Rating: ****
Review Date: 6/14/26
Director: Kenji Tanigaki
Cast: Xie Miao (Tse Mui), Joe Taslim, Yang Enyou, cameos by
Jeeja Yanin, Yayan Ruhian
Wang Wei (Xie Miao) is a mute handyman with a mysterious past and an unexplained head injury. When his daughter Rainy (Yang Enyou) is kidnapped by a group of child traffickers, he taps into his violent past and goes all out to rescue her. Unfortunately, the cops refuse to help and the corrupt chief of police is in bed with the criminals. Conveniently, he teams up with journalist Navin (Joe Taslim), whose wife (Jeeja Yanin) went missing while working on the missing children case. Naturally, the two of them are extraordinary fighters, and they manage to take down the entire organization and its endless army of thugs.
This is a beautifully crafted ballet of brutality, and director Kenji Tanigaki has created a modern martial arts masterpiece. The plot is incidental, but effective and universally relatable: two desperate and violent men trying to rescue their loved ones against all odds. The fight choreography is amazing and exhausting, but the cinematography and camera work are just as impressive. The fluid camera captures all of the action and performs a dance of its own while the actors beat the shit out of each other. The fight choreography mixes multiple styles, but tends to favor MMA styled grappling and silat. The fighting is very ground based and the performers spend a lot of time rolling around on the floor, although wirework is definitely employed. While not as graphic as "The Raid: Redemption" (2011) or the "John Wick" films, the relentless pacing, tension, and non-stop action are very similar. They could have easily ended the film after the children were rescued, but instead it goes on for an additional 20-30 minutes with a totally insane raid on the police station that features familiar bad guy Yayan Ruhian. The main bad guy is also a very impressive leg fighter who reminded me a lot of Ken Lo's work. It's an exhausting tour de force of martial arts mayhem, but it also feels tacked on, as if the filmmakers felt like the film didn't have enough action.
Xie Miao and Joe Taslim are both excellent fighters and watching them work is pure joy. It wasn't until after I got home that I realized that Xie Miao is the cute little kid from "New Legend Of Shaolin" (1994) and "My Father Is A Hero" (1995). It's wild seeing him all grown up now. I also didn't recognize Jeeja Yanin until the credits rolled, but it makes perfect sense after seeing the film's opening fight scene. It's nice to see the multi-cultural collaboration in the film, as it's a Hong Kong production with a Japanese director, filmed in Thailand with a primarily Thai and Indonesian cast. If anything, the biggest disappointment is with the English dubbing, which ranges from okay to really bad. Taslim speaks English, but most of the other characters don't. The multi-lingual aspect of the film also makes me wonder if it was intended to mainly be an international export. Regardless, the characters don't have much to say in the first place, and it's mostly their fists that do the talking. Genre fans will love the film, but mainstream audiences may find it to be too much.