It
is a milestone or sports parity. It turns out there is also a Kumite for women
and it might even be more popular with Hong Kong gangsters and gamblers than
the men’s’ version. That is especially true when two evenly talented fighters
like Shu and Wai face-off. When they fight to a draw they will have to recruit
protégés to represent them in the next Kumite for all the marbles. Of course,
there is more at stake than mere money for both the fighters and their trainers
in Chris Nahon’s Lady Bloodfight (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in Los Angeles.
Long
haunted by the disappearance of her martial artist father, Jane has traveled to
Hong Kong hoping to follow in his footsteps by competing in the Kumite. Fate
and a gang of purse-snatchers bring her to the attention of Shu, a Wudang master
who has yet to find her Kumite disciple. Over in her Shaolin dojo, Wai has just
settled on Ling, a punky street thief to serve as her entrant. This will be a
real grudge match, because Wai, perhaps unfairly, blames Shu for the death of
their mutual lover. However, Jane and Ling do not exactly share their masters’
antipathy. Instead, Jane’s nemesis will be Svietta, the sadistic Russian amazon
on wheels.
Jane
has talent, but her head is not fully in the game. Most of the other fighters
are cool, especially Cassidy from Australia, but she is distracted by her angst
and insecurities. The aggressively sleazy attention of Mr. Sang, the Triads’
bet-placer does not help her either. Of course, everything will eventually be
settled in the arena.
Okay,
so this is not a sensitive coming of age story. It is all about fighting and
payback, with a tiny dab of mysticism thrown in for flavor. The French Nahon
has collaborated with Luc Besson and staged a few martial arts beatdowns before
(including the underrated Blood: The Last Vampire), which should indeed inspire confidence. Somehow his execution
manages to be both slick and gritty, in the best action oriented ways.
Amy
Johnston (from Raze) is a functional but
unremarkable lead, often upstaged by more flamboyant supporting players. Jet
Tranter constantly gives the film a blast of energy as the fun-loving Cassidy,
while Mayling Ng chews the scenery with maniacal glee as the psychotic Svietta.
Jenny Wu is also great fun to watch as the eye-rolling rebel Ling, contrasting
nicely with the seriously badass presence of Kathy Wu’s Wai. Kirt Kishita adds
an additional element of cold-blooded villainy as Mr. Sang and as a further
bonus, Cynthia Wo looks and carries herself like a spooky dead-ringer for a young
Joan Chen as the leader of the tournament-sponsoring Black Dragon Society.
