Wings of Dread

                                                     
Director: Ashton Chen/ Qin Peng-fei
Year: 2026
Rating: 7.0
I have always made a point of not flying on Mainland Chinese airlines and after this film, I will continue that policy other than the rude passengers, the bad food, there are martial artist hijackers on board. Oh, and a bomb. I can't keep up with all the action films coming out of Asia recently but it is fun trying. Everyone is talking about The Furious which I have yet to see but if you like simple plots and great ferocious action, add this Mainland Chinese film to your list. The whole film can be summarized as Fights on Plane. These are new names to me but it stars Ashton Chen who also co-directs with Qin Peng-fei. They are both big names in the Chinese action genre of the past few years and based on this film, I will try and run down some of their other work.



So ya, simple as one, two, three hit. Chaoyang (Aston Chen) is a cop in love. But on his way to the airport to see his girl Lu (Nita Lei), a flight attendant, he stops to beat up four criminals just for the hell of it. Lu gets mad at him for ignoring her and its trouble in loveland. He decides to take a flight she is on and still gets the cold shoulder. This is the first 25-minutes. His seatmate is a harmless looking fellow. The game for the viewer is to pick out the bad guys and the other cops on the plane. The harmless looking guy. Bad. Played by Iko Uwais who has been very busy of late.



The action kicks off literally at the 25-minute mark and stays that way for the next hour. Everybody on the plane is kung-fu fighting. Even the innocent passengers get in on the fights. Lots of fights happening at the same time with the camera jumping back and forth like a speeding bullet and the viewer trying to stay with it.



A few great fights - two between Chen and Iko, one with Chen and the female stiletto's high heeled villainess (a very impressive Hong Shuang) and then perhaps the best between Hong and the female police officer (Qu Jingjing) in the tight confines of a bathroom. Brutal and amazing. I will never complain about how small airplane bathrooms are again. As expected, some patriotism. When Iko mocks the Chinese police, Chen gathers his beaten body and goes nuts. On the video I saw, the English subs were so small that I needed a telescope to read them, but this isn't a film where subs or dialogue were really needed.