NYAFF ’18: Unbeatable

What film do you immediately associate with the song “The Sound of Silence?” It probably used to be The Graduate, but henceforth it shall always be Dante Lam’s Rocky-style Mixed Martial Arts underdog movie. Why use the moody folker as a motif for training montages? You might as well ask why climb Mt. Fuji or why hike the Camino de Santiago? Dante Lam has done it and he did it with Nick Cheung and Eddie Peng in Unbeatable (trailer here), which screens during the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival.

As we learn from the tightly cut prologue, former boxer “Scumbag” Fai, grieving mother Gwen Wong, and Lin Si-qi, the brooding son of a disgraced real estate tycoon, all need redemption. Fai has come to Macao to avoid his loan shark’s knee-cappers. His buddy arranged a gig coaching and spotting at an MMA gym as well as a room in the flat occupied by Wong and her assertive ten-year-old girl Dani. There used to be a little brother too, whose death Wong has yet to recover from. She is an emotional basket case, but Fai will slowly help Dani bring her out of her shell.

Fai also reluctantly agrees to train Lin for the big no-fighters-turned-away MMA tournament, with the $270 million purse. Frankly, the former rich kid was never really into money, but he hopes he can revive his father’s broken spirit by winning it all.

So, Unbeatable sort of starts out like Creed and then reverts back to Rocky IV. Either way, it is definitely adhering to a tried a true formula, but there is good reason why the formula was codified in the first place. Regardless, as long as we get to see the chiseled Cheung throw some arm bars, we’re okay with however we get there.

Lam is the recipient of the Excellence in Action Cinema Award at this year’s NYAFF, so you know he will do the MMA scenes justice. Indeed, he makes all the holds and grappling clear and easy to follow, while capturing the sport’s brute force. As a sizable bonus, Sai’s scenes with the Wongs are really quite endearing and downright poignant. Mei Ting never waters down Gwen Wong’s profound emotional issues and Crystal Lee shows loads of charisma and future potential as the protective Dani. Unfortunately, Lin’s subplots are not as sharply written, but you can’t blame Peng, because he brings plenty of intensity and a super-cut physique.

Unbeatable pairs up nicely with Lam’s cycling film, To the Fore, also starring Peng. In both films, he shows a knack for clearly delineating each race or match. However, action fans will most likely prefer Unbeatable, because it features Cheung beating the snot out of people. Plus, cinematographer Kenny Tse and the picturesque Macao locales deserve credit for making those montages pretty dashed cool. Recommended as meat and potatoes for fans of MMA, Cheung, and Peng, Unbeatable screens Sunday (7/1) at the Walter Reade, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

Dante Lam’s Operation Red Sea

Like the Wolf Warrior franchise, Hong Kong action auteur Dante Lam’s latest Mainland production was largely funded by the PLA and supported with extensive in-kind donations of military hardware. At least in this case, we get their money’s worth. Apparently, the military granted Lam’s every over-the-top request and the results are all up there on the screen when Operation Red Sea (trailer here) opens today in New York.

Basically, Red Sea is a loose thematic sequel to Lam’s blockbuster, Operation Mekong. This time around, the military takes center stage and the ripped-from-the-headlines story is based on 2015 evacuation of Chinese nationals from Yemen. Refreshingly, there are no western bad guys. Instead, they are Middle Eastern terrorists and Somali pirates (in the prologue). Sure, there is flag-waving, but it is not nearly as distracting as in the Wolf Warrior films.

Given the evacuation plot, Red Sea bears some resemblance to Wolf Warrior 2, but the action scenes, also choreographed by Lam, far exceed anything in Wu Jing’s hit duology. To a large extent, the film is one long action sequence, as one rescue mission begets another and eventually morphs into an operation to recover stolen yellowcake from a mad mullah. If you think that sounds like a criticism, you are sorely mistaken. Lam pulls out all the stops, giving us infiltrations, drone warfare, house-to-house combat, sniper duels, tank battles, helicopter attacks, and hand-to-hand combat during the mother of all dust storms.

Arguably, it is halfway realistic too, since a number of Jiaolong commandos are killed in the line of duty. Frankly, Lam does not spend a lot of time on boring old character development. Jiang Luxia’s Tong Li probably stands out the most, simply because she is a woman (who has no trouble hanging with her male colleagues). Ironically, the most memorable performance comes from Hai Qing, as French-Chinese reporter Xia Nan. Eventually, we learn became so driven to expose terrorists because her husband and young son were murdered in the 7/7 London bombings, which is a nice character development touch.

