Cinema-Maniac: The Merciless (2017)

The Merciless tells the crime genre age old tale of young, and spirited undercover cop, in this case being Hyun-soo (Im Siwan) infiltrating a criminal organization to take down Jae-Ho (Sol Kyung-Gu), and his boss empire. It sounds by the number, but when it comes to execution it delivers a pleasant surprise, and only for the first half. I can’t name you another movie in general that opened up with two criminals talking about eating raw fish, and killing people. This unusual opening show traits of the film capabilities to make something fresh out of a generic concept. For half of the movie, it does that perfectly fine. It does the usual plot points of showing the undercover cop infiltrating the prison, the preparation before the operation, and information regarding the criminals the officers are attempting to capture. Moving along in the prison where it also contain scenes you would expect; the undercover cop gaining the powerful criminal trust, rescuing powerful criminal from death, capturing the top criminal attention in a prison brawl, and eventually bonding. Familiarity easily could have been this film biggest enemy, but it turns it around, add its own spin on things, and feels fresh.

For about an hour, it does a superb job sprinkling plot points that could eventually become rewarding the more the film progresses. Showing early on shades of grey on both the officers Hyun-soo works for, and the criminal he’s infiltrating. All the while balancing Hyun-soo ever growing bond with the target, what it does to him mentally, and showing how his loyalty wavered. Another nice approach to the matter is taking a setup that is usually played dead serious, and adding much needed levity to make it stand apart. Giving the prison portion of the movie more charm than one would expect. Providing a host of laughs without tonal whiplash when it goes back to being serious. The fun nature become part of the characters we follow, and makes them likable. While in prison, the story doesn’t forget to thicken the story by providing Jae-Ho his own conflicts. Ensuring even if Hyun-soo isn’t on screen something significant does feel like is happening. It’s unfortunate that once both characters make their eventual exit from prison it’s all a series of bad choices.

Criminals always have to look professional when cracking skulls

A slight twist to liven up a generic set up is the film antagonist knows our protagonist is an undercover cop for half of the movie. This makes the dynamic far more interesting by avoiding the usual pitfall of “the lier reveal” climax movies of this nature tend to heavily rely on. It’s a shame the film decides to do very little with this twist. Hyun-soo plays both sides conflicted about where he belongs, and goes in the direction you expect it too. The police officers begin to doubt his loyalty, and so do some of the criminals. It never becomes a greater of two evil since the decides to remove the shades of grey it set up early on. A singular plot point derails the shades of grey undoing its own fresh take on a generic story.

Another aspect where the film falls apart is the police chief. This character is just here just because the film needs a stubborn chief to keep the undercover cop in check. There’s nothing done with her whereas Jae-Ho is meant to be a surrogate father to our protagonist. With this major flaw it’s impossible for the film to make a good case for why Hyun-soo loyalty should be solely with the law when the film frequently shows Hyun-soo getting berating, and the police chief mistreating him constantly for a job he didn’t want. Jae-Ho on the other hand also suffers from the lone fact him, and Hyun-soo relationship isn’t shown enough on a personal level. When it comes to them doing their criminal deeds there’s no expense of those scenes to find, but showing them interact in non job related activities is virtually absent. Doing a disservice to the viewer for detailing the growth of Hyun-soo, and Jae-Ho relationship.

What The Merciless was trying to go for is also questionable. The first half of the movie attempts to be a crowd pleaser while the second half takes a more arthouse approach both of which aren’t balanced. Instead of weaving a story that handle both style of cinema it went the easy route, and simply separating two vastly different style instead of combining them together. The second half attempts to make the viewer think on the story, and what it’s protagonist has to live with. Problem is, what the viewer is meant to take away from the story largely is unknown. It has a bleak ending, and that doesn’t means much when characters lose their appeal overtime the longer it goes on. Once outside of prison, the movie fails to further develop it leads in engaging ways. Reiterating traits about them already established. If it was trying to be a tragedy than it didn’t provides the characters needed to be worth caring about. Failing as a crowd pleaser since it goes from a fun, and occasionally grim undercover cop movie to a contemplated piece about human nature, and loyalty. It’s a messy movie with clear potential, and it dropped the ball.

Story is a mess, but Sung-hyun Byun eye for visual is perfect

On the acting, and technical side of things it’s well rounded. When it comes to style director Sung-hyun Byun gives the film a sleek, and cinematic look to it. Always finding creative ways to shoot on paper would be mundane scenes. For example, when Sol Kyung-Gu is getting beaten by police officers outside of an office. Byun shows the sequence play out from the inside of the office out the window, and follows it to be more visually interesting. The film biggest set piece in the middle portion of the movie has a huge between two gangs. He doesn’t simply keep the camera in place with a wide view to make everything visible. A few time during this sequence he’ll have a take go on longer than expected to show the chaotic fighting, have the camera follow actor Siwan as he gets tossed across the room, and in a instance he rotates the camera full circle during the brawl. A rotation shot that could been seen as self indulgent, and distracting, but works thanks to his excellent eye for detail.

Im Si-wan falls into the category of what some viewers familiar with Asian movies would call a pretty boy. Typically this is an in-circle phrase for Asian cinema insistence to cast “pretty boys”, typically pop stars, in leading roles they shouldn’t be in from gangsters, to criminals, serial killers, and so forth that would make it difficult to accept them as the character. Asian cinema isn’t the only film industry guilty of this so I typically pay it no attention. Especially here since the physical appearance of Im Si-wan works in his favor. It’s easy to buy from him that he gets drawn to the allure of the criminal world. He plays his role exceptionally well, especially during his dramatic turns as some of his work in this movie. Combining a certain level of vulnerability, or arrogance within his performance.

Another one of Byun creativity behind the camera coming through

Sol Kyung-Gu is another standout. His role is more complicated to decipher. He’s able to demonstrate a more caring side within his portrayal despite him playing a character aiming to be number one through any means. Expressing his character enjoyment in his dangerous business weather it be beating up criminals, or climbing up the ranks. Displaying a ruthless within him, even when coming off as playful. Yet, he never loses his darker side whenever on screen with Im Si-wan. When together, they both bounce of each other naturally. The only other actor with a noteworthy performance is Kim Hee-Won. A more playful performance to counteract Sol Kyung-Gu subtle performance. Kim Hee-Won gets most of the film jokes, and delivers them perfectly thanks to his comedic timing. Despite being the most lighthearted among the cast, he too is able to dramatic pick up the slack when it comes time to it. Other actors do just as well in their more straight laced role. Jeon Hye-Jin who plays the police chief, and Lee Kyoung-Young who plays the criminal boss play them straight. Despite that, both are given enough time to leave an impression.

The Merciless was a tough watch for the sole reason it’s the kind of movie that could have been more, but didn’t know how to. It’s unfortunate because you have half of a good movie, and the other half that derails it with a misguided direction in writing. It wants to be a movie that appeals to the general crowd, and cinephiles alike, but just end disappointing both. Lavish production values, good performances, and very little, but decently action sequences barely helps it raise above the mediocrity of similar movies. However, when the writing unwillingness to commit to taking risks, and gamble big prevented The Merciless from possibly being another classic piece of crime cinema.

Rating: 6/10

Cinema-Maniac: Stonewall (2015)

In the early hours of June 28, 1968, began a series of violent demonstration by members of the LGBT community in Manhattan, New York City at the Stonewall Inn. These riots are the most famous, and often cited as the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement. Since the movie itself, even if taken as a work of pure fiction, doesn’t provide context for the significance of the Stonewall riots. Before Stonewall riots, incidents like the Portland Vice Scandal which basically forced sexual sterilization laws in Portland when nineteen-year-old Benjamin Trout revealed details about homosexual activity in the city. This would lead to police probing around the local area arresting anyone for simply being gay, or doing anything resembling gay activity. This was also many in the US first learned about homosexuality, and thus many profession would simply be able to fire you for being gay.

During one of the movie’s many misguided scene a character talks about serving in the Navy completely missing the opportunity to provide insight on history. For some reason, the scene doesn’t bother to even mention the mere existence of something called The Blue Discharge. What this basically did was get rid off gay soldiers, and stated in the GI Bill anyone with a Blue Discharge couldn’t receive any benefits during world war one, and world war two. Homosexuals had it rough during this era, but unfortunately something called the Red Scare post world war two included homosexuals on that list with this second wave being called the Lavender Scare. Assumed by many during the 1950s that homosexuals were more susceptible to blackmail. Ever met a person who thought the FBI, or government was after them? Well, if they were homosexual during the 1950s that’s exactly happened. The collective impact of these events would last decades, and wouldn’t be until the Stonewall riot that a swift in gay rights was reaching a turning point for gaining the rights they so desired.

