Tag: martial arts

The Arrow Of Girls

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★★★½
“Mulan with a Bow”

This movie was inspired by a Chinese Opera story, The Iron Bow Romance, though obviously action’d up for the cinema. The heroine is Xiuying Chen (Meng), the feisty daughter of a former soldier, killed in no uncertain fashion, during the heroic defense of his country during the Ming Dynasty. She and her widowed mother now run a tea-shop, and her father’s heavy bow still hangs on the wall. Xiuying has vowed not to marry anyone, unless they can draw that bow. However, she comes to the attention of the slimy Lun Shi (Pan), the entitled son of a local commander. A conveniently passing martial artist, Zhong Kuang (Wang), helps her escape – in the process drawing her father’s bow.

Xiuying and Zhong have to flee, but discover proof that Lun’s father, Xulong (Li), is in bed with the enemy, diverting supplies which should go to the troops. Turns out he was also responsible for the death of Xiuying’s father. The couple – because, let’s face it, we know exactly where this is going – split up, with Xiuying taking refuge in Erlong Mountain, a hideout for all manner of rebels and outlaws. Here’s where the Mulan comparisons particularly kick in. For Xiuying disguises herself as a man in the bandit stronghold, in order to gain control of its troops and take revenge on Xulong Lun. In the original opera version, the bandit leader’s daughter falls in love with “him”; that doesn’t seem to happen here.

Indeed, even the inevitable romance between our leads is very much pushed to the background. They both have issues of their own to handle, and I was impressed that it’s Zhong who gets captured by the Luns, and dangled from the battlements like a novelty Christmas decoration. Consequently, it’s Xiuying who must rally the troops and has to face off against the enemy. Admittedly, it’s quite a small face-off, and this is where the film’s budget probably hampers it most. I’ve a feeling this was a made for TV/streaming film, rather than a theatrical releaase. Consequently, there’s maybe 15-20 people on each side. However, the emotional intensity here is top-notch, as Xiuying finally gets to confront Xulong Lun. 

It provides a thoroughly satisfying finale, which certainly kicked the rating up at least a half-star. Until then, it had been a little pedestrian, and the action falls into the “competent” category, rather than offering anything too memorable. However, I liked the performances, which are all suitable for the roles, and in general, the production values are decent enough to pass muster. In another world, Disney might have chucked two hundred million dollars at a live-action remake of this legend, instead of deciding to remake Mulan. Would probably still have been underwhelming though. The entire movie is available legally on YouTube (well, I’m going to presume that’s the case for now, until proven otherwise!), and is embedded below for your entertainment. 

Dir: Guoliang Wang
Star: Ke Meng, Yukai Wang, Yang Pan, Yunkai Li
a.k.a. The Legend of the Iron Bow

Jade

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★★★
“Always bet on black…”

Director Bamford has certainly had himself a year. This is the third film of his in 2024 to be reviewed on this site, following Air Force One Down and Hard Home. It’s actually his feature debut, and seems to date back a few years, before getting released. Jade is definitely rougher around the edges than what would follow, although that offers some advantages as well, in that there appear to be more risks taken stylistically. Whether these work or nor is likely a matter of personal taste. For example, how do you feel about a heroine who kills one enemy by throwing her Afro pick at an enemy like a ninja death star, embedding it in his forehead?

Me, I liked it, but have seen other reviews which called it ‘just plain silly’, so to each their own, I guess. It does need some more consistency of tone, I think, and the script is too loose, with elements which don’t matter. The heroine, Jade (West), is a Brit who came over to America with her brother after their parents were murdered, fell in with the wrong crowd and accidentally killed her sibling with a stray bullet. She’s now sworn off guns, but is in trouble after coming into possession of a hard drive, sought after by gang boss Tork (Rourke), with extreme prejudice. While her allies are few, they include her brother’s widow, Layla (McNamara) and a cop investigating things, Reese (Dacascos). 