Red Sea is just a pedal-to-the-medal action movie that constantly doubles, triples, and quadruples down on explosions, mayhem, and blood & guts. In terms of sheer spectacle, it is tough to beat. Alas, Lam pays the piper with a closing shot across the bow basically warning the world better stay out of the South China Sea, if we know what’s good for us, but up until then, it goes down pretty smooth. Highly recommended for action fans, Operation Red Sea opens today (2/23) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Operation Mekong: Fighting the Drug War in the Golden Triangle

Perhaps it is the lingering legacy of the Opium Wars, but China is definitely not onboard the drug de-criminalization bandwagon. The Mekong River massacre of Chinese merchant sailors only strengthened their national resolve. The real life murders of Chinese nationals and (more to the point) the subsequent hunt for drug lord Naw Kham inspired Dante Lam’s latest action spectacle Operation Mekong (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Most of Gao Gang’s elite squad go by their Greek god code-names, but they just call him Captain, because that is what he is. In contrast, Fang Xinwu is a bit of a method actor-wild card. The intelligence officer has a highly placed informant in Naw Kham’s operation, but his troubled history makes him highly unpredictable. He also happens to be a master of disguise—a talent he will put to good use. Despite their personality clashes, they will work together to apprehend the drug trafficker and his top deputies, so they can stand trial in China.

In addition to demolitions and surveillance experts, Gao Gang’s team also includes Bingo, a remarkably well trained German Shepard. She is definitely handy to have around, but don’t think this is a Benji movie, because it isn’t. Anyone on this team could go at any time, but at least Lam, the action master, will send them off with spectacular deaths. Lam also gives his current leading man of choice Eddie Peng a truly memorable entrance, in the Third Man tradition.

As Fang, Peng again proves he has matured into an action star with serious chops. Of course, few can ever hope to match the grizzled hard-nosedness of Zhang Hanyu, who does his thing with the deadpan panache. Lam puts them both through their paces in a number of cinematic yet believably grounded action sequences. Plus, Bingo upstages everyone in her action scenes, just like W.C. Fields warned. However, the villains never inspire much of an audience response, which is a drawback. Pawarith Monkolpisit is far too bland as the drugged out Naw Kham and Vithaya Pansringarm never gets to establish much character as the cartel rep looking to cut ties with their wildly unstable Golden Triangle sub-boss.

Still, Lam unleashes some impressive chaos when Gao Gang’s team finally raids Naw Kham’s hideout. Operation does not have quite the heft and ironic gravitas of Johnnie To’s Drug War, but it definitely gets the job done for action fans. Recommended for those who dig Special Ops movies, Operation Mekong opens this Friday (9/30) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

To the Fore: Dante Lam Hits the Track

Probably no sport has had a rougher decade than pro-cycling. With most of its recent champions disgraced by doping scandals, there should at least be opportunities for young emerging cyclists. Unfortunately, three former teammates cannot all be champions. However, the sport itself should definitely benefit from the treatment it gets from Hong Kong action auteur Dante Lam in To the Fore (trailer here), which Magnum Films just released in New York.

Chiu Ming has power. Qiu Tian is a plugger who can climb. Together they are perfectly matched “lead-outs” who should be able to guide the Taiwanese Team Radiant’s star Korean sprinter Ji-won to victory. Unfortunately, just when they start gelling as a team, their sponsor leaves their owner-manager high and dry. Suddenly free agents, they each sign on as sprinters for competing teams. Ji-won is already on the verge of advancing to next professional class, but Qiu is physically unsuited to his new role, while Chiu has trouble controlling his emotions. In between some spectacularly cinematic races, Chiu and Qiu will also compete for the affections of Shiyao, a Mainland indoor track racer recovering from a pulmonary embolism.

If you enjoy cycling, Lam brings the goods with authority. Although there is no fighting per se, his action chops still serve the racing sequences remarkably well. Lam makes it easy to follow the team strategy as it unfolds, while cinematographer Pakie Chan captures the in-race events with remarkable clarity. Lam and co-screenwriter Silver Lam Fung also shrewdly vary the competitions, making their way through the streets of Kaohsiung City, the Italian Alps, a mobbed-up betting track in Busan, and the Tengger Desert. Naturally, each course has its particular challenges.

Somehow, Lam and company manage to steer clear of most of the moldiest sports movies clichés. The interpersonal stuff is still fairly workaday stuff, but Wang Luodan elevates the material as the reserved but engaging Shiyao. Eddie Peng does his cocky Taiwanese Tom Cruise thing as Chiu, but it fits the part. Choi Si-won has the least room to stretch as Ji-won, the Iceman to Peng’s Maverick, but he certainly has the appropriately cool look. However, Shawn Dou manages to scrape out a rather impressive character development arc as Qiu.

Regardless, To the Fore is really all about the cycling. Despite the potential repetitiveness, Lam keeps the energy level cranked up and establishes meaningful stakes for each and every race. It is a great looking film that fully capitalizes on its diverse panoramic locales. Recommended for fans of cycling and sports films in general, To the Fore is now playing in New York at the AMC Empire.