This streamlined history of what homosexuals suffer before Stonewall is obviously too much for one movie cram into a single feature. However, it’s not impossible to provide some level of insight of these events, and the impact they made on society. A brief sequence, or snippets of dialogue dedicated to illustrating the pent up frustration some felt about this unfair treatment would have suffice. The Stonewall riot is set the piece were some finally had enough of being mistreated, and stood up for themselves. Sadly, you’ll learn more in these previous paragraphs about the significance the Stonewall riot than you will watching this movie. That is just sad on so many level. Only thing possibly sadder than that is simply calling this a bad movie ain’t doing justice how incompetent it is on nearly every conceivable level. Here’s a head scratcher before I go into the actual movie, apparently this was director Roland Emmerich passion project. You know, the director of Mel Gibson’s The Patriot (2000), and 10,000 BC (2008) which are consider some of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made.

Brace yourself, it’s going to be a long one.

Stonewall follows the fictitious character of Danny Winters (Jeremy Irvine), a small town teenager outcasted in Indiana by his own father moving to New York in the months leading up the Stonewall Inn riots. For starter, Danny is purely a work of fiction, and using him as surrogate is fine to establish the treatment society gave to homosexual during that time. However, that’s about all it gets right on that front, and even then it doesn’t go into details how badly homosexuals had it during this time. I already mentioned a few examples in my previous paragraphs so I’ll skip the rehash here. I will add that before we see any homosexuals receive any beating from police officers; Danny first introduction to Ray (Jonny Beauchamp), and his group by a multiracial group of young, gay, and genderfluid street kids and drag queens vandalizing the neighborhood! Why would the film thought you would sympathize with a group of teens, regardless of sexual orientation, and what they identify as, whom throw a brick at a store to steal a hat, and go out disrupting people in the neighborhood is beyond me. Forget the fact they’re homosexuals, if this is how Ray, and his friends regularly act no wonder nobody likes them.

With Danny being our lead character it means actual characters based around actual activists during this time get sideline in favor of a coming of age, and young love storyline. A questionable decision cemented in the fact that those fictional portions of the movie are terrible. Exploration of Danny coming to terms with his sexuality is absent from the film. He goes from being ashamed of it to embracing his sexuality just like that. There’s little to talk about Danny character in any tangible form. It relies too much on the idea of the era, and how those in the LGBT community were treated to bother developing its characters. Danny comes off more like Roland Emmerich self inserting himself into Danny, and being the one who started the Stonewall riots. A significant event in the movie that isn’t impactful; Danny, nor the audience know the true length politics held back LGBT people, and simply claiming it was bad during this time isn’t good enough when it think it’s a important film. There’s also Danny highschool love, which the audience doesn’t get to see blossom. Therefore, making it’s bittersweet message in the movie bring hollow since, you guessed it, hardly appears in the movie. 

When it comes to depicting romance this movie fails in that too. Every person Danny falls in love with are poorly defined as individual characters. Ray for instance, a love interest that Danny can’t love (Danny says this himself) is tonal whiplash. One scene has him crying to Danny telling him about how he got a beating, and how things won’t seem like they’ll ever change. Next scene, Ray wakes up getting angry at Danny for finding a flyer for a gay rights meeting in Danny pocket. Trevor (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is another one of these love interest with a confusing portrayal. Part of the blame can be taken by the bad direction, but in terms of writing he didn’t come off as unreasonable. Sure, Trevor cheating on him is justified in Danny hating him, but at the same time that’s about it. The relationship is so spontaneous, and rushed through feeling sorry for Danny is impossible. Trevor is established to be fighting for gay rights since his introduction, and all Danny cares about is his heart got broken despite the fact he experienced, and witness first hand the LGBT community face!

This movie in one still; it’s not pretty to look at

Leading into Danny is boring. He doesn’t take an interest in the political side of gay rights rendering whatever mention of activism purely be lip service. All he seems to care about is making a good life for himself. As a badly written character you won’t know what he aspired to become, nor understand how heart he is that he seemingly can’t patch things up with his Christian father. Reminding me of another plot point. One of the few defining traits of Danny is he loves his family, but the movie hardly shows him communicating to them. Being more wrapped up in the events of New York, and finding other like him. This becomes a bigger issue in the ending when Danny’s mother shows up to a gay pride march when she didn’t speak much to her own son. You know, possibly using Danny mother to get across that acceptance is slow, but can come.

Now the biggest nail in the coffin for Danny is the film gives him the first throw in Stonewall shouting “Gay Power!”. A fictitious character who mostly mopes around about a broken hearts takes away something that real people experience by giving the first brick throw to him. This wouldn’t be an issue if some of the film’s characters weren’t based around real people. Instead of being empowering, it comes across as pure cheese, and at worst possible insult that a teenage boy started a riot that would be the big push towards gay right all because he was sexually frustrated.

On top of a terrible leading character, the film writing has characters that disappear for long periods of time. Only bringing them back when it’s stuck to generate conflict in an artificial way despite the fact the movie is based around true events. One of these character is Ed Murphy (Ron Pearlman, I’m shocked too) is just bad, and that’s about it. He appears in one scene, disappears, and sells Danny into sex slave. A topic that isn’t explored either among the other number things that aren’t explored.

If I even bother to break apart the many aspects of history it gets wrong there would be no feasible end in sight. I will pick on the fact Danny sister is happily accepting that her brother is gay. It’s the 1960s, and homophobia is rampant during this time. The most exposure that Danny’s sister would get of homosexuals would be primarily negative. Maybe Danny told his sister he was gay when he was younger, but no such thing exist, even in throwaway dialogue!

One of the many joyful scenes of police brutality. Physical abuse is the main way this movie can generate sympathy.

It’s much quicker to run down it gets accurate like the sex work depiction that did happen, and the mention of mafias owning bars serving gay people is right. However, the whole sex slave plot point is pointless as it contributes nothing to the actual movie. It does have activists like Marsha P. Johnson, Bob Kohler, and Frank Kameny in the movie, but more as decorations than important characters. Downplaying their roles in gay rights activism, and relegating what their did into a brief text crawl at the end.

The closest the film ever gets to being humanized is a brief scene where Ray sleeps next to Danny in a crowded apartment. Ray goes on about a better life for them, and Danny pretends to be sleeping smiling of such prospect. It’s the most subtle the movie ever gets. Just one scene in a movie that slightly goes over two hours! Filled with stereotypes of LGBT of all being negatively flamboyant, or obnoxious. Doing just about nothing in that time to make viewer understand them. As a pure work of fiction it’s simplistic depiction of complicated real world issues works against it. Discrimination that LGBT people face, and the battle they face to get their rights is something that needs a mindful approach. Not just a “people mistreat us! Let’s riot, and we get our rights!” approach which is sadly an accurate way to summarize this movie. When taken as a historical film, well, mentioned earlier, simply implying the Stonewall one riot automatically gave LGBT their rights in the US is astonishingly stupid! It glosses over so many facts you’re simply better off reading books, or watching documentary on the subject of gay rights. This movie doesn’t understand what makes a good story in a fictitious sense so entrusting it to discuss real world issues beyond some minor details is beyond its capability.

Gay power! Or attempted murder. Both work.

On a technical side it doesn’t fare any better either. Roland Emmerich is insecure about his direction that it’s difficult to read what exactly he wants the audience to feel. For instance, it would be nice to actually see Jeremy Irvine who portrays Danny to actually show him be comfortable sexually. Nearly all of Jeremy Irvine sexual encounters is played off as tragic. Inadvertently implying homosexuality is a something bad instead of a part of a person that feels natural to them.

His biggest misjudgment is his representation of LGBT characters. With the exception of Jeremy Irvine, every actor is either the stereotype flamboyant gay person, or evil. Having his actors overact every scene. Leaving no room for substance, especially the opening text that is meant to establish a harsh mood, but doesn’t because of the over acting. The color filtered makes things either too dark, or too yellow. Emmerich is unable to hide the cheap look of his sound stage. This one block in the movie is simply filmed in different angle, and takes you out of the illusion. Music choices are fine, but don’t do anything special. The original on the other hand, lack subtlety in its bomb static sound. As for the riot itself it’s pretty lame to see. Police push forward, and LGBT people slowly back off. That’s basically all that happens in the riot. Cars, and windows are destroyed I presume because of the sound effects, but this portion of the movie is poorly done.

