Jade, Co-Starring Mark Dacascos

Jade is a one-woman case-study both supporting and undermining gun control policy. She has a visceral aversion to firearms, but she still piles up plenty of dead bodies. Guns don’t kill people. Jade kills people—a whole lot of people in James Bamford’s Jade, which releases this Tuesday on digital platforms.

Okay, the truth is Jade will eventually overcome her revulsion and start shooting her way out of trouble, because desperate situations demand desperate measures. Jade and her brother Brandon were orphans who were sucked into the gangs. Unfortunately, she cannot avenge his murder, because she accidentally killed him with a stray bullet. Hence, her no guns policy. Fortunately, that does not preclude a full range of cutting implements.

Jade wants to get out and leave town, but she still worries about Brandon’s girlfriend, Layla, especially when she learns the woman is pregnant with her niece or nephew. Unfortunately, Jade gets pulled back in when a soon to be dead member of her gang entrusts her with a MacGuffin that looks like an external hard drive. Frankly, nobody every fully explains what it is, but rival gang leader Tork wants it, so he will kill anyone he has to.

Basically, the film mostly consists of Jade hacking and slashing Tork’s henchmen. It is simple, but effective. Obviously, Bamford and co-screenwriters Lynn Colliar and Glenn Ennis conceived the film as an homage to blaxploitation films like Coffey. Although it is not slavishly imitative, the gritty and garish look definitely evokes the right vibe.  However, the writing is conspicuously spotty, especially considering the abundance of apparent non sequitur scenes. Plus, the obvious “twist” ending feels like an insult.

Nevertheless, the fighting impresses. Bamford and most of the supporting cast have extensive stunt performance experience which shows in the martial arts scenes. This is way rougher than a film like Black Dynamite. There is some brutal stuff in here could leave a mark on some less jaded viewers.

Shaina West definitely has all the right moves and lethal cred as Jade. Genre fans will also be reassured by the presence of real-deal martial arts movie star Mark Dacascos as Reese, a law enforcement friend of Jade’s family, even though he only gets one full action scene (and his character is never fully explained either). Of course, Mickey Rourke oozes sleaze as Tork. Plus, the many stunt performers, like Keith Jardine, really deliver when they finally get facetime for themselves as Tork’s seemingly endless henchmen.

Although it was reportedly produced before the half dozen or so films Bamford has recently released (the best of which is still Air Force One Down), Jade is his most distinctive movie to date. It is not pretty, but it is cathartically satisfying in a grubby, no-frills kind of way. Recommended for martial arts exploitation fans in the mood for down-market thrills, Jade releases this Tuesday (2/18) on digital.