Fight Scene Observer

Friday, April 12, 2019

The Night Comes For Us (2018)

Arian vs Thugs: ***

Ito vs Butchers: ***1/4

Apartment Brawl: ***1/4

Ito vs Cops: ***

Elena Hallway Fight: ***1/4

Alma Stairwell Fight: **1/2

Ito vs Operator: ***1/2

Ito vs Thugs in Warehouse: ***3/4

Operator vs Alma/Elena: ***3/4

Ito vs Arian: ****1/2

This movie is so violent! It's brutal in a similar fashion to the Raid movies but with even more blood and gore. This is visceral and not for the faint of heart.

Seeing Iko in the role of an antagonist was really interesting here. He carried himself with such composure throughout, and seemed to have a blast playing the final boss. His performance was reminiscent of the end bosses from the 80's Hong Kong era; suit wearing psychopaths with unbridled martial skill.

There's a lot of really good action throughout, but I would say the level of violence mars it a little. It becomes numbing after a while and by the end feels like they have to keep topping themselves in how violent the kills are. One area the violence works however, is the final fight. It's the best thing in the film, unsurprising given how skilled Iko is, but Joe Taslim is excellent as well. The violence in that clash escalates in a meaningful way as the two former brothers fight tooth and nail. Iko's character Arian, who'd been so dominant and composed throughout, begins to fall apart at the seams as Taslim's character Ito fights on relentlessly. It's a thing of violent beauty.

Taslim was the sergeant in the Raid but here he really gets to show what he can do. His character seems to have endless stamina but his rugged brawler style (mixed with his Judo background) makes him feel grounded. The stuntmen worked their asses of in this flick and it shows. The one shot they tried from a first person perspective didn't really land, unfortunately, but it was a neat idea.

Julie Estelle was really cool in this movie. Her clash with Hannah Al Rashid's "Elena" at the end was especially good. Really hope she sticks around in the genre.

Recommended.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Revenger (2018)

Beach Fight: ***3/4

Yool vs Thugs in House: ****

Yool vs Thug Leader: ***1/2

Brawl at Camp: ***

Yool vs Thugs at Camp: ***1/2

Yool vs Kun's Lieutenants: ***3/4

Yool vs Kun: ****1/2

Bruce Khan is an absolute badass in this movie. He carries the action throughout with a stoic poise and executes the fight scenes with graceful brutality and quiet rage. This is one of the better lead screen fighting performances I've seen in a while. Khan is fast, crisp and efficient.

Khan's character, Yool, is also booked incredibly strong throughout. He marches through hordes of thugs with less resistance than a waist deep tide. He is briefly taken out of commission after tanking a poisoned arrow to save the little girl, Jin. He then wakes up and immediately outclasses two mini bosses 1 v 2. Even the final showdown is incredibly one sided. For as much build up as Park Hee Son's "Kun" gets for being this big villain, he doesn't do much damage at all to Yool in the finale and it never seems in doubt that Yool will win, let alone survive.

That being said, I instill enjoyed the finale quite a bit. It was modern and inventive in its incorporation of mixed martial arts into the choreography, and I also enjoyed the sequence where Kun tries to use feints and level changes to throw Yool off. The stuntmen in the group fights also did a hell of a job. The hits and falls they took felt grounded and conveyed Khan's power and skill.

Movie itself is a bit thin in terms of plot but there are some fun characters. Kun is an intriguing villain, his lieutenants are distinct and quirky, Mali and her daughter are solid as the heart of the film and Bau is your typical comedic relief.

Recommended.

Triple Threat (2019)

Iko Uwais vs Tony Jaa: ***

Tony Jaa vs Thai Boxer: **

Iko Uwais vs Tiger Chen: ***3/4

Tony Jaa vs Steiner: ***

Iko Uwais vs Jeeja Yanin: **3/4

Tiger Chen vs Michael Bisping: **3/4

Iko Uwais vs Michael Jai White: ***1/2

Tiger Chen vs Michael Bisping: ***1/4

Tony Jaa/Iko Uwais vs Scott Adkins: ***3/4

Tony Jaa vs Scott Adkins: ****

I thought it was interesting how each of the three leads were booked in this movie. At first I thought Iko's character was meant to be the lead but by the end it was clear to me it was Tony Jaa. Iko barely wins any fights in this movie. He has a stalemate with Jaa early on, which makes sense. He then immediately loses to Chen, which is fine. He defeats Yanin (who I wish had more to do in this flick) in a short skirmish, but in his final clash with White is totally dominated. White beats him down and it's only with Chen's help and a convenient spike that he wins. Villains losing to conveniently placed spikes has got to be one of my least favorite martial arts film tropes. I don't understand why Iko couldn't just beat White straight up; maybe the idea of him defeating a man twice his size, who also knows martial arts, seemed unrealistic to folks. I'm so used to Iko being booked stronger than this so it was weird.

Jaa and Chen, meanwhile, win just about every fight they're in. Chen beats Bisping twice and Jaa gets to beat final boss Adkins. This is to be expected for the heroes but it's just interesting to me how much more shine they get compared to Iko.