That Demon Within: Spooky Action from Dante Lam

This is a haunted film on many levels. It is loosely inspired by the case of Tsui Po-ko, the notorious cop-killing HK cop, who launched a one man crime-spree. His unquiet ghost hangs over the film, alongside the Demon King and other traditional malevolent spirits, whom the film’s villains periodically invoke. Yet, within the film itself, a highly strung police constable may or may not be tormented by ghosts from his past. Yet, he might somehow still bring a desperate criminal gang to justice in Dante Lam’s That Demon Within (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

The thoroughly by-the-book Dave Wong is so unpopular with his colleagues he has been banished to the night watchman’s booth in a major hospital. Raised by his pathologically strict father to do the righteous thing in any circumstance, he automatically agrees to give blood when a critically injured O-negative patient arrives. It turns out his transfusion saved Hon Kong, a.k.a. the Demon King, the leader of demon-mask wearing “Gang from Hell.” Inspector “Pops” Mok is not exactly thrilled by Wong’s act of compassion, because Hon had just killed two of his men in a raid gone bad.

When the eerily resourceful Hon escapes, Wong concludes it is his destiny to capture the ringleader and the rest of his gang. However, when Hon’s accomplices turn against him, there might be an opportunity for the Demon King and his nemesis to forge a narrow alliance. At least Hon seems to think so.

Lam is one of the top action directors in the world, so it is no shock that he stages some impressive shootouts. However, his flair for creepy ambiance and ambiguous psychological suspense is a happy surprise (if by happy you mean dark and ominous). Eventually, he mostly resolves the open question of how much skullduggery may be ascribed to supernatural agencies versus everyday criminal evil, but one thing is certain: karma is absolutely merciless.

If you need a wiry hardnose, it is tough to beat Nick Cheung, who is especially steely as Hon. Better known as a romantic lead, Daniel Wu has played the odd psycho before, rather overdoing the twitch in Shinjuku Incident, for instance. However, even when he completely loses it, he keeps Wong clearly tethered to his tragic past, thereby maintaining viewers’ investment quite compellingly throughout the ensuing chaos. This is largely a two-man show, but Astrid Chan adds a note of authority as the psycho-therapist enlisted to treat Wong by his sympathetic superior officer.

In Demon, Lam stages plenty of well lit, intricately choreographed action sequences, but also takes us on an atmospheric tour of the graveyards and condemned tenements of Kowloon. Tense and moody, it is recommended for multiple genre enthusiasts and fans of the superstar co-leads when it opens this Friday (4/18) in New York at the AMC Empire, from China Lion Entertainment.

Dante Lam’s Viral Factor

Sure, it is more than 24 hours, but two weeks is not a lot of time for international counter-terrorism agent Jon Wan. That is about how much time he has left before the bullet lodged in his brain finishes the job. During those final days he will have to recover a killer mutant virus and reconcile some tricky family business in Dante Lam’s The Viral Factor (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York and San Francisco.

The spectacular opening action sequence shows exactly how Wan became a dead man walking. He is part of an ambushed convoy escorting a mercenary germ warfare scientist looking to cut a deal. It was not the rpg’s that got him, but a traitor in his ranks. Unfortunately, the doctor of death and his new smallpox strain were lost to their attackers. Tragically, Wan has several more personal scores to settle with Sean the turncoat (and exposition mouthpiece). However, a brief visit to his ailing mother sends Wan on a detour to Malaysia. It seems he has long lost father and brother there, scratching out a meager living through dubious means.

In fact, Wan Yang is a notorious thug for hire, sub-contracted by Sean’s crooked cops to kidnap Dr. Rachel Kan, a specialist working for the Asian CDC. When the gangster brother is also betrayed by the gang, the two Wans team up to recover the virus, rescue assorted friends and loved ones, and do their best to patch up a fraternal relationship interrupted by their parents’ quarrels decades ago.

Somewhat like last year’s Legend of the Fist, Viral feels a bit unbalanced, because its most ambitious action sequence comes right up front. Of course, that also means viewers do not have to wait for it. Wisely shunning shaky cams, Lam’s action scenes have a refreshing precision and clarity, despite the frequent explosions and whizzing projectiles, so viewers can appreciate the mayhem. Jay (The Green Hornet and True Legend) Chou and Nicolas (Shaolin and Bodyguards and Assassins) Tse have all kinds of action cred, but also handle the familial drama well enough, as Jon and Yang, respectively.

While marinated in testosterone and lacking a conventional romantic subplot, Viral also features two strong female characters. Though she appears all too briefly, Bai Bing shows considerable screen presence and action chops as Wan’s former fiancé and fellow agent, Ice. In a somewhat more traditional damsel-in-distress role, Lin Peng at least brings a sense of intelligence and resiliency to Dr. Kan. Young Crystal Lee is also quite poised and endearing as Yang’s responsible daughter, Champ.

Though a big budgeted production, Viral is appealingly old school, with a slick, glossy look reminiscent of Tony Scott’s glory days of high concept action pictures, via the lens of cinematographer Kenny Tse. Lam blows stuff up really nicely and both Chou and Tse certainly know how to handle a fight scene. Add in the cinematically exotic locales of Jordan and Kuala Lumpur and the attractive support of Bai and Lin and you have a solidly entertaining action film. Definitely recommended for genre fans, Viral opens this Friday (1/20) in New York at the AMC Empire and Village 7 as well as in San Francisco at the AMC Metreon and Cupertino, courtesy of China Lion Entertainment.