Stonewall is a cinematic that gets nothing. As a work fiction it’s too simplistic on discussing complicated issues with poorly defined characters. As a historical film it gets so many things wrong viewers will leave with possibly less understanding on the significant on the Stonewall riot. It’s a movie that is meant to appeal to everyone, but will end up satisfying no one except for Emmerich who inserts himself into the lead character. There’s history worth remembering, and being proud off, yet this movie does everything it can to not capture that. Failing to understand people, the community it represents, and the history behind it.

Rating: 0/10

Anime-Breakdown: The Boy and the Beast (2015)

Out of all genres when it comes to storytelling fantasy is easily my least favorite. It’s for the sole reason almost anyone who writes a fantasy story in general lacks the creativity to depart from being a Lord of the Ring copycat, or don’t bother putting their own spin on tired formulas. Among these tired formula is the young child being transported into another world, and growing up after their journey is completed. A simple setup like this allows the writer to come up with anything fantastical they want. In this case, the writer is Mamoru Hosoda who also directed the movie, and it shows his incompetence as a lone storyteller. Quite the bold statement to make, until you realize screenwriter Satoko Okudera who shared screen writing credits on Hosoda previous films from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), and Wolf Children (2012) is absent from screenwriting duty this time. You would think working with someone like Satoko Okudera (an experience screenwriter in TV, and films) during his career that Hosoda would learn how to craft a compelling story with fully realize themes on his own. Apparently not since The Boy, and the Beast comes off embarrassingly amateur on every front.

You’re not the best, around! Everything’s gonna keep you down!

The Boy, and the Beast tries to be a coming of story following Ren, a pre-teen with a bad attitude who runs away from home after the death of his mother. This eventually leads Ren to discover a portal to Jutengai: The Beast Kingdom where anthropomorphic creatures roam free. Inadvertently, he become entangled in a feud between two powerful warriors vying for Lord of Jutengai. Detailing more about the little snippets of story this film has to offer would be spoiling it. Simultaneously accomplishing the impossible task of meandering, and being rushed in its writing. Meandering in the way it takes longer than necessary to establish, or get across simple plot points. Taking it sweet before introducing any sort of an overarching story thirty minutes into the movie. This late start dampens the experience since the introduction sequence tells you about the world of Jutengai, and the conflict between two powerful warriors vying to be the lord of Jutengai. So minutes when characters are explaining this to Ren it makes the introductory narration pointless.

The biggest issue this introduction brings up is the fact this is one pointless usage of a fantasy world. For starter, it hardly bothers to explain much about Jutsengai being more akin to duplicating the human world in how it function. There’s so little effort to make Jutengai its own distinct entity apart from the human world that if one removed the fantasy setting hardly anything in the story would change. There’s one scene where Ren, and his temperamental master Kumatetsu go traveling to learn what true strength is from eight different gods across the land of Jutengai. I presume it’s eight since eight letter of introduction is given to Kumatetsu, and it’s establish they’re just letter of introduction. Showing the audience only half of the lords in the land. This half explored idea rein true for the entire movie; concepts are half baked, and dropped as a moment instance despite the fact they could provide the much needed substance the movie needs.

The dramatic focus of the story is Ren tackling several inner turmoils that the movie poorly handles. For starter, in the second half of the movie Ren becomes confuse if he’s human, or beast. This simple idea of uncertainty where Ren belongs has the foundation to be a compelling character arc, but instead glosses over it since Hosoda doesn’t know how to show Ren conflicted being a part of two worlds. Another issue is Ren coming to terms with his father, and learning to forgive him for leaving him at a young age. Instead of showing the steps to that character arc it’s resolve in three exchange; the reintroduction, the fight, and the resolution. That’s all! Being it very bothersome because his father absent is one of the main motivation for Ren running away in the first place.

This is about as imaginative this movie gets with it setting

Bringing me to my biggest problem of Ren writing which is he has no consequences for running away from his problems. Ren doesn’t learn from Kumatetsu to suck it up, smell the roses, and endure the worst temporary aspects of one’s life. No, Ren turns out well for himself. I’m left to presume this since the movie skips over a decade to him being an adult. During that time I’m left to presume that Ren never felt alone as the only human in Jutengai, out of place, or any kind of conflict during this time. It’s now when he’s an adult returning to the real world for the first he has any spontaneous issue living in Jutengai. If you think the movie would wisely show Ren attempting to adapt again into the human world you’re wrong. Anything regarding his education is brushed aside since he has a friend who helps him study, and presumably quickly since the passage of time isn’t properly established. Fixing up his relationship with his estranged father is done in a haphazard manner. Ren sees his father just whenever the story feels like it. Ren is a simply a tool that goes through the various motion without having much to take in, even on a surface level. On top of this, Ren even has a home to return to in the human world so even less conflict to overcome.

We then  come to the characters of Tatara, and Hyakushubo who only purpose in the movie is explaining to the audience the moral of the story, and the significance of scenes. Being very insulting to the audience intelligence since the film tells a very simplistic story. They explain the growth of Ren when in the hospital looking after Kumatetsu, explain what Ren is doing when imitating Kumatetsu movements, and sometimes other characters do the spoon feeding when Tatara, and Haykushubo are absent on screen. Like two important figures commenting both Kumatetsu, and Ren learning from each other, even though the visuals clearly got that across. There’s also the time Kaede explains to Ren that metaphor in the novel Moby Dick, which in turn is actually meant to tell the audience Kumatetsu is an extension of Ren. Something that is obvious to interpret from the simplistic writing. Instead of trusting its viewer to connect the dots it dedicated the creation of two characters to spoon feed you the events you’re seeing on screen.

The movie lost me before the Whale appeared, but it certainly helped in lowering my interest.

This wouldn’t be needed in the first place if Hosoda actually fleshed out his themes, and characters. For the first half, the story attempts to have Ren, and his master Kumatetsu learn about finding strength, and learning to cooperate with each other to achieve their individual goal. When the time skip occurs the characters haven’t changed much. Being one dimensional prevents meaningful growth, especially when the movie has it characters telling the viewer things they could pick up on easily.

The climax is simply a clusterfuck. Introducing a villain that was poorly foreshadowed leading to a battle of ideology. It’s at this point the poor world building comes into effect. So, when the villain is causing havoc in the human world there suddenly some explosions in Jutengai. The world building is virtually absent that this only in this point in the movie is it even mentioned in throwaway dialogue that chaos in the human world also means chaos in Jutengai. No, I don’t know if the same applies in reverse since this is the first time anything of the sort is brought up. The only other mentioned of this is when Kumatetsu is warned that if a human is consumed by darkness it could affect more than him. A warning so vague it could translate to anything. By the time I saw the sight of a CG whale brought to life by the fact that Ren dropped a book called Moby Dick I knew I was already in too deep, and might as well finish it. Leading to a very cheesy resolution in the climax, and a callback makes it hilarious to consider that Hosoda idea of foreshadowing is just briefly mention something once, and have it be absent for a long time.

Smooth animation!

Animation is handle by Studio Chizu, and it’s fine. The movement is smooth regardless of how many characters are on screen. Character expressions are very exaggerated same with body movement. Where the animation falls short is the visual design; it’s mundane. Studio Chizu applies as much real world function to Jutengai as possible making it barely look any different than the human world. When it comes to designs the background are very detailed, and vibrant. Unfortunately, the characters in them lack creative design. This is mostly due to the baffling decision to have all of its fantasy creatures where Japanese clothing retroactively homogenizing every beast visually. Hardly deviating from the anthropomorphic animals designs not creating anything unique of their own. The few action sequences are fluid, but not exciting to watch since there’s hardly any dynamic camera angles. The few usage of CG blends in well with 2D animation preventing things from sticking out like a sore thumb.

Voice acting is the only aspect of the movie I consider to be fine. If you ask me, I would say the Japanese audio is better simply for the fact Kumatetsu is voiced by Japanese award winning film actor Koji Yakusho. Providing a welcome change in the reluctant master role in his more relax portrayal. Typically, a voice actor would play temperamental characters by simply shouting, screaming, or yelling their lines into the mic. For example, Josh Swasey who voices Kumatetsu does exactly that for the entire film. Preventing there being any wiggle room for him to get across a softer side of Kumatetsu. Koji Yakusho on the other hand simply plays him like he would any other character. He puts himself into the mind of Kumatetsu, brings out his temperamental side without purely relying on shouting, and lay on some charm through a rough, charismatic voice. Unlike Josh Swasey portrayal of Kumatetsu, Koji Yakusho makes an unlikable character likable. As for the rest of the cast they’re fine in both languages. However, with one actor portraying Kumatetsu properly, and the other one doing it badly. The Japanese audio is the recommended choice if everything I wrote doesn’t dissuade you from watching it. Music is easily forgettable while I’m at it.