The fighting gets really good once Adkins gets involved. Bisping is a bit stiff, clearly still new to the art of screen fighting and White is someone I find hit or miss, depending on the level of the fight directors and choreographers he works with. He was good in his clash with Iko. Chen had to carry Bisping, clearly. Adkins was tremendous as usual. His attacks look so powerful and he clearly conveys a sense of intent with his strikes. You totally buy him handling both Jaa and an injured Iko in a 1 v 2 situation.

The grouping of all this talent was neither a major letdown nor a blow away success. I would very much enjoy a sequel, even if the rogues gallery would no longer include Adkins or White. The three leads are talented enough to leave me wanting more. Recommended.

Nightshooters (2018)

Donnie vs Thugs: ***1/2

Donnie vs Asian/White Thug: ***3/4

Donnie vs Asian Thug: ****1/4

Donnie vs Black Thug: ****1/4

There was true suspense in this movie and the setup for the heroes' plight and fight for survival was clever and well reasoned. The stakes felt real as they establish multiple times throughout the movie that a happy ending is not necessarily guaranteed. The villains are charismatic as well as ruthless.

There are little character moments that the actors get that I really enjoyed, which helps because the downside to this type of cat and mouse go-go action style is the characters are not very fleshed out. The sound guy's acting stands out as really good, however. They kind of set up the lead actor character as one to be redeemed but he does almost nothing through the movie.

The highlight is definitely the action and use of explosives. Jean-Paul Ly is becoming one of my favorite modern screen fighters. He looked even better here than in Jailbreak.

Really dug this. Highly recommended.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Bad Blood a.k.a. King Of Triads (2010)

Prison Break Out: 3.25/5

Dumby vs Calf: 3.75/5

Dumby vs Thugs: 2.5/5

Dumby vs A lot of Thugs: 3.5/5

Calf vs Kong: 4.25/5

Calf/Dumby vs Zen, Hung & Thugs: 4/5

Audrey vs 6 Thugs: 3.5/5

Audrey vs Funky: 4/5

Dumby vs Guards: 4/5

Dumby vs Audrey: 3.75/5

What a fun little gem this was. Andy On puts in a hell of a performance as Calf, and Bernice Liu as Audrey is one badass bitch. Simon Yam is great as always. Ken Lo and the legendary Xiong Xin Xin round out a stellar overall cast.

The performance that surprised me the most was Luxia Jiang as Dumby, a mute girl that Calf takes under his wing to train in martial arts. Not only was her screen fighting very good, but since her character couldn't speak all of her acting was in her face and mannerisms. I adored her, she was impossible to not like.

Bernice Liu's transformation in this movie is something else. She goes from wide eyed, innocent damsel in distress to lethal femme fatale with a simple haircut and application of dark lipstick. But it's not just the cosmetic, she carries herself completely differently in the second half of this movie. It's like she's not even the same person as before. She was truly great.

As the ratings suggest, I really enjoyed the fighting in this movie. The fights, especially in the second half, always carry a sense of real danger to them. A lot of cool knife work in this movie, and Andy On is especially great in his fight scenes. I used to think he was just a pretty boy, but he really trained himself into one hell of a screen fighter, and he flourishes in this movie.

If I had one complaint it's that there isn't one fight between evenly matched combatants. Every fight is pretty one sided in one way or another. I would've liked to see a fight where it wasn't completely obvious who the better person was. Interestingly, the movie doesn't give us that fight in the form of what probably would have been Audrey vs Calf, and I can't tell you why because it would be a spoiler (7 years later).

Also, I will admit the pacing of this movie is a bit strange for western eyes. I'm used to it because of how these movies have been paced in Hong Kong for years, but if you're new to the genre, it might feel rushed to you.

I liked this movie quite a bit. Recommended.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Top 10 Indie Fight Scenes of 2016

Friday, December 30, 2016

Ip Man 3 (2015, 2016)

Cheung vs Fighter: 2/5

Ip Man vs Thugs: N/R

School Fight: 4/5

Cheung vs Tin: 2.75/5

Shipyard Fight: 4/5

Ip Man vs Thai Boxer: 4/5

Ip Man vs Frank (Mike Tyson): 3.75/5

Cheung Fight Montage: 2.5/5

Ip Man vs Cheung: 4.5/5

Man I loved this film. I kind of thought the Ip Man films would go the way of the Rocky films where they would just get cheesier and lose focus, while remaining entertaining. I mostly thought that due to the inclusion of Mike Tyson. But this might've been the most grounded movie of all of them.

There's a ton of great action in this one and a lot of great themes. There's a lot of focus on Ip Man and his wife's relationship, and I really dug that. I feel their relationship always played 3rd or 4th fiddle to Ip Man's quests but here it's highlighted throughout the film. A lot of emotional depth here.

The Tyson fight scene over delivered. I was expecting it to be the worst thing in the whole trilogy and it was surprisingly good, reminiscent of Bruce Lee and Kareem-Abdul Jabbar from Game Of Death. Tyson threw in some really cool boxing head movement which made his character seem more dynamic and cinematically eye pleasing.

The finale sees the one thing this entire trilogy had been missing. A big time Wing Chun vs Wing Chun fight. And it delivers. I'd probably rank it in the top 3 fights of the entire trilogy, and arguably #1. It's a classic.

Loved this movie. Highly recommended.

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