Director:
Chris Nahon
Year: 2016
Rating: 5.5
Ya, so I have been in the mood for some female
action films of late. It comes over me from time to time. With these sorts
of films there is always a fine line between female empowerment and female
exploitation. It is not like these films are made for a female audience for
the most part. This film straddles that line falling for the most part on
the side of empowerment but it is no coincidence that most of the women fighters
are fairly attractive and that their figures will be easily admired in tights
and halter tops. This was directed by Chris Nahon who helmed the Jet Li film
Kiss of the Dragon and the Jean Reno film Empire of the Wolves. It is written
and produced by an old Hong Kong hand, Bey Logan. Logan is a gweilo who went
to Hong Kong and fell in love with their films. He was one of the first English
speaking writers to put out a book on the martial arts films titled Hong
Kong Action Cinema in 1996 that for years was a huge help in trying to find
films I wanted to see. He also showed up in a few films. He is currently
writing a series of books about Kung Fu cinema in which he really dissects
and explores a few films that he feels were influential in the genre. I have
the first one and it is quite good.
Of course, that doesn't mean he can write a good script and this was as about
as generic as you can get. Or as predictable as the sun coming up every day.
But sometimes complicated plots can just get in the way of the action and
that is clearly what their interest is here. Lots of one on one fighting
in one of those many tournament films in which the opponents beat the crap
out of each other till we get to the final. There have been a ton of those
- the only difference here is the competitors are female. And as I mentioned,
good looking ones. This is the Kumite, a traditional set of matches in which
anything goes - you lose if you step over the line, if you are knocked out
or if you are killed. There are brief backgrounds given to the two main competitors
and their teachers - the rest are pretty expendable. It all takes place in
Hong Kong in a secret location where creepy men bet on them.
The action is fast and brutal. How much training the actresses had I have
no clue, but they are filmed in a way that makes them look like they know
what they are doing. Amy Johnston is the real deal though. She has done tons
of work as a stunt woman (and gets some time in the recent documentary Iron
Fists and Kung Fu Kicks where I heard about her and looked up some of her
films) and is finally getting some exposure on the screen. Her main opponent
is played by Jennie Wu, who puts on a good show but I don't think she has
much training. She was in the TV series Top of the Lake. One of the expendables
is played by Mayling Ng, who is trained and vicious in the film - but then
she plays a Russian so what do you expect.
I am not really a fan of these types of films - boring to me because there
is so little plot - we are just given a lot of hard hitting action for our
amusement like we are sitting in the stands of the Roman Coliseum ready to
put our thumbs down for death. I love martial arts films for the pure athleticism
of the actors and the intricate choreography but just watching someone smash
in someone's face not so much. You get some of both here.