It’s clear that the main inspiration for Jade is Pam Grier, and her roles in the likes of Coffy and Foxy Brown. This is most apparent in her fabulous Afro, which is so large, you feel it should have its own gravitational well. West is a stuntwoman, a background shared by Bamford, and a lot of the supporting cast too. This comes through, for obvious reasons, in the action, which is reliably well-executed. However, Bamford seems to be trying to find his style, and adopts a few different approaches, not all equally successful. For example, sometimes he goes for a shaki-cam approach. You’d think someone like him would know that’s close to the worst approach when it comes to showcasing stunt work.

As noted, the story has issues too, especially early on, with a particularly rough expositional dump at the beginning. Turns out the whole saga of Jade’s brother and her background in Britain are not very important at all – except for explaining her strong English accent. It’s definitely a case where less would have been more. Still, there’s a good deal to enjoy here, and I will be interested to see where West goes. She seems to have a huge social media presence – 1.1 million followers on something called “Instagram”, whatever that is… Her comic-book style there seems to match the approach in this, and she has potential. As we’ve seen, the same goes for Bamford, and I am looking forward to seeing what he brings to our table, in 2025 and beyond. 

Dir: James Bamford
Star: Shaina West, Katherine McNamara, Mickey Rourke, Mark Dacascos

The Shadow Strays

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★★★★½
“Dog eat dog”

Director Tjahjanto gave us one of the best action films of the last decade in The Night Comes For Us, a gory and relentless assault of jaw-dropping hand-to-hand mayhem. Follow-up, The Big 4, was a little underwhelming, but I was still stoked to hear about this, in which he puts a heroine front and centre. This is perhaps a step or two short of Night – it’s clear the lead here is not a lifelong practitioner of martial arts like Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais. However, it’s the best film I’ve reviewed on this site in 2024, likely edging out Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, through a combination of sheer force of will and arterial spray.

The Shadows are a sect of assassins, who are basically unstoppable. 13 (Ribero) is a teenage trainee, who screws up a mission in Japan alongside her instructor, Umbra (Malasan), and barely survives. 13 gets put on administrative leave, and her enforced idleness is where the problems start. In a thread strongly reminiscent of Leon, she watches a neighbour get killed by a gang, and takes care of the son, Monji. However, he vanishes, apparently abducted by the gang, and 13 isn’t standing for that. Beginning by turning low-level enforcer, Jeki (Emmanuel), she works her way up the power structure, which goes right to the top of Indonesian political society. The resulting chaos threatens to expose the Shadows, so Umbra is then dispatched to terminate their rogue agent.

This runs a chunky 144 minutes – just a handful shorter than Furiosa – which seems a fair while for a martial-arts film. The Raid 2 and John Wick 4 are the only ones which come to mind as longer. But I can’t say this particularly felt like it; there’s not much slack. We open with the absolutely blood-drenched Japanese operation, which sets the tone early. To be honest, it does such a good job, most of what follows falls slightly short. Ribero is a model and singer, and it feels like Tjahjanto underlights a lot of scenes to help paper over this. But then there’s the final battle, between 13 and Umbra. It’s likely behind only Crouching Tiger as my favorite female vs. female fight ever: utterly relentless, and brutal as hell.

It is a little less impressive in between the fights: originality is, as noted previously, not necessarily the film’s strongest suit. Other threads are set up and them ignored, such as the Shadows’ miraculous serum, which is used by Umbra to resuscitate 13 in Japan, and never mentioned again. Maybe it’ll play more of a part in the sequel, to which the ending strongly hints, bringing in a face familiar to fans of Indonesian action. I’d love to see it, since this is definitely pushing the boundaries of action heroine cinema, in all the right ways. While imperfect, at its best this is enough to make me consider introducing a six-star rating, because it goes places I’ve never seen. When it does, the results are glorious.

Dir: Timo Tjahjanto
Star: Aurora Ribero, Kristo Immanuel, Hana Malasan, Taskya Namya