“Asian Connection” Poster
Director: Daniel Zirilli
Cast: John Edward Lee, Byron Gibson, Pim Bubear, Dean Alexandrou, Michael Jai White, Ron Smoorenburg, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Nick Khan
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
I confess to being a fan of Steven Seagal’s movie output. Sure, depending on the era the kind of entertainment they deliver varies – the reasons you watch a 90’s Seagal movie are very different to the reasons you watch a 2000’s Seagal movie. But let’s be honest, the guy offers up something for everyone – street level aikido masterpieces, environmental thrillers, surrealist DTV dreck, special ops actioners, Buddhist musings, faux-Asian/Native American/Russian/Cajun origin stories. The list goes on. The Asian Connection was released during Seagal’s busiest year – 2016 – in which he graced the screen a whopping 7 times (we’ve got reviews for 3 of them – Cartels, Contract to Kill, and End of a Gun). What makes this entry unique though, is that he’s the bad guy. We’re not talking the protagonist bad guy like in Driven to Kill or Force of Execution, but the actual villain of the piece that the good guy has to go up against.
Except the good guy isn’t really good – he’s a bank robber played by a bad actor named John Edward Lee, The Asian Connection’s supposed main character. Known for such prestigious roles as ‘Uncredited Henchman’ in 2009’s Fast & Furious and ‘Punk’ in 2015’s Terminator Genisys, Lee looks like a cross between Michael Biehn and Jim Carrey, topped off with hair inspired by Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks. It’s highly disconcerting. Why he’s a bank robber we never find out, but he’s apparently been living in Asia for a while since he sports tattoos written in Chinese and Thai, and busts out the occasional Thai word. Regularly crossing into Cambodia to pull off heists with his hot headed partner, played by Byron Gibson (Hard Target 2, Only God Forgives), after believing they’ve hit the jackpot with their latest score, things start to go sour when it turns out the money they’ve stolen belongs to Seagal’s gangster.
Based on a story by Tom Sizemore (yes that Tom Sizemore) and Daniel Zirilli, it’s the latter who also steps into the director’s chair. Having helmed such abominations as Invincible and Hollow Point, The Asian Connection is not going to be the movie to change anyone’s mind about Zirilli’s directing skills. At times you can see the camera reflected in Seagal’s sunglasses, and very little makes sense, least of all the decision to have the plot narrated by Lee’s girlfriend. Played by Pim Bubear, a model for which The Asian Connection provided her biggest role, it’s perhaps telling that her movie career came to an end once it was released. Her character is apparently trying to live the right way, selling cigarettes rather than trying to make a quick buck as a go-go dancer (per her narration), however later on she doesn’t think twice about joining Lee during his bank robbery escapades. Narrative cohesion was clearly not high on the agenda.
The scenes that Lee and Pubear share together achieve something truly unique for a 2016 production, in that they make you beg for Seagal to make an appearance. Thankfully he does fairly regularly, although it’ll be apparent for any Seagal aficionado that The Asian Connection is a production that straddles the line between when he was still happy to be upwardly mobile, and when he’d only appear in a movie if 99% of the time he could be sat down. The best part about his role though is guessing what went on behind the scenes, as it almost feels like he was given free reign to adlib some of the dialogue, resulting in some truly bizarre exchanges.
In one scene he’s sitting with one of his (presumably) Thai maids and about to tuck into a grilled fish, before he starts talking about how “fish are sentient beings”. The point of the scene is clearly for a couple of his heavies to interrupt with some bad news, and there’s a sense that however long it was supposed to go on for, once Seagal started talking about sentient fish Zirilli probably told the heavies to run into the shot earlier than planned. As a result the conversation is simply left hanging on Seagal’s revelation of how fish are sentient beings, and we never get to hear any more about it. I was genuinely disappointed.
Another scene had me theorising that The Asian Connection could be to Seagal what The Unicorn Fist is to Bruce Lee, the production that famously included sneakily taken footage of Bruce Lee helping out on set so that they could use his image in the marketing. Here we’re witness to a random scene of Seagal teaching the same (still presumably) Thai maid some Tai Chi moves on the lawn of his villa, resulting in them partaking in some light sparring. All good so far, but then the scene finishes with Seagal suddenly bringing her in for a hug, to which we’re just able to glimpse her expression of surprise before abruptly cutting away. Scripted, or a moment of pure inspiration between two sentient beings sharing a moment of unrehearsed chemistry? We’ll never know.
