: “Stallone and Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner could not find common ground on a new director, on the script and on certain qualitative elements of the film.”
But now, nearly 5 months later, Stallone has had a change of heart and things might be looking up for an Expendables 4. Just recently, Stallone posted a picture with a caption saying: The Expendables about to get ”…very dark”…. again… (via Instagram).
Unfortunately, that’s where Stallone left off, but if it becomes a reality, we should be getting some official news – possibly when Lionsgate releases The Expendables 3-Film Collection in October.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more about Expendables 4. In the meantime, Stallone has a number of films under his belt that include Escape Plan 2: Hades, Ex-Baghdad (with Jackie Chan) and Creed II (which may mark the return of Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago from Rocky IV).
Hopefully Stallone’s indecisive mind will bring him to another one of these…
“Enter the Warrior’s Gate” Chinese Theatrical Poster
AKA: Warrior’s Gate Director: Matthias Hoene Cast: Mark Chao, Ni Ni, Uriah Shelton, Dave Bautista, Francis Ng, Sienna Guillory, Ron Smoorenburg, Dakota Daulby, Kara Hui, Dakota Daulby, Zha Ka Running Time: 108 min.
By Z Ravas
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a meek and bullied young Anglo kid finds himself transported to a distant world of Chinese mysticism and martial arts, where he teams with a band of powerful warriors who teach him how to stand up for himself. If you think I’m describing the plot of 2008’s Jackie Chan and Jet Li team-up The Forbidden Kingdom, you’d be right. But it’s also the plot of last year’s Enter the Warrior’s Gate, which is undeniably writer/producer Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen’s take on the same basic premise.
The film represent the first real French-Chinese collaborative production for Besson, who has long had a fascination with Chinese action cinema. Made on a budget of about $48 million, and shot in British Columbia as well as China’s Hengdian World Studios (the largest film studio in the world), the movie landed at the box office with a resounding thud. Thanks entirely to the Chinese box office, Enter the Warrior’s Gate grossed a measly $3.2 million, while in North America it’s more or less been delivered straight to Netflix. In comparison, The Forbidden Kingdom crossed an impressive $127 million back in 2008. But did Warrior’s Gate deserve such a dismal fate?
The story follows teenage Jack (Uriah Shelton), who – in a Gamer-esque wrinkle – is mistaken by the residents of another realm as a powerful warrior because he happens to be good at video games. He’s drafted by Mark Chao’s soldier to help protect a Princess, played by the perfectly charming actress Ni Ni. In our world, Jack and the Princess spend some time gallivanting around a Canadian mall, eating ice cream and developing a crush on one another, when the Princess is kidnapped and taken back to her own land by a fierce barbarian (Kickboxer: Vengeance’sDave Bautista). Aided by Mark Chao and an eccentric wizard portrayed by Hong Kong stalwart Francis Ng, Jack has to summon his inner courage and rescue the Princess before she becomes Bautista’s bride-to-be.
And that’s about it. Along the way, Jack and Chao are briefly waylaid by a black-garbed witch (played by Kara Hui of My Young Auntie fame), but mostly their journey involves male bonding and brief martial arts training before they confront Bautista and his armada. It’s then that they engage in skirmish after skirmish with the barbarian horde, including a scene where Bautista’s right hand man – the imposing actor Zha Ka, whom you may recognize from Police Story: Lockdownand The Taking of Tiger Mountain – transforms into a computer-generated giant. If you’re hoping that Bautista gets to show off his mixed martial arts skills, you’ll be disappointed, as the hulking bruiser mostly sticks to swinging a sword around. To his credit, lead actor Uriah Shelton – who apparently is most known for his role on TV’s Girl Meets World – trained in martial arts as a kid, though he mostly does a lot of spinning and sliding over tables to avoid bad guys here.
Which gets to my main point: despite the presence of fan favorite actors such as Dave Bautista and Francis Ng, any adult viewer of Enter the Warrior’s Gate is bound to have a sinking realization. This is a movie produced for and targeted exclusively at 12 year-old boys. By all rights, German director Matthias Heone (Cockneys vs. Zombies) should have cut the few instances where side characters are skewered by swords and gone for a PG-rating, as – in terms of its tone and the low-intensity of the action scenes – this film is PG through and through.
There’s no harm in producing an East-meets-West, introductory kung fu movie aimed at kids. Certainly many parents may be looking for the right movie to show children who are slowly developing an interest in martial arts. Unfortunately, I don’t think Enter the Warrior’s Gate is the right movie. The action is shot in an uninspired manner, few of the martial arts-trained actors are given the chance to shine, and at 108 minutes Enter the Warrior’s Gate is about 18 minutes too long. I’m not even mentioning how Besson forced poor Mark Chao, dressed in ancient Chinese battle armor, into an embarrassing dance routine while the credits play.
