03-07-2021, 11:29 PM
This has been in my Netflix queue since it came available and I don't know why it has taken me so long to get to it. What a gem.
It's the first lead role for Bruce Khan, a real Hapkido champion, stuntman, and expert in a variety of Korean martial arts. It's a K-flick, a sanguineous gratuitous gritty ultravi extravaganza with excellent fight choreo all the way through. Khan wrote this as a tour de force to show off.
It's set on a tropical azn island prison where gangs hunt each other for sport. A stranger (Bruce) lands and starts kicking ass. He's hell bent on revenge, thus the 'revenger'. That's all you need to know. It sets up a lot of fights in ramshackle warehouses with makeshift weapons. Everyone's backstory is told in sepia flashbacks, but those were fairly predictable.
It darts back and forth from English to Korean, which confused me because I'd tune out of the subtitles and then realize I wasn't understanding what was being said.
There's some side funky characters - comic relief - a goofy cowardly gang leader with a hook hand, his zany henchmen, and his crazy grandfather the healer. There's just enough of those to keep the momentum flowing. There's a villainous hunchback wielding double machetes. There's hawt archer women. There's a cute kid with a dagger.
The fight choreo is fresh and you know for me to say that, well, you know I watch a lot of fight choreo. This is fight porn. There's some excellent complex sequences, even a long take hallway fight (not that long, but still impressive), lots of archery because it's Korean, and yes, sword fights. In fact, the penultimate finale fight is a major sword fight which is sharply executed. And the finale fight is even better, ramping up the action and brutality.
Kahn has just leapt to the top of my 'martial artists to watch' list.
Recommended for the DOOM fight choreo connoisseurs.
It's the first lead role for Bruce Khan, a real Hapkido champion, stuntman, and expert in a variety of Korean martial arts. It's a K-flick, a sanguineous gratuitous gritty ultravi extravaganza with excellent fight choreo all the way through. Khan wrote this as a tour de force to show off.
It's set on a tropical azn island prison where gangs hunt each other for sport. A stranger (Bruce) lands and starts kicking ass. He's hell bent on revenge, thus the 'revenger'. That's all you need to know. It sets up a lot of fights in ramshackle warehouses with makeshift weapons. Everyone's backstory is told in sepia flashbacks, but those were fairly predictable.
It darts back and forth from English to Korean, which confused me because I'd tune out of the subtitles and then realize I wasn't understanding what was being said.
There's some side funky characters - comic relief - a goofy cowardly gang leader with a hook hand, his zany henchmen, and his crazy grandfather the healer. There's just enough of those to keep the momentum flowing. There's a villainous hunchback wielding double machetes. There's hawt archer women. There's a cute kid with a dagger.
The fight choreo is fresh and you know for me to say that, well, you know I watch a lot of fight choreo. This is fight porn. There's some excellent complex sequences, even a long take hallway fight (not that long, but still impressive), lots of archery because it's Korean, and yes, sword fights. In fact, the penultimate finale fight is a major sword fight which is sharply executed. And the finale fight is even better, ramping up the action and brutality.
Kahn has just leapt to the top of my 'martial artists to watch' list.
Recommended for the DOOM fight choreo connoisseurs.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