The Boy, and the Beast is terrible movie that made me feel every minute of its two hour runtime passed by. Checking multiple time when the movie would be over since it provided nothing of value, even on a surface level the animation isn’t enough to enjoy. It’s a simple story about finding one self, conquering the darkness, and growing up stretched to a at time unbearable length. If you removed 75% of the film content, you would have a stronger movie which is the saddest part of all. So clumsy in its exploration of ideas, and so little to grasp on in everything else ensures this is (currently) Mamoru Hosoda weakest movie. He needs to learn in order for his ideas to work they need to be properly fleshed out, clearly defined by how his characters face these ordeals, and most importantly don’t spoon feed the audience the meaning of your story simplistic story.

Rating: 2/10

Cinema-Maniac: Mission: Impossible (1996)

The Mission: Impossible franchise is among my favorite film series for many reasons; I like the fact every film director tries to bring something new to the table, and put their own spin on the series. Making each film entry feel distinct from one another preventing the series from becoming stale. Another aspect I enjoy about the Mission: Impossible films is seeing the transformation of the Hollywood blockbuster over the years. Being a rare example where going bigger in a series feels organic instead of a necessity. Surprisingly enough, I’ve always consider the first entry in the franchise to be the weakest. A sentiment that is further cemented with the fact future entries would add levity to their storylines, offers up more action spectacles, and slowly strive to improve the team dynamic which was always a small piece instead of its core that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) made it. In hindsight, Brian De Palma’s starter entry is the most high brow the series ever gotten with its writing, but also provides the least entertainment having trouble being both a cerebral spy thriller, and a blockbuster.

Jean Reno knows he’s going to be underutilized

Mission: Impossible follows Impossible Mission Force American agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) attempting to clear his name as the prime murder suspect of a disastrous operation that got his whole team killed. This movie tells a simple story, that is easy to follow, but throws in twists, and loops that make an organic story come off as convoluted when it isn’t. An obvious trick that is attempting to hide the thin plot that has little to go on. Offering little to nothing in the way of characterization for Ethan Hunt, and even less in the form of expressing compassion. Ethan Hunt dwells on his fallen comrades for a bit, and than moves on from it. It’s not a movie about characters, nor the strength of their relationship. Skipping the tradition of most first installments in franchises of being an origin story. Opting to put the viewer in the middle of the story instead. Rarely in the film are characters even allowed to have personalities, and the instances they do are sparse. The most engaging it characters become is when they work as a team to accomplish a task. Seeing the team dynamic trying to pull off a difficult job with various setbacks is eventful more so than the people involved in them.

This movie is more about the chase, the mystery, and solving it by any means. You’ll have plenty of scenes of characters talking about the logistics of their plans, the potential double crosses, and the ever increasing murkiness of everyone surrounding Ethan Hunt. The mystery aspect of the film keep things going, and is easily the best part of the film’s writing. Right from the beginning, the film drops plenty of clues for viewers to pick up on, and connect the dots. While the film does dedicate an entire sequence in the climax explaining everything. Before that point it respected the viewer intelligence by not dumbing down any scenes. Dialogue throughout is often used to reveal snippets of characters over showing it. In most films this would be a negative, but works excellently here in its attempt to make proceeding events murky in their true nature. Always ensuring you can’t entirely trust anyone on screen, even those on Ethan Hunt side, or the intent of the situation.

Now the worst part of the movie is the climax. Beforehand the film did a fine job keeping everything grounded with a few silly things relegated to small stuff like exploding bubblegum, and self detonating cassette tapes. It’s here where the serious tone becomes its own undoing creating a joke of a climax that belongs in a different movie. Seeing the sight of a Helicopter in a tunnel trying not to crash as our main character is attempting to prevent the villains escape doesn’t belong in a cerebral thriller. It’s too simplistic in the way the climax plays out compare to the rest of the movie where Ethan Hunt had to play mind games against two opponents, and his own teammates who he is uncertain he could trust. It’s just a messy climax that simply feels like it is there just to check of the big climax checklist out of a blockbuster. Another problem is Ethan Hunt getting out of some difficult situation through convoluted means. For example, the first time Ethan Hunt uses exploding bubble gum it makes sense since it was set up before he used it, but the second time Hunt uses it there’s setup to it, and comes out of nowhere to resolve the issue of a writer who wrote himself into a corner.

Physics be damned!

Tom Cruise takes the lead, and does a decent job committing to the role that limits him. While the film itself is unable to create paranoia, Tom Cruise actually believes it himself helping to sell the story even more. Believing in his characters, and the story he’s convincing in a serious role. Switching between the sly, and paranoid side with ease. There’s a few sequences where Cruise is allowed to display more of his charisma, but the material doesn’t allow him much opportunity for that. Not allowing Cruise to show off what he’s fully capable off. Despite this restriction, Cruise is able to make you invested in a character that has little going for him simply because he’s that good of an actor. The only other actor who presence is enjoyable is Ving Rhames. Surprisingly playing the most balanced character. He isn’t too serious, but he isn’t just here to purely add levity to the movie. He’s able to be both fun, and be engaging despite only appearing in the second of the movie. In the few scenes he shares with Cruise are easily the best moments since they are the only moment the film nails a balance between high brow spy thriller, and Hollywood blockbuster.

Other cast members don’t come of as good because of the writing. Jon Voight enjoys himself, although he doesn’t do much besides sneer, and smile. Removing a bit of his mystic, and making a plot twist revolving around his character not come off as shocking as it should. Jean Reno is a good choice in as a potential double crosser. However, he only appears second half of the movie, and isn’t given much to do. He’s just here to look the part, and nothing more. Then there’s Emmanuelle Beart who is in a thankless role. What she’s meant to do is uncertain since she hardly appears. When she is in the movie it’s to be mopey, or supporting of Cruise. It’s okay, but not much for her to do. Henry Czerny is the most fortunate who at least is noteworthy as a enjoyable foil in his serious demeanor. As for the rest of the cast they also go forth a similar fate; good choices for the role, but not enough screen time to do anything to liven the material.

Ethan Hunt taking the break up pretty badly

Brian De Palma direction is most unsure about what to be. On one hand he wants create tension, and paranoia with his many dutch angles close up. It has the opposite effect looking awkward instead of uneasy. Resulting in scenes that visually work fine to just being miscalculated. Where Brian De Palma shines  is the film singular best set piece. It’s a sequence involving Cruise attempting to retrieve information from a computer in a room littered with sensing equipment, including pressure sensitive floors, temperature controls and audio sensors. This sequence, played largely without dialogue, and no music. Excellently captures thrills in a single sequence having the viewer wonder if anything will go array. Masterfully directed, edited, and perform this is Brian De Palma best showcase of being master of the camera. It’s not a nail biting sequence, but it is thrilling nonetheless.

When it comes to action sequences there is none. There’s no car chases, gunfights, or fisticuffs one would expect from an action film. It’s not the fault of this movie future installments would fall more in line with what a action movie traditionally is. This entry does offer one action sequence; the climax of the movie which is easily the worst part of the movie. On paper, it’s a cool idea having a helicopter in a subway tunnel, but the terrible mixture of outdated CGI, and blue & green screen effects make the whole thing look like a cartoon. Visually being out of place with everything else that was done through practical means. It’s also boring since not much happens on top of the subway, even in the tunnel it’s just Tom Cruise attempting to prevent someone escaping. Cruise, and antagonist just try to hang on on the subway, and that’s about it. This climax aged horribly, especially the special effects when the Helicopter blows up. Another thing that aged is some of technology used. Instead of coming of as high tech some of it technology, like cellphones with big antennas, are relics of the past. However, the music is quite stellar, and moody. Doing a much better to get across the appropriate mood than the visuals themselves.