Speaking of chemistry, I thought it would be impossible to match the complete lack of it between Lee and Bubear, but I was proven wrong by (you guessed it) Seagal. In one of the more bizarre montages to grace the screen in recent years, we get a medley of Lee and Gibson robbing banks together, interspersed with shots of Seagal receiving a lap dance that eventually ends with the dancer being topless. As if scenes of violent robbery mixed with lap dancing aren’t an odd enough combination, the issue is confounded by the way Seagal simply sits there being straddled while unblinkingly staring at her in that distinct stony-faced demeanour he pulls off so effortlessly. What does it all mean? Does Seagal secretly have no sexual attraction to women and long for the very men who are stealing his money? Or is it that whatever was supposed to be conveyed by the scene was simply beyond his range? It’s your call.
For those clocking in for some action, it would be remiss not to give a warning that The Asian Connection is mostly about the gunfights. Seagal get’s a couple of brief fight scenes, with an opening knife fight against a rival gangster being of note purely due to its complete lack of tension and danger (to the point that even the characters who are watching it aren’t able to hide the boredom on their expressions). The 2nd is literally over in as many seconds, but is hilarious due to how it comes so completely out of the blue. Seagal is discussing his missing money with an MMA coach while a couple of fighters spar in the ring next to them, and when the discussion finishes he steps into the ring, casually knocks them both out with a single slap, before kicking a third fighter to the ground. It’s done so flippantly that it’s almost impossible not to laugh, almost as if he decides to knock out 3 fighters as an afterthought before moving on to his next meeting.
The undeniable action highlight goes to the star and writer of Zirilli’s Bangkok Rush, Dean Alexandrou, who gets to show up and bust out some parkour moves, giving chase to Lee and Gibson who are trying to escape on motorbikes after a botched robbery. Worth it both to hear him described as a “crazy monkey running son of a bitch” and for the fact his scene offers up The Asian Connection’s most physical altercation, with some welcome flying kicks and punches being thrown to liven things up.
Special mention should also go to the fact that Michael Jai White (Accident Man, Take Back) makes an appearance for a couple of minutes, especially surprising considering how much he and Seagal didn’t get along during the filming of 2001’s Exit Wounds. Not so surprising is the fact they don’t share the screen together, with Jai White’s single scene feeling like it got thrown in simply because he was probably in Thailand as the same time it was being filmed. As it happens, after reading an interview with Zirilli from the same year, it turns out this was exactly the case as Jai White was in the country for Never Back Down 3, so Zirilli asked him to briefly come onboard which he did! One more bankable name for the marketing material!
As for the meaning of the title, at one point Seagal is quizzed as to why he’s living in Thailand, to which he replies “Came to Asia quite a while back and fell in love with this place. Just don’t think I’ll be leaving here.” Of course, he would, ending up in Russia where he became a citizen, but as a mid-2010’s slice of DTV incompetence, The Asian Connection remains strangely watchable because of its flaws rather than in spite of them.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4/10
It’s good that you’re able to get enjoyment out this one. (Albeit for the unintended reasons) it sounds like it would be torture for me.
Upon another glance, I’m noticing how even in his 80’s and 90’s films, Seagal’s aikido is very sloppy. He has always grabbed people’s hands and arms incorrectly, and his posture has always been lacking. (Which would explain his “double-dutching bitch” run back in the day) supposedly, he only got his black belt because his teacher fell asleep during his test, and felt embarrassed.
Yes it’s screen fighting, but when you look at other actors who specialized in a particular martial art or more, (Adkins, MJW, Uwais, Masanori, Sakaguchi etc) they make it flow seamlessly, and it’s a testament to their action star status that they make their techniques look convincing.
To me “The Asian Connection” is a 1995 movie starring Danny Lee, filmed in Taiwan with a Chinese title of ‘Te jing ji xian feng’, and I’d much rather see that one again rather than a movie with the same English title starring Seagal in his later years. The 1995 movie doesn’t appear to be available on DVD or Blu-ray.
Seagal had a habit of stealing Asian movie titles – his debut ‘Above the Law’ (also known as ‘Nico’) carries the same title as the 1986 Yuen Biao movie (also known as ‘Righting Wrongs’)! As for the Danny Lee starring ‘The Asian Connection’, that got a DVD release in Hong Kong waaaay back in 2002.