A studio like Pixar knows how to tell a story to captivate viewers of all ages and transcend the young demographic their films are marketed to. Luc Besson is no Pixar. While some of the script’s one-liners are more clever than you might expect, and it’s fun to see Hong Kong icons like Kara Hui and Francis Ng in a movie so squarely aimed at Western audiences, Enter the Warrior’s Gate has too many flaws to make it an easy recommend. And if you have a 12 year-old in your life who is begging to watch a kung fu flick, may I suggest a convenient alternative? A little known movie called The Forbidden Kingdom…
On November 14th, 2017, Funimation will be releasing the Blu-ray + DVD combo for Seiji Chiba’s Ninja Hunter, a 2015 martial arts flick starring Mitsuki Koga (Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles).
Tao, a ninja from the Iga clan, wakes up in a cave surrounded by dead bodies, including a beautiful female ninja. Suffering from amnesia, he can’t remember how or why he’s there, or if he’s the one responsible for this massacre. As Tao fights various other ninja, he begins to piece together his memories with their stories. But instead of solving the enigma, a web of betrayal unfolds.
An Okinawa girl’s been murdered, the latest in what appears to be the work of a serial killer. She was strangled and then her apartment was set on fire, making any positive identification unlikely. The Tokyo cops are stumped, so they call in an Okinawa cop who knows something about the supposed victim. Yes, that’s right, this looks like a case for… Doberman Cop. Sonny Chiba enters frame to the tune of Japanese rock & roll. He’s dressed like a country farmer with a tattered old hat. He’s carrying an angry pig over his shoulder. He’s all wonder and uncertainty, a fish out of water in the big city. This is our hero, as you’ve rarely seen him before.
Chiba’s Detective Kano is a bit unorthodox, to say the least. When he arrives in Tokyo, he offers his pig to the Police Chief in thanks. The Chief doesn’t want it, but Kano insists. The pig meanwhile is screaming and kicking and biting as it attempts to get free of the men pushing it back and forth. Finally able to convince Kano that the pig is unwanted, the pig then becomes Kano’s pet for the rest of the picture.
Kano is there to help solve the murder of the Okinawa girl, who the people have identified as Yuna Tamashiro. Kano doesn’t believe it’s her; he knew Yuna very well, plus Yuna’s priestess mom says she feels that her daughter yet lives, and Kano throws down some seashells that he says prove she’s still alive. As a result, the Tokyo cops think he’s an idiot. But when he saves the singer Miki Haruno (Janet Hatta) from a knife-wielding maniac by rappelling down a 40 story building (with no net!), the cops reassess Kano. He’s not just an idiot, he’s a madman.
The rest of the film continues on this course: the cops search for the serial killer, Kano searches for Yuna who he believes to still be alive, and the singer Miki (with her ex-yakuza manger, Hiroki Matsukata) keep turning up in both storylines. It’s a mystery wrapped in an exploitation film fueled by action and gifted with a dark sense of humor. I could complain that some plots are resolved long before the others, but I’m not in the mood. I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
Chiba is great as Detective Kano. He’s called ‘Doberman Cop’ only once and ‘Tarzan Cop’ far more frequently, but perhaps that title wouldn’t sell the same (worth noting: the film is based on a popular manga series from the period). I enjoyed his more wide-eyed performance, as it made for a nice change from his usual hissing, karate kicking, steely-eyed badass. To be sure, Chiba still beats the living hell out of people (“my arms are like iron and my legs are even stronger!”), but there’s an added dose of comedy because everyone underestimates him all the time. Plus I liked seeing him carrying around a pig like it’s a puppy. It’s a good role and it’s a shame that the movie didn’t make more money at the time of its release to warrant seeing a sequel.
The rest of the cast is pretty solid. Hiroki Matsukata (13 Assassins) is great as the slimy ex-yakuza talent manager. Eiko Matsuda (In the Realm of the Senses) is a lot of fun as the stripper who falls in love with Kano and his pig. The stressed out strip club manager played Takuzo Kawatani (Empire of Passion) also makes for some nice bits of comedy. And Hotshot, a street bike gang member played by Koichi Iwaki (Silver Hawk), is a good unlikely ally for the out-of-town cop. The majority of the rest of the cast are Kinji Fukasaku and Toei regulars, all performing admirably in the chorus of chaos that the director frequently creates. The weak link is Janet Hatta (Proof of the Man), who doesn’t put much into her performance. Her character is supposed to be doped up in multiple scenes, so perhaps that explains her overly understated performance. But in a film full of high strung characters, Hatta’s Miki stands out in the wrong way.
Doberman Cop arrives on Blu-ray for the first time in the US from Arrow Video. The movie looks nice, sounds good, and comes with a little over 30 minutes of new special features. You get interviews with Japanese film expert Sadao Yamane, screenwriter and frequent Fukasaku collaborator Koji Takada, and another sit-down with Sonny Chiba as he talks about his career. Each interview subject is entertaining and informative. I only wish they were longer interviews.
After watching Wolf Guyearlier this year, I gave up trying to predict what to expect from the obscure entries of Sonny Chiba’s filmography. Goofier than most Kinji Fukasaku films but no less gritty, Doberman Cop is an odd little movie; a more thoughtful, character-driven, intricately plotted story than you’d ever expect it to be. It’s a culture clash action comedy with a pig and a dash of Dirty Harry. And I love that such a thing exists. Some won’t enjoy the competing tones, but if it gets its hooks into you just right, hold on because you’re in for a ride. Me, I had a blast.
Back in 2012, it was reported that Albert Hughes, one half of the Hughes Brothers (Book of Eli), was tapped by Fox to remake the 2005 Korean film A Bittersweet Life. Now, 5 years later, Fox has switched up directing duties to Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2-3) and signed Fruitvale Station and Creed star, Michael B. Jordan, to take over the role originally played by Lee Byung-hun (Master).
According to Deadline: 21 Laps Entertainment’s Shawn Levy (Stranger Things), Dan Levine (Arrival) and Dan Cohen (Fist Fight) are producing in conjunction with CJ Entertainment, the latter of which made the original film.
The original A Bittersweet Life was a breakout hit for director Kim Jee-woon (The Age of Shadows), who has since become internationally known in the wake of I Saw the Devil. The film revolved around a mob enforcer (Lee) tasked with keeping an eye on his boss’ mistress.
We’ll keep you you updated on the remake as we learn more.
AKA: Female Fight Club Director: Miguel A. Ferrer Cast: Amy Johnston, Cortney Palm, Rey Goyos, Sean Faris, Dolph Lundgren, Shaun Brown, Levy Tran, Folake Olowofoyeku, Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez, Jeanette Samano, Briana Marin, Chuck Zito Running Time: 90 min.
By Z Ravas
Hot on the heels of Lady Bloodfight’sNetflix debut, Lionsgate has released Amy Johnston’s other martial arts film, the movie formerly known as Female Fight Club, via On Demand services. Unfortunately for fans of the talented stuntwoman-turned-actress, this movie fails to deliver exactly what its title promises: there may be plenty of women in the cast, but there is precious little fighting to be had during its 95 minute runtime. It’s hard to say exactly where the production went wrong, but when hulking Swede Dolph Lundgren is the highlight of a movie that’s supposed to be about female empowerment, you know you’re in trouble.
Female Fight Squad starts out promisingly enough: Amy Johnston plays a troubled young woman who has fled her violent, street fighting past in Las Vegas to live the quiet life of an animal shelter worker in Los Angeles. It’s in these scenes that Johnston is at her most likable: it’s easy to relate to her passion for animals, and the affection she shows to a three-legged dog who remains unadopted is touching. However, when some shady dog fighters show up to the animal shelter looking for their pitbull, Johnston is forced to throw down; the resulting beating she delivers to the two much larger men ends up on YouTube thanks to the shelter’s security cameras, and all of a sudden Johnston finds herself in the fighting world spotlight once again. Her sister, played by Courtney Palm, arrives on her doorstep with some bad news: she’s deep in debt to a shady promoter (Rey Goyos), and the only way out is for Johnston to train her sister’s team (the titular Female Fight Squad) and earn back the dough in the ring.
With that, Johnston heads back to her old stomping grounds, reconnecting with both the owner of her former gym (portrayed by Chuck Zito, veteran stuntman, actor, and former president of the New York chapter of the Hell’s Angels) and an old flame, played by Never Back Down’s Sean Faris. She trains her sister’s fighters, including some charismatic actresses like Levy Tran, although the ‘training’ mostly involves Johnston dropping them to the mat with a well-placed kick or two. The investment Johnston makes into teaching them ends up feeling like a waste of both her character’s time and the viewer’s time, however, as the Female Fight Squad fails to stand a chance against the current street-fighting champ Claire the Bull (stunt performer Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez).
Female Fight Squad commits two cardinal sins of the direct-to-video action movie genre: there is precious little fighting, and director Miguel A. Ferrer wastes too much film on an over-the-top bad guy (Goyos) whose misjudged performance seems to be trying to channel a Nicolas Cage level of quirkiness. There’s an early encounter between Johnston and Goyos in a library, in which his Goyos expresses his fondness for crafting bird houses as his way of offering a home for broken things. This comes across as a metaphor for his underground club, one that might reveal something about this character’s psychology and his desire to cultivate female fighters. Only the metaphor is completely undone later when Johnston arrives at Goyos’ warehouse and finds a bunch of birdhouses strewn about – a silly image that couldn’t make the villain seem any less threatening. Another moment sees the actor trying to glower menacingly while eating an ice cream bar on top of a freezer stuffed full of body parts. To describe this character as ridiculous would be an understatement.
It must be said Dolph Lundgren is not in the movie much, but he makes the most of his small turn, portraying Johnston’s tough-as-nails father serving a prison term for a murder he may or may not have committed. He gets one fairly hard-hitting fight scene in jail that might be the highlight of the movie – perhaps tellingly, it’s the one scene from Female Fight Squad that Miguel A. Ferrer includes in his director’s reel. Dolph even makes a winking joke about his character having a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering (spoiler: Dolph has one in real life). His role continues the trend of Johnston’s characters having martial arts-trained fathers, a nod to the actress’ own dad. Chuck Zito serves as another paternal figure in the movie, and his Sylvester Stallone-esque fighting coach offers some much needed warmth to the movie.
The problem with Female Fight Squad is that it fails to show us just what Johnston can do. Her turn in Lady Bloodfight, along with her stunt work in movies like Suicide Squad and Deadpool, proved that Johnston possesses formidable fighting skills, but the action scenes in Squad are frustratingly brief and few and far between. It must be said that the fighting on display is captured in a fairly respectful manner – free of choppy editing or claustrophobic framing – and I’m sure budgetary and time constraints played a part in the lack of martial arts work. It may be worth pointing out that this is director Miguel A. Ferrer’s debut feature, and his previous credits primarily include short films and music videos. Everybody has to start somewhere, but at this point the direct-to-video world is a crowded market filled with some fairly quality and action-packed titles. As such, I can’t recommend this film to anyone but Johnston’s most ardent fans, those who will be content just to witness the actress in another starring role. For my part, I consider myself along those fans – and while I don’t regret watching Female Fight Squad at all, I have to be honest and say I walked away from the movie disappointed. Here’s hoping that Amy Johnston is allowed to shine with her supporting turn in Jesse V. Johnson’s upcoming comic book adaptation Accident Man.
Director: Stephen Fung Cast: Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Shu Qi, Zhang Jing-Chu, Tony Yang You-Ning, Jean Reno, Eric Tsang, Sha Yi, You Tian-Yi, Zhang Yi-Qun, Gen Seto, Karel Dobry Running Time: 107 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Much like the classic 1989 triad movie, Casino Raiders, 2017’s The Adventurers opens with Andy Lau being released from prison after serving his time. However The Adventurers is not a remake of Casino Raiders, nor is it a remake of Ringo Lam’s 1995 production of the same name, which also starred Lau. Instead, director Stephen Fung’s latest production is a re-imagining of John Woo’s Once a Thief. The same scorn that comes with any news of a John Woo title being re-made was largely spared for The Adventurers, most likely due to the fact that for many, Once a Thief was a surprisingly light and breezy effort from the master of heroic bloodshed. Made in-between Bullet in the Head and Hard Boiled, even today many fans dismiss it as an anomaly in Woo’s filmography, despite its many strengths.
With The Adventurers, director Fung doesn’t so much opt for a straight up remake, but rather takes many of those strengths from the original, and uses them to craft a thematically similar tale for a modern audience. Replacing the trio of thieves which consisted of Chow Yun Fat, Leslie Cheung, and Cherie Chung, is Andy Lau, Yo Yang, and Shu Qi. Notably, The Adventurers was the last movie that Lau completed before suffering a serious pelvic injury, when he was thrown off a horse while shooting a commercial in Thailand during January 2017. It also marks the first time for Stephen Fung and Shu Qi to work together since tying the knot in September 2016. Despite being billed as a remake of Once a Thief though, the influence which looms largest over The Adventurers is Tom Cruise’s latter day entries in the Mission: Impossible series, with Lau’s suave thief armed with an array of gadgets and devices to assist him in pulling off a heist.
Indeed for those familiar with Hong Kong cinema, just like Lau spent most of the late 80’s and early 90’s as a triad youth, so in recent years he seems to be constantly cast in roles which see him as a kind of Chinese 007. From Switch, to Mission Milano, and now The Adventurers, his character is one that’s been seen many times before, and brings nothing new to the table in his latest outing. The same could be applied to Shu Qi, who’s sassy thief feels equal parts the identical character she played in 2005’s Seoul Raiders, mixed with Jeon Ji-hyeon’s cat burglar from Korea’s The Thieves. However what can’t be argued is that both Lau and Qi have charisma to spare, and Fung seems to know it, sometimes allowing proceedings to coast along based solely on the fact they’re onscreen together. As a result, Taiwanese actor Yo Yang often seems to fade into the background, as he struggles to bring the same level of screen presence that his older co-stars effortlessly pull off.
The Adventurers certainly marks the biggest production Fung has worked on to date. After making his directorial debut with 2004’s Enter the Phoenix, here he’s back in the director’s chair for the first time since Tai Chi Zero and Tai Chi Hero, made 5 years earlier. The direction is confident, and the French locales are taken full advantage of, providing plenty of gorgeous backdrops (complimented by a seemingly permanent blue sky) for the trios thieving shenanigans to take place against. The casting of Jean Reno is also used well, here starring in his 2nd heist flick of 2017 (the first being the local French production Family Heist), as a weary cop determined to prove that Lau hasn’t gone straight since being released. He even gets behind the wheel for a car chase through the streets of Cannes, which for many will no doubt bring back happy memories of John Frankenheimer’s classic, Ronin.
However for all the gloss and high production values that The Adventurers comes with, as events progress through its 1:45 hour runtime, certain cracks begin to show that are difficult to be ignored. The real plot can essentially be described as Lau trying to figure out who it was that sold him out 5 years earlier, leading to his incarceration, after stealing a piece of jewellery that would allow for a priceless necklace to be complete. However it’s rarely the focus of what’s taking place onscreen, with large swathes of screen-time given to Jean Reno and Zhang Jing-Chu, who plays Lau’s estranged fiancé (and who also played his wife in Switch), and Lau and his teams plans to steal a component of the necklace from a Chinese wine merchant, played by Sha Yi.
The significant downside of this is that, while The Adventurers opens strongly and maintains a brisk pace throughout, by the time the finales comes around, the stakes don’t feel any higher than they were at the beginning. Somewhere along the way the task of building up tension, and making sure that there’s something truly meaningful on the line, was lost amongst the pretty scenery, impressively rendered CGI robotic spiders, and Mission: Impossible style sleights of hand. Going hand in hand with this issue, is the fact that none of the characters really develop from the time they’re introduced. Sure there are the standard double crosses and (blatantly telegraphed) reveals that are expected from the genre, but Lau in particular is missing any real arc that allows us to feel that we’ve shared a journey with him.
Of course the same could be said for plenty of Hong Kong action movies from the golden age, however they were usually bolstered (the original Once a Thief included) by outlandish set pieces and high impact stuntwork, factors that often made even the sloppiest storyline forgivable. While The Adventurers isn’t sloppy, it does make several stumbles, and the fact that there are no standout action scenes to punctuate the runtime makes them all the more glaring. Once a Thief may not have contained Woo’s trademark blood squib filled bullet ballets, but it still provided plenty of his undeniable flair for action. In 2017 Fung may have a high enough budget for decent CGI and a polished look, but that flair is missing, and the lack of any real set piece to hinge everything on makes the final stretch feel a little plodding. Fung needed a Burj Khalifa, or even a pack of razor sharp playing cards and a fishing rod, but things stay a little too restrained.
It is worth mentioning that, with large portions of The Adventurers being spoken in English, the majority of the cast acquaint themselves very well with a language that isn’t their own. There are no cringe inducing moments such as those found in Bounty Hunters and Lupin the Third, with Zhang Jing-Chu in particular delivering her lines almost as if she was a native speaker. I think the last time English was so competently used in a Hong Kong movie was most likely Ringo Lam’s Undeclared War from 1990. It’s also a pleasure to see Andy Lau and Jean Reno pointing a gun at each others heads, in a scene that recalls the finer moments of the heroic bloodshed genre, performed by a pair of actors who have played so many iconic roles in the last 30 years. Unfortunately, due to some inexplicable storytelling logic, Reno’s cop is completely absent from the finale. How great would it have been to see Leon himself unloading some clips in a HK action movie?
With that being said, if expectations are kept fairly low, there’s still plenty to enjoy in The Adventurers. Fung’s latest effort is far from being a bad movie, its real crime is that it’s unremarkable and average. During the 80’s and 90’s John Woo was an innovator when it came to action cinema, and directors are still copying the type of action found in his movies to this day. The main issue with The Adventurers isn’t that it’s a remake, it’s that so much of its inspiration comes from Hollywood movies, rather than creating its own distinct style. There was a time when people would watch Hong Kong cinema because it delivered something Hollywood didn’t, so to see productions now copying the very industry we once celebrated it being different from, is sadly a painful truth. The Adventurers real goal is that it aspires to be a Hollywood style heist flick, and for me at least, its biggest problem is that it’s successful in doing so.
On October 24, 2017, Kino Lorber is releasing the Blu-ray for 1982’s They Call Me Bruce?, a comedy by Elliott Hong (Kill the Golden Goose) that stars Johnny Yune (The Cannonball Run) and Margaux Hemingway (Lipstick).
They Call Me Bruce? is an outrageous comedy caper that takes on the mob, the FBI and just about everything else and leaves you holding your sides with laughter.
This zany film features the celebrated Korean comic Johnny Yune (They Still Call Me Bruce?) as a bumbling Bruce Lee lookalike who secretly dreams of emulating the kung fu king. This loveable klutz finally gets his chance when his job as an Italian chef takes him unsuspectingly into the dangerous world of the mafia. His new bosses send him off across the country delivering what Bruce thinks is Chinese flour, but is really cocaine.
Special features include original Theatrical Trailer (subject to change).
George Nolfi’s Birth of the Dragon, a fable-based movie about Bruce Lee (portrayed by Wild City’s Philip Ng), will finally be making its way to theaters on August 25th – but Bruce Lee better watch out, because Bruce Lee is coming for him… (wait, what?!)
Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, is currently location scouting in Penang, Malaysia for Little Dragon, which will start shooting in September. According to MMO, a major portion of Little Dragon will be shot there. “We are looking for sites to replicate the 1950s period in Hong Kong when my father was growing up,” Shannon stated at a news conference.
The same source adds that 5,000 people around the world have auditioned for the role of a 17 to 18-year-old Bruce Lee – one of the four shortlisted is a Malaysian actor.
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who helmed Elizabeth (1998) and New York, I Love You (2008), will be directing/co-writing Little Dragon, which is being produced/co-written by Bruce Lee Entertainment, the company operated by Shannon, making the film an official, authorized biopic of martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
According to Variety, Little Dragon is a contemporary dramatization of the 1950s Hong Kong social and political forces that shaped Bruce Lee into both the most famous martial arts star of all time and a significant modern day philosopher. Themes include family disappointment, young love, true friendship, betrayal, racism, deep poverty and an inner fire that threatened to unravel his destiny.
“I always thought that a film about how my father’s life was shaped in his early years in Hong Kong would be a worthwhile story to share so we could better understand him as a human being and a warrior,” said Lee. “I’m really excited that Shekhar will breathe life into the first film from Bruce Lee Entertainment.”
Bruce Lee Entertainment has also enlisted Oscar award-winning composer, AR Rahman, to compose the film’s soundtrack (via CN). Rahman is known for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Million Dollar Arm.
Little Dragon will be just one of the many films centering on the life of Bruce Lee. During the 70s, a string of biopics were made that included 1974’s Dragon Story and 1976’s Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth (both starring Ho Chung Tao); in 1993 came Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (starring Jason Scott Lee); in 2010, Bruce Lee My Brother (starring Aarif Lee) was produced with the full support of Bruce’s brother, Robert Lee (Lady Killer); and most recently, Birth of the Dragon (starring Philip Ng), a soon-to-be-released, fable-based movie that focused on Lee’s disputed bout with Master Wong Jack-Man was completed.
Little Dragon is expected to be released in late 2018. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more. In the meantime, here’s the Trailer for Birth of the Dragon, which opens August 25th:
Director: Toby Russell Cast: Matt Mullins, Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Chiranan Manochaem, Joe Lewis, Jawed El Berni, Gigi Velicitat, Yuhkoh Matsuguchi, Prasit Suanphaka
Running Time: 88 min.
ByZ Ravas
The movie once known as White Tiger, now titled Death Fighter, has seen a long and winding road to release. I say this primarily because the film represents the last appearance by Joe Lewis, Karate Champion and friend of Bruce Lee, before his untimely death… in 2012! Reportedly, filming on Death Fighter wrapped shortly before Lewis’ passing, but various production lawsuits and the lack of a distributor kept the film on the shelf for years and years. Fortunately for fans of martial arts, any behind-the-scenes strife doesn’t show in the finished product: I’m happy to report Death Fighter is an appreciable throwback to the action movies of old, pitched somewhere between classic Hong Kong martial arts cinema and Cannon Video guilty pleasures like American Ninjaor Delta Force.
As the story opens, FBI Agent Michael Turner (played by Matt Mullins of Blood and Boneand Mortal Kombat: Legacyfame) is on vacation with his girlfriend in Bangkok, Thailand. Only, his girlfriend can’t get his attention to save her life. That’s because Michael’s ulterior motive for the trip is to help his longtime mentor at the FBI, portrayed by Joe Lewis, track down a notorious gold smuggler and human trafficker named Draco, who operates somewhere on the Thai/Burmese border. It’s barely ten minutes into the movie before Matt Mullins and Joe Lewis raid one of Draco’s shady warehouse dealings, with Mullins facing off – ever so briefly – against martial arts veteran Cynthia Rothrock and newcomer Jawed El Berni (Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, The Viral Factor). Even Joe Lewis gets in a few licks – I should mention here his character is not in the movie for very long, but I have a feeling his loyal followers will be pleased to see him in action just the same.
After Mullins finds himself temporarily defeated and no closer to stopping Draco, a local police chief puts him in touch with Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson’s Bobby Pau, an ex-Special Forces member turned mercenary and alcoholic. While Wilson is at first reluctant to join forces with the hotheaded American on a quest for revenge, he eventually agrees and drafts his pal Otto (played by newcomer Prasit Suanphaka) for good measure. It’s here that the pace slows somewhat, with the trio making their way through the jungles of Thailand before stopping in the village of a local doctor, portrayed by Thai television actress Chiranan Manochaem.
Fortunately, this village serves as the backdrop for one of the film’s biggest action sequences, and from here on out Death Fighter’s momentum rarely lags. After a few outings that were said to disappoint fans (namely Hard Target 2), fight choreographer Kazu Patrick Tang puts his full talent on display, planning intricate battles for each member of the cast. Matt Mullins showcases some devastating flying kicks that would even make Undisputed’s Uri Boyka duck, while Don the Dragon Wilson and Cynthia Rothrock acquit themselves well considering their age, as both were nearly 60 at the time of filming. Surprisingly, it’s Prasit Suanphaka as Otto who impressed me the most: despite being no taller than five feet, he fights with an unrelenting speed and ferocity that brings to mind The Raidseries’ Yayan Ruhian. IMDB tells me Suanphaka still doesn’t have another credits to his name, but I would happily watch anything he does next. Female lead Chiranan Manochaem acquits herself well during action scenes, especially since I don’t believe she has any formal training.
The movie builds to the kind of finale you’d hope for, with Matt Mullins and Jawed El Berni squaring off in a rematch that delivers. Even if Russian baddie Draco ends up being more of a wannabe Scarface rather than a credible villain, it doesn’t spoil the fun. Fortunately, the fight choreography is captured in medium shots and free of the kind of fast cutting that so often cripples low-budget action movies like this. There’s probably a reason the martial arts are filmed with such reverence here: director Toby Russell, while having few narrative movies to his credit, was responsible for the infamous 1994 documentary Cinema of Vengeance, which sang the praises of Hong Kong filmmaking and for years was the only place I’d ever seen any footage of heroic bloodshed favorite My Heart is that Eternal Rose. Clearly, Russell studied those Hong Kong moviemaking techniques with a close eye, and he incorporates that style here, only with the updated and hard-hitting feel of Panna Rittikrai’s films such as Born to Fightand Bangkok: Knockout.
And while the storyline is mostly a serviceable framework designed to set up a bunch of fight scenes, it’s worth noting that this is the most charismatic I’ve ever found Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson onscreen. His acting here has the natural ease of someone who’s spent more than two decades in front of the camera. Wilson appears genuinely invested in his role of a down on his luck mercenary prone to the drink, and his more lively performance contrasts nicely with Matt Mullins’ smoldering anger. Then again, maybe that smoldering wasn’t from anger: it must have been hotter than hell when they shot Death Fighter in Thailand, as there are several scenes where the actors’ faces appeared to be drenched in sweat, even outside of the jungle.
It’s not often a movie can sit on the shelf for five years and still feel like a breath of fresh air upon release. It’s also rare that a direct-to-video action title delivers the goods. Death Fighter accomplishes both. No matter who you’re a fan of in the star-studded cast, you should find plenty to enjoy with this film. If you’ve found yourself saying “They don’t make ’em like they used to” as of late, here’s one they did.
Kill and Kill Again | Blu-ray (Scorpion Releasing)
RELEASE DATE: October 3, 2017
On October 3, 2017, Scorpion Releasing is delivering the Blu-ray for 1981’s Kill and Kill Again, the follow up to 1976’s Kill or Be Killed. The film is directed by the late South African cult favorite, Ivan Hall (Funeral for an Assassin).
James Ryan is back as Steve Chase, four-time World Martial Arts Champion. Chase is hired to save Nobel Prize winning chemist, Dr. Horatio Kane, from the hands of a demented billionaire named Marduk and his martial arts army. Steve enlists the aid of four martial arts experts, and is accompanied by Dr. Kane’s daughter, Kandy (Anneline Kriel). En route to Marduk’s stronghold, they are ambushed, but finally make it to the fortress, only to be put in an arena to fight for their lives.
Kill and Kill Again also stars Ken Gampu (American Ninja 4: The Annihilation), Norman Robinson (Kill or Be Killed) and Stan Schmidt (Kill or Be Killed).
The film is notable for being the first live-action feature to use visual effects known as “bullet-time,” a term that would later be popularized in The Matrix franchise.
Special Features:
New Remaster from the original interpositive
Audio interview with star James Ryan
On-camera interview with writer John Crowther
Isolated music track from the original 3 track Mag sound
AKA: Lady Bloodsport Director: Chris Nahon Cast: Amy Johnston, Muriel Hofmann, Jenny Wu, Kathy Wu, Jet Tranter, Mayling Ng, Sunny Coelst, Rosemary Vandebrouck, Lisa Cheng Running Time: 100 min.
By Z Ravas
Ever wonder what happened to Chris Nahon? After helming Kiss of the Dragon – what many fans consider to be one of Jet Li’s best English-language films, if not the best – way back in 2001, the filmmaker chose to keep a relatively low profile rather than capitalize on his potential as a martial arts director. He reemerged a full eight years later with the dubious anime adaptation Blood: The Last Vampire, but that endeavor didn’t seem to live up to the potential of the Blood license nor Nahon’s abilities as an action stylist. That’s precisely why I was so curious to sit down and watch last year’s Lady Bloodfight once it made its way to Netflix. Had time weakened Nahon’s talent behind the camera – or was I about to witness the French filmmaker’s triumphant return to the world of bone-crunching kung fu action?
There was another reason to be excited about Lady Bloodfight: the film represents the headlining debut of Amy Johnston, a stunt professional who has more than paid her dues over the years. In addition to her stunt work on movies like Captain America: Winter Soldier (in which she doubled for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow), Suicide Squad, and Deadpool, Johnston is a trained martial artist whose passion for the pursuit no doubt dates back to her childhood (her father was a kickboxing champion). I had high hopes that Johnston might shine in her first turn as a female lead. Even the presence of Bey Logan on writing and producing duties wasn’t enough to damper my enthusiasm.
(Okay, hey, I don’t mean to knock Logan, as the man has been closely associated with Hong Kong cinema for almost as long as I’ve been alive, but I think we all heard the horror stories that came out of his 2010 effort Blood Bond: Shadowguard.)
So, after all that fanfare, how is Lady Bloodfight? In a word, I found it perfectly entertaining. The plot is simple enough, in fact it’s more or less borrowed wholesale from the 1988 Jean-Claude Van Damme classic Bloodsport – actually, the film’s original title was Lady Bloodsport, until someone in the production likely wised up and realized they were headed for legal trouble. Amy Johnston stars as a young woman named Jane who travels to Hong Kong in order to take place in an ancient martial arts tournament known as The Kumite (sing it with me: KUMITE! KUMITE! KUMITE!). Jane wants to test her mettle in the ring, naturally, but she also longs to find out what happened to her father, who mysteriously disappeared after nearly winning the Kumite many years ago.
It’s a little puzzling that Lady Bloodfight never actually addresses why all of the fighters in this particular Kumite are women – the viewer is left to wonder, is there a separate Kumite for men and women each year? Regardless, it doesn’t really matter, as the classic ‘fighting tournament’ story structure is deployed in effortless fashion. Jane goes on a personal journey as she is taken under the wing of a wise instructor (Mariel Huffman), befriends a sassy Australian gal (the charming Jet Tranter), and squares off against a fierce Russian fighter (Wonder Woman’s Mayling Ng in quite a bit of makeup) so terrifying she could make Bolo Yeung cry ‘uncle’ in the ring… seriously.
I’m sure most by now most readers are asking: how are the fights? They’re serviceable. Nothing here matches the classic, Hong Kong-style grace and fluidity of Kiss of the Dragon, making me wonder if Corey Yuen wasn’t behind the camera for the action scenes in that movie, but nor are they a choppy, rapidly edited Bourne-esque jumble either. Instead, Chris Nahon splits the difference, landing somewhere between the clear cut style you’d hope for in a martial arts movie of this ilk and a more flashy, Hollywood-esque mode. The action scenes make it quite clear that Amy Johnston knows her stuff, but I suspect we won’t really see her full onscreen capabilities until we see her in stuntman-turned-director Jesse V. Johnson’s Accident Man later this year.
Surprisingly, it might be the storyline that held my attention the most in Lady Bloodfight. The movie is actually invested in Jane’s character and her journey to discover just what happened to her father, and Johnston delivers a commendable performance. Her teacher, Shu, has her own path to take as she seeks to reconcile – or defeat – her rival (Jenny Wu) and her rival’s pupil (Kathy Wu). Refreshingly, few of the characters in the movie are out-and-out right villains, except for the aforementioned Russian Svietta (whose baddie looks like she was raised by Ivan Drago and Bond villain Jaws), and each has their own particular motivation. Lady Bloodfight likely won’t transform Amy Johnston into a martial arts icon overnight the same way Bloodsport did for Van Damme, but this certainly seems the beginning of a promising career in front of the camera.
Disclaimer: cityonfire.com does not own any of the photos contained in the blog. cityonfire.com was made merely to pay homage to these films, directors, talent, etc. and not for any profit or commercial reasons. No copyright infringement intended. The photos are copyrighted and courtesy by their respective owners.
cityonfire.com is a non-profit website for the private use and entertainment and/or parody purposes.
"Copyright Disclaimer, Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statue that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, education or personal use tops the balance in favor of fair use."
Be the 1st to Comment