Mission: Impossible is a solid piece of spy thriller entertainment, but mixed results in everything it does. The story itself is intriguing to witness thanks to a good mystery, but without characters to get invested it prevents the movie from being engaging. Brian De Palma doesn’t know if he wants a cold, cerebral spy thriller, or a blockbuster opting for a middle ground that often juxtapose each other in bad ways. There’s hardly any action, and levity to satisfy the blockbuster crowd, and too many plot conveniences solution in difficult situations, and silly climax to fully satisfy the cerebral crowd. What comes out unscathed is the casting being decent if nothing else, and a killer theme song that is likely to get stuck in your head. It’s a odd film to see since it kickstarted would become an action franchise juggernaut from such an uneven first film.

Rating: 6/10

Some Thoughts On: Wounded Man (1986) OVA

Sometime you look at a mirror, stare at your own reflection, with Michael Jackson “Man in the Mirror” track playing in the background, and contemplate the meaning of existence itself. Very few anime will ever make you think on a deep, and philosophical level. Encouraging a change in your that you might have never expected. Wounded Man, is not that anime. It’s from the glorious era of the 80s which seems to be littered with endless amount of bonker OVAs. As usual, much like the coherency of Wounded Man, it’s all just a scattershot post of thoughts.

Before I continue, I should establish one of my two (the other is Ashita no Joe if you’re curious) favorite manga of all time is Lone Wolf & Cub by writer Kazuo Koike. The man who also wrote the Lady Snowblood manga, and wrote the film adaptation which inspired Quentin Tarantino Kill Bill series. With these two manga alone, Kazuo Koike could have simply retired, and be widely remembered as one of the great storytellers in manga. Obviously he continued given his success, especially from the world wide acclaim for Lone Wolf & Cub. Yet, somewhere in his career he found a fascination with American culture, and created some idiotic manga which eventually got made into OVAs. One of these is the schlocky, and very, very dumb Mad Bull 34 enjoyable for all the wrong reasons, and also today’s OVA is just as dumb. Just with the entertainment factor, and a giant guy flipping over a tank missing from its insane plot. Oh yeah, it’s manga also got licensed by Comicone, and yes, you can officially buy the manga in English. Baffling considering, from the images I quickly looked over online of the Japanese version, seems to be a faithful adaptation of the same terrible content. With less sex presumably because one of the random volume I clicked on had just panels, after panels of what I could only interpret as tragic sex. Sometimes the world doesn’t make any sense.

The most realistic thing in Wounded Man

Wounded Man attempts to tell the classic tale of the Vanguard of Soccer (who actually plays football), Rio Baraki, seeking vengeance on a porno company that took the life of his girlfriend. If that sounds too ridiculous to take seriously, don’t worry because the anime will make sure you take it seriously in all the wrong the ways. For starter, the first appearance of our Vanguard of Soccer is during his random encounter with news reporter Yuko Kusaka who goes to Brazil for a news story about gold in a village. Now how would one go about introducing our lead character in the first episode? By obviously attacking the news reporter, raping her, and later claiming after he’s done raping her that he did it for her own good! To paraphrase, the rape he gave her is only a small fraction of the dangers she could experience in the amazon of Brazil. This happened in the first six minutes of episode 1, which might actually be the quickest an anime I’ve seen getting to a rape scene.

Once it introduces Rio Baraki in this manner it’s impossible to eliminate the bad taste it leaves in your mouth. This wouldn’t be an issue if he wasn’t the main character! Not only that, but the story clearly wants you to root for Rio Baraki as he conquers many challenges until the day he finally gets vengeance. Providing a sob story about how the woman he loved got killed after a series of stupid events. One of them including in episode 1, Rio swimming in Piranha infested water as a form of apology for raping the news reporter. He comes out unscathe, and the news reporter forgives him! Revenge is solid motivation for the story, except for the fact Rio Baraki rapes another woman in episode 4, and in the span of five episodes falls in love with three other women. So he’s unable to differentiate love, and lust much in the same way he’s incapable of keeping his dick in his pants. How am I supposed to sympathize with Rio when every time he fucks a woman he later falls in love with them. Everytime! I’m suppose to feel sorry for this guy? Yeah, that ain’t happening.

What story Wounded Man does offer is purely nonsensical going from point A, skipping a couple of steps, and finally end up at the ending credits. It’s simply one stupid event after another. One moment you’ll Rio self inserting himself into a young woman who he tied up to a wooden boat steering wheel in order to get her on his side (don’t ask), and next thing you know you have a hysterical woman laughing while the boat is on fire. My mere description of this moment does it no justice. It’s something else entirely to witness it, and just be in awe someone thought this was something that should have been animated.

Fat guy here, great shot! Should have be the MC

Would you believe me in episode 5 there’s a random tangent about Helicopters leading in to a pointless fight between two war veteran because one of them shot down a Helicopter. Aside from being completely stupid, it’s also lacking in a sense of fun. It’s takes itself way too seriously despite the fact it’s filled to the brim with stupid writing. For example, in episode 2 Rio is able to pick up an entire tree with ease, and throw it as Indian tribe! Not convince it’s stupid enough? Well, the news reporter Rio raped in episode 1 falls in love with him despite her stating she hates his guts for what he did, and will be apart from him until she gets revenge before confessing her love for him! In episode 4, he thinks the way to get Misty, a young assassin, on his side is by tying her up on a boat wooden steering wheel, and yes, self insert himself into Misty. In case you’re wondering, yes Misty too also falls in love with Rio!

Now before the plot twist in episode 5 which makes the whole series feels utterly pointless in viewing because everything beforehand has to be taken at face value. Think about it, before the plot twist you’re meant to believe there’s a evil porno company going around kidnapping famous people, and forcing them to into porn for large amount of profits. Watching episode, after episode thinking about the fact we have former football player going up against evil porno company for killing his girlfriend. This is the kind of stuff you wouldn’t expect a sane person to come up with, except for the fact someone did, and nutcase at Comicone thought it was perfect to license, translate the manga, and officially sell it! Once there’s more revealed about the porno company it gets dumber since it eventually takes Rio to the good old US, and by the last episode has a quick word with the president of the US. After you get the plot twist, it doesn’t make any sense since it just opens a bigger can of worms.

The twist is worthless since there’s so little to Rio as a character, and wholly unlikable through his action that nothing felt gained in his journey. He’s a single minded character with no depth. If that was the point of Wounded Man that would be one thing, except for the fact it was not. This could have been remedied with interesting characters, except for the fact there aren’t much to the other characters besides the bizarre assortment of situations they get into.

Where do I even begin.

With everything I’ve described you would also be misled into thinking this is an entertaining series to watch. When the bonker events aren’t happening there’s plenty of more dead air to fill the space. Most of it feels pointless. Talking about things I’ve already forgot about. Except for the odd insert of possibly moving away from revenge who you know could lead to some kind of development, but doesn’t since Rio is single minded, and there’s no insight provided into his mind. Well scratch that, he does love to fuck a lot, regardless if the woman wants it, or not. What a man!

One thing that would have improved the experience, though not by much, would have been watching this with better English subtitles. At the time I chose to watch Wounded Man I saw it terrible fansubs. Allegedly, the version I saw was from a Chinese knock off DVD, and simply use Google translate to for the subtitles. They are of poor quality. Not poor enough to prevent you from the gritty details of the story, but poor enough where it’ll feel like it’s different langue to you. On the rare occasion, the bad subtitles add some fun to the OVA for how confusing it is. My favorite example is Rio saying “There’s a Japanese saying. Shower, or woman. It doesn’t matter”. What is that suppose to mean! There’s also another moment where bullets clearly hit Rio multiple times, you’ll get shown the doctors removing the bullets from Rio body, and the doctor comes out to say “It’s okay. Bullets always miss the target”. No, I have idea what the people, person were smoking when translating this, because I’m pretty sure they weren’t smart enough to know how to smoke.

To further add insult to injury, after I finished the OVA I quickly discovered on YouTube someone provided better subtitles for Wounded Man. So naturally I went back to see what the Japanese saying in episode 1 was, and again, I still have no clue what the heck it means. This time, the saying is “Rain in buckets, or a woman. Neither one, or the other, doesn’t matter”. At this point, the only way to truly find out what Rio meant is either I learn Japanese, or buy the manga. Obviously, I would prefer the former because ain’t no way I’m obtaining the Wounded Man manga…at least this moment. It can easily be found on YouTube, and with a better comprehensible translation than the version I saw. However, I recommend going with the worse subtitles since you’ll get some unintentional laughs.

Now with everything I’ve said about Wounded Man, you’ll be wrong to assume I’ll tell you to skip this. No, quite the opposite because I suffered through this trash of an OVA, and I might as well encourage you to seek this out to share in my suffering. See everything it has to offer from cheap animation, overly dramatic music, and over the top voice acting. Experience it in Wounded Man!

If I were to give this a rating I would say a 1 out of 10, which still seems to high!

Cinema-Maniac: The Brink (2017)

Jin Zhang, or Max Zhang as he’s sometime is credited shares career similarities with director Jonathan Li. Both of these men before The Brink have worked their way up in the Hong Kong film industry. Jonathan Li starting out behind the camera as a third assistant director on Infernal Affairs 3 (2003), and Max Zhang starting out as a stunt double in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). Over a decade later of work both managed to garner some level of recognition. Max Zhang is easily more prolific with supporting roles in The Grandmaster (2013), Ip Man 3 (2015), and SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (2015). Garnering Max Zhang a well earned fanbase for not just his incredible athleticism in his fight sequences, but his on screen presence displaying good acting abilities. Surprisingly, The Brink doesn’t just mark Max Zhang first time headlining a major movie as the lead star, and also marks the first time Jonathan Li take the helm as a director after over a decade working mostly as a assistant director. Both have something to prove in this film that is steps away from greatness, but accomplish the feat of proving they can handle bigger roles.

A snippet of Max Zhang impressive skills in his fight sequences

On the story front The Brink is above average. Telling the classic story of a reckless Hong Kong officer, in this case being Sai Gau (Max Zhang), attempting to put an end on a criminal gold smuggling scheme. Anyone with experience in Hong Kong cinema will know what to expect from the story, minus the goods this time not being drugs. Some of the characters are also what you would expect them to be; best friend Zhi-Di (Wu Yue) so close to retiring getting pulled back into action, the chief coming down Sai Gau neck for operations gone wrong, a low ranked criminal villain in Jiang (Shawn Yue) with big ambitions, the daughter of a criminal reminding Sai Gau of his sense of duty, Jiang boss who plans to give his business to his son seeks to get rid of him, and that basically covers it. There are other minor characters, but they don’t contribute much in the grand scheme of things. It’s lacking in creativity, but when it comes execution writer Li Chun Fai knows how to play around with these familiar characters, and plot point in a successful way.

For starter, the pacing of the film is just right never lingering too much on unnecessary details, and evolving the main storyline in a organic way. Being able to escalate stakes within a reasonable scope. It has a certain number of main characters, and knows their influence with those around them. Hardly going overboard in favors of anyone to show more, or less an even playing field. Another positive in the writing is the whole cat, and mouse writing it takes for it central conflict. Both Sai Gau, and Jiang come face to face several times throughout the  movie. With Jiang just barely being able to get the advantage over Sai Gau in his attempts to arrest him. Further adding to the intrigue is Jiang seeking vengeance on those who betrayed him making proceeding events for him more difficult to come out on top. Seeing the many ways Jiang gets out of his situations is quite fun to witness.

Prison changed me man. I’m a blonde now. Don’t ask.

Other area of the writing comes with mixed results. Characters are simplistic, and clear cut in their motivations. In its effort to be more than a good cop capturing evil doer it leaves many aspects half baked. The most prominent one being a insignificant plot point on Zhi-Di owing an off screen gang money. This clumsily justifies Zhi-Di motives in the later half of the movie, but with it being the only mention it just goes nowhere. While the writing attempts to make things different shades of grey it ultimately just boils down to good guy versus bad guy. Characters are defined, but they switch motivation, or personality at a moment notice to serve the writers needs since Li Chun Fai couldn’t figure out how its character would get from point a to point b with how they were established. If Li Chun Fai didn’t rewrite established characters consistently he would have been able to create more complex characters in favor of the film.

Where the writing falter plenty is with the character of Ke-Yan (Cecilia So) whose name I don’t believe is actually ever said in the movie itself. The only way I was able to find out her name was looking for it in the closing credits. If that alone doesn’t get across how this character is just put into the movie for no narrative reason than maybe the fact she contributes nothing in the overarching story will. Her scenes amount to nothing, but just providing a little characterization for Sai Gau, and even less for Ke-Yan. Her subplot of being a daughter tied to a criminal Sai Gau accidentally killed isn’t explored. It’s brushed aside quickly, and feels like Ke-Yan is only here to provide a pro-life message that is shoehorned in. If Ke-Yan was going to be in the last shot of the movie than you know, doing something significant storywise with her would have made it more impactful. Lastly, why does Sai Gau go into prison for a couple a months with dark hair, but then when released has blonde hair. Not that it’s of any importance, but it’s a noticeable change that comes out of nowhere.

Shawn Yue (left) has the look of a trustworthy person.

Max Zhang for the first time in his career carries the mantle of a leading man, and he does quite well for himself. He doesn’t attempt to oversell his character through his acting, but rather tries to keep his portrayal restraint when not fighting. Providing more subtle delivery in some of his sentimental scenes preventing them from being sappy. There are glimmer of range within him that the film sadly doesn’t utilize more frequently. Of course, when it comes to Max Zhang in the fight sequences he’s still just as impressive, and quick as he ever been.

Opposite of Max Zhang is Shawn Yue playing the cold hearted villain. Nailing the portrayal of his character personality, but unable to overcome the occasional stoic delivery of dialogue. Sounding disinterested half the time, and the other half sounding detached like he should. Yue acting won’t impress, but one where he’s meant to mourn over a lost is handle well by Yue without him breaking character. Wu Yue whenever on screen typically takes the spotlight from Zhang. Giving life to a archetype character being capable to generate sympathy for his character in spite of the above average writing. When it comes to his fight sequences he’s just as impressive as Max Zhang. There’s some noteworthy name in the supporting cast like Janice Man, Derek Tsang, Gordon Lam, and Tai Po, but the supporting cast tends to be one note. Eventually being indistinguishable from one another performances.

My favorite fight in The Brink.

First time director Jonathan Li with the helps of cinematographer Kenny Tse captures a aquatic, moody feel to the film. Showing a more grimy side of Hong Kong through his usage of location. If it’s related to the ocean he’ll use from a crowded indoor fish market, to a fishing trawler in the middle of a storm, gloomy ports, and even going underwater to film a action sequence which in spite of being performed slowly is still entertaining to witness. His directing of action sequences stands out more than his narrative storytelling. Mostly because when it comes to action he allows for long takes, and if needed will get inventive with his shots to make his fight scenes pop out. Being able to avoid the pitfall of showing background actors doing nothing in his fight sequences. With tight editing, and great composition his eye for action sequences raises the film quality whenever onscreen. Heck, he’s able to make an action sequence underwater feel eventful. There might be only a handful of them spread throughout, but they are worth waiting for. His music choices are mixed. Some of it works like during the action sequences to add excitement, but sometime it comes off overblown like towards the end of the movie using choir like music.

Action choreography is handle by Chung Chi Li, and much like his action choreography in Extraordinary Mission (2017), Li goes for a more grounded approach. Having very limited usage of wires, most of which are sprinkle in the climax. Chi Li emphasizes Max Zhang speed in the only one versus many brawl that has Max Zhang fighting in a alley. Alongside Wu Yue who also participate in the one versus many brawl on his own, Max Zhang is able to make it look convincing he’s able to beat up a dozen men rapid swings of his flashlights. However, my personal favorite fight in a parking lot with Max Zhang going one on one with a masked assailant. Creatively using the parked cars environment to have its actors use to avoid hits from the other fighter. Both men are able to keep up with each other performing their moves quickly resulting in some impressive long takes in the fight. Lastly, the climax which involve Max Zhang fighting against Wu Yue, and Shawn Yue on a fishing ship during a storm is the centerpiece action sequence. It’s an exciting climatic fight with plenty happening in the background as it shakes throwing all participants off. The choreography here in particular takes into account the rocking ship putting the advantage of the fight to whoever it wants. It’s quite a sight to witness, and what’s also vastly enjoyable to witness is how epicly presented the final punch between Max Zhang, and Wu Yue is filmed.

The Brink doesn’t break any grounds in any area of filmmaking, but is overall a success thanks to it crew overcoming several weaknesses. In particular, the wonderfully done action sequences elevating above everything else to be the one area it shines the best. Jonathan Li proves he can handle his own in the forefront as a director thanks largely to his strong direction which is felt throughout the movie. Of course, Max Zhang himself continues to prove why his raise to fame isn’t a fluke. Being just capable in his acting as he is in his fight scenes will eventually garner him more leading roles in his career. Regardless of your familiarity with anyone in the film, or Hong Kong action cinema The Brink is a good way to spend your time.

Rating 7/10

Cinema-Maniac: The Debt Collector (2018)

In 1986, there was a Hong Kong movie called A Better Tomorrow that influenced a entire film industry, and was the first of many collaboration between actor Chow Yun-Fat, and John Woo. While it’s uncertain the collaboration between Scott Adkins, and director Jesse V. Johnson will have any kind of effect on the direct to video action business. They certainly are leaving a mark already. From Savage Dog (2017) an ambition action movie with a historical background that’s solid, to the surprisingly good comic good adaptation of Accident Man (2018), and now a film with direct inspiration from buddy cop movies with The Debt Collector (2018). Adding on to the list of good films under their collaboration.

Sue: “See this towel? It’s for you after the beating I’ll give you.”

The Debt collector follows classically-trained martial artist French (Scott Adkins), who goes to work as a mob debt collector in order to save his gym. This synopsis sounds like something out of a early 90s action flick, and in some ways pays homage to that. Teaming French up with experience mob debt collector Sue (Louis Mandylor). Starting the relationship in predictable, but well executed fashion of the two not getting along, and over time striking a closer friendship. The banter between French, and Sue keeps the film proceeding events engaging when action isn’t on screen. Making wisecracks at each other expense, talking about the moral lines that should never be crossed in their line of work, sharing a bit about themselves, and some very subtle references to some of the actors previous works for fans to catch. Also, some tongue in cheek lines to the sorts of movies it burrows from.

What simply starts as a series loosely strung together events do lead up to a overarching story. It takes halfway through the movie before it gets there being more incline to be character driven than story driven. Slowly having French, and Sue engage in various scenarios all of which end up going south. Mixing tightly choreographed action sequences, comedy, and the occasional characterization into it many scenarios. Once the overarching story becomes a mainstay it’s also another predictable path. Leading to French to further if what the job requires of him is actually worth it. There’s the part of learning about his target making him reconsider his job. Coming together in a climax with a unexpected outcome for a movie starring Scott Adkins, and even more surprising is the ending. It’s an ending ultimately suits the story for how far both French, and Sue went for their job by having actual consequences movies it is homaging wouldn’t go for. Earning it’s ending by having its characters question what they do, and taking the time to delve into that. However, it does mean anyone expecting the usual triumphant Scott Adkins climax in this movie will be disappointed when not receiving it.

One noticeable misstep in its early goings is completely ignoring the whole save the gym motivation for French as the film progresses. It does kick off the plot in a organic fashion, but a more personal driven motivation would have serve a greater purpose in the long run, especially considering the course it final act takes. Briefly touching on the value French gym has to him will suffice initially since it’s a fun throwback action flick. That is until you reach the final act where it changes course, and the undercooked motivation weakness comes into full effect. Aside from this misstep in the beginning, just about the only other major drawback would be the uneven structure. Half of the movie is packed with action sequences one right after the other, and the other half takes a drastic turn into the dramatic side with some splices of comedy. Taking into account the story’s intention it misdirecting the viewer works in it favor. Well, mostly. Throughout the movie, you see stock footage of cows eventually being taken to get slaughter. It’s on the noise in it’s message delivery, and far from subtle as the closing lines hammer its point home.

Despite low budgets, Adkins is always reliable on the action side for excitement

Scott Adkins takes the lead as French with his British accent. This role allows Adkins to stretch more of acting chops than his usual role, though isn’t given any heavily dramatic scenes. The most dramatic he’ll get is letting out a sigh of exhaustion. While his dramatic scenes are lacking what isn’t is Adkin capturing the straight man characteristic of his role. Managing to be convincing as someone out of his element. Where he does deliver the most is where it counts (besides the action sequences) is with his co-star Louis Mandylor. Adkins rough straight man attitude compliments nicely against Mandylor sleazy has been demeanor. Mandylor easily outshines Adkins since the material provides him opportunities for his character to be more intimate with those around him There’s also intensity in Mandylor which he captures perfectly in his eyes when he has to get his hands dirty. Their chemistry is the film biggest strength creating something that feels genuine in the actor comradeship with each other. It’s unlikely you’ll care a deal about the characters, but you’ll definitely find the duo entertaining if nothing else.

The supporting cast will largely go unnoticed since all of them get push to the wayside because of the film’s story. Only Jack Lowe is able to leave much of an impression in a small role since his character is begging for his life. Showing an ease to become a character with not a lot to chew on. Biggest surprise is easily Tony Todd. He doesn’t get plenty of screen time, but visibly has fun in his brief appearance. Then there’s Vladimir Kulich in a bigger role who also doesn’t have much screen time, though he’s enjoyable if only for the fact Adkins is once again playing a character who works for Kulich. Other than that, the supporting cast do fine in their small roles that do prevent nearly all of them from being able to shine does also mean the acting in general is better than average in your direct to video action films.

This movie has a of Scott Adkins driving people

When it comes the action side, fight choreography is handle by Luka LaFontaine (also responsible for the fights in Savage Dog) goes for a more grounded treatment to better fit its movie. Meaning, restraining Adkins from using many of his high flying maneuvers in favors of a more brawler like approach. Thankfully, LaFonatine is more than capable to get creative with his fight choreography. Since Adkins typically fight with men taller, and bigger than him this makes fight scenes eventful as none of them go down easily. LaFonatine is able to corporate some clever counter moves into his grounded choreographed fights without them feeling out of place. Seeing Scott Adkins get fling into a wall when someone blocks his punches, or seeing Adkins get slammed multiple time on a bar table when the person he’s fighting him won’t let his go of his grip is nicely worked in. Adkins receives plenty blows in the film requiring his character to either fight out of a scenario where he’s out number 3 to 1, or use something in his environment to get the upper hand. The action choreography is perhaps the least complex Adkins ever performed, but it’s shot nicely, and edited together nicely to make them entertaining nonetheless. The film does have one gunfight towards the end, and it’s pretty laughable it continues the tradition of people constantly missing at point blank range in Adkins direct to video action films. It’s further highlighted by the fact that Adkin character background, but it’s still an enjoyable gunfight in spite of that leap in logic.

The Debt Collector proves that Jesse V. Johnson, and Scott Adkins compliment each other really well. Jesse V. Johnson molds a story, and character that are engaging while allowing Adkins a departure from his usual roles, and letting the action experts do their thing. Adkins is able to rely more on his acting, and is able to hold his own against Louis Mandylor who takes the spotlight from him. When it comes to the action side Adkins is always reliable on that front, but here it’s nice to see him shine in a different way. Jesse V. Johnson, and Scott Adkins shortcomings in their fields are evident, but their understanding of each other strengths compliment each other in the films they make, and that’s make them an effective team. Producing far better films than you would expect from the direct to video market.

Rating: 7/10

The joy, and pain of watching bad anime

Having recently completed Anime-Gatari, and the characters in that series talking about classic anime got me thinking about the bad anime I’ve watched…while currently watching that bad anime. If you could go on my mal profile (which MAL won’t let you see as of this moment) you would notice a good chunk of the things I’ve watched I awarded negative rating towards. A simple fix to this would be to simply watch more good series, in particular a lot of well regarded classics on my plan to watch list. I could do that, but at the same time I’ll feel like I’m missing out on hundreds of titles if I ignore all the bad anime there is too watch.

When I first started watching anime, much like Asian movies, I thought everything I watched was good. After a while, it became increasingly evident that not all anime is equal to each other. The first one that brought up this thought was Beyond the Boundary (Kyoukai no Kanata in Japanese) from Kyoto animation. Being the first bad airing anime I watched to completion. At first, I thought I was going crazy thinking this series was bad when I either scroll down to the comment section of a streaming site, or go to its page on any anime aggregate site to read dozens upon dozens of positive reviews for it. Eventually, I got over it, and finally settled on it was bad, and I was in the minority with that viewpoint. Something that would be more common as I spend more time watching anime.

Over the years, I watched more good anime, and more bad anime. For me, I try to balance my good anime with the bad ones. This way, I feel like I’ll become less jaded in my viewpoint on anime the more I watch it. A lot of people in the community I talk too whenever sharing their experiences of watching anime have one thing in common; they marathon one good series after another. Doing that for months, or years made them eventually reach a point where they don’t see anything on the level they used too. Also, from the same people, hearing, or reading their thoughts on how they feel anime is getting worse over time, and it makes them lose interest in watching anime is something I don’t experience. For me, I never stopped watching anime once I got into it. I do increase, or decrease the amount of anime I watch depending on how busy my life is, but other than that I never once consider dropping anime completely. Some of the people I’ve talked too have dropped watching anime for a bit because of how bad something was.

Now my sample of people I interact with is rather small so their viewing habits vastly differs from mine. For instance, there’s someone on this Discord server who claims to finish one anime a day, which if I’m being honest is probably not a healthy way to consume media. Me, and this individual who I shall nicknamed Orge sometime clash when it comes to the quality of certain animes. This end up going into a long winded debate where neither of us change their viewpoints on something. The best example is me having a strong dislike for Assassination Classroom season 2, and Orge on the other side having the complete opposite opinion to me. I consider Assassination Classroom season 2 among the worse animes I’ve seen, and trying to get that across to this individual was futile since all my points went over his head. Me on the other hand, I more, or less glimpse into the reasoning why someone can like that series, even if I don’t agree with the reasoning. Now that my longer than expected sorta preface is done, I shall more, or less generalize my thoughts on watching bad anime.

Artistic recreation of me watching Assassination Classroom season 2

First being what does bad anime offer me that I can’t find in good anime? That’s nearly impossible to justify since even I consider good anime to have some bonkers moments in them. Sure, nothing will ever beat the classic bad line of “He has a hat!” in the edgy Ajin anime by Polygon Pictures, but at the same time my favorite anime of all time follows a young man who kills people by writing their names in a notebook in Death Note. For me, it’s all about the experience itself, and it ultimately ends up offering me. Only in my exploration of viewing bad anime can I truly grasp the full picture of a bad series.

Two days ago for example, I finished an obscure anime OVA by studio Magic Bus called Wounded Man with my brother. Needless to say it was awful. My idea of good writing is typically in favor of execution. I feel the same type of stories can be told countless of time if the execution is good. In Wounded Man, needless to say that wasn’t the case. Something about good anime is experiencing those type series that exceed your expectation, and become a new found favorite. The same applies for my experience of Wounded Man. There are just things about writing a story I feel should be commonplace, but surprisingly I kept getting proven wrong. For example, I think it would be outrageous to have your hero rape a woman, and than have the hero claim it was for her benefit to warn her about the danger of the amazon. You might be thinking no one would ever be dumb enough to do that, and yet that is what happened in the first episode of Wounded Man, and on top of that the women ends up falling in love with her rapist. Much like how good anime has the potential to exceed expectations, and engage you in ways you never expected. Well, bad anime has the same power to reach a new low you never thought it could go, or even thought anyone would go to.

Another reason for me watching bad anime is it comes with the territory. I know beforehand in everything I watch, or read I won’t like everything I check out. So instead of avoiding any possible anime I might dislike I’ll simply give them a chance. Earlier this year I saw a shojo anime called Ultra Maniac from studio Production Reed for the first time. Initially, I saw it because I enjoyed it in a ironic sense, but over time I actually began to enjoy it. The characters were being fleshed out, and it surprisingly did a decent job talking about love, and some of the shenanigan the characters got involved in were entertaining. When I finally finished Ultra Maniac, I was pleasantly surprised it turned out to be a good series. If I purely judged it on the first episode, I would have never continued it since it was quite the hot mess! However, I kept going, and found something I enjoyed.

One anime I didn’t expect to have a dislike for would be Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin by Madhouse studio. On paper, I should have enjoyed a drama series that shows it delinquent leads overcoming numerous hardships through the course of their life, except I didn’t. I didn’t go into Rainbow with the expectation that is was bad, but that how I felt by the end of it. There are numerous reasons why I consider it a bad anime, and explaining them is also difficult. Rainbow is the kind of series where describing its bad writing is difficult because the methods it uses to get a reaction from the audiences do work. I watched it with a group of friends, and I can tell even if I saw it by myself I would have still disliked the anime. I saw a story that tried every cheap trick it could think of to make it viewer feel sympathy for it characters, but one other person saw an engaging story. Unfortunately, I never had a back, and forth discussion on why I consider Rainbow bad with that person.

Ishihara in Rainbow, completely over the top

That same person who also enjoyed Rainbow a great deal, unlike myself, also recommended me an anime called School Live by studio Lerche. I have no idea why she thought I would enjoy that series, but I’m guessing it’s the fact I have Cardcaptor Sakura in my favorites, and in that Discord server it’s pretty much the one thing everyone knows I like a lot. Instead of shrugging off her recommendation because it has zombies which is something I generally find boring. I went ahead, and watched it. Surprised, I didn’t like it, and I told her that too. However, from that experience it reinforce my notion to check out any recommendation, even if I’m not interested in the genre. The reason is simple, someone recommending me something tells me they want to share that series with me. It’s more preferable than someone telling me to skip something because they think it’s bad. For example, I still online numerous posts telling people to skip the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime from 2003 in favor of Brotherhood. Reason being most of the users considered it a bad series for the original material. If I had followed their advice, I would have missed out on watching one of my favorite anime series of all time.

Before I end up going on forever on this broad topic. The last thing I would probably address is in general it’s also an engaging experience in the opposite way. Much like how not all good anime will always be consistent in quality, there are bad anime that have rare moments where they turn out something of good quality. No other example better stand out to me than the character of Jou Yokosuka from the anime of Rainbow mentioned earlier. His storyline about finding his sister, and desiring to be a singer was tackle really well in the anime. Unlike the general series, Jou Yokosuka suffers the least from over sensationalizing it tragic story, and manage to craft a good character arc in the sea of bad writing.

Offline, I watch anime with my brother from to time. Alongside the good series I show him like Noragami, Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), and Mobile Suit Gundam: 08Th MS Team we also watch the bad ones. He’s very thankful that I introduced him to Green Green (what he consider the worst anime he ever seen), and Wounded Man. However, we also had some fun enjoying the occasional “so bad, it’s good” type of bad anime like Dark Cat, Brain Powerd, and especially Mad Bull 34. From those selection of title, watching anime is like a roller coaster in a unpredictable pattern uncertain if it’ll go up, or go down at any moment. It’s through these titles, and a balance of good, and bad anime that we both have a lot fun watching anime together when we do. It makes the number of discussion we can have increased compare to if we only saw good series, and it would have simply ended up being a non-stop discussion of things we like. Something we both would have eventually gotten bored with.

Artistic recreation of someone reaction when seeing Cardcaptor Sakura in my favorites on MAL

Bad anime is simply a bad anime plain, and simple to some. To me however, bad anime is also part of what I enjoy about watching it. If I only watched anime to enjoy it than I’m going to miss out on a lot anime because of that. Some of the bad anime I’ve seen by myself. I would also later on recommend some to see together as a group. Dark Cat I recommend a group to watch together, in the moment they might have hated my guts for picking something that awful to watch, but thinking back on it. Turned out watching it was a fun experience. Sure, the experience will varied every time depending on the title, or if you watch it in a group, or by yourself. Sometimes it’s trashy fun like Mad Bull 34, and sometime it just makes you hate watching anime like Wounded Man. Or it could be the third type like a friend who watch Kakegurui, and it made it quit watching anime for a while. He didn’t like it.

For me, bad anime are part of the medium I’ve come to appreciate. They are frustrating, and some in particular anger me to no end, but that’s something I value from what I watch. As opposed to it leaving me with no impression once its over. Whether it ends up making me hate teenagers like Assassination Classroom season 2, or make me want to punch something like My Hero Academia season 1. It all keeps me watching anime in the end. Knowing there’s a counterbalance to something like Cardcaptor Sakura that made me consider being a father with something like School Live that made me hate little girls ensures watching anime is never just a single path. Rather, I feel it keeps the rollercoaster that is watching anime a ride worth taking; whether I end up liking it, or not.

Well that’s about it. I went all over the place with the topic, but that sometime happens when I have a lot to say, and plenty of it just rushing out all once. If you made it to the end, I would give you a digital cookie, but Cookie Monster destroyed my house once I mentioned the word cookie. Blame him for stealing your cookies! I have nothing clever left to say, or a clever exit to end this post. Have a nice one, and keep on watching anime (even the bad ones).

Some Thoughts On: Anime-Gataris (2017)

….Oh man, this one I gotta say was annoying in the amount time the word anime was said. You might be wondering why I chose to watch an anime that literally translates too Anime-Chat in English out of the hundreds of anime I have on my plan to watch list. I asked myself the same question every night for the past six days, but then I remember someone on a Discord server I sometime visit. We’ll just call that individual Rob, who had a passionate hatred for Anime-Gataris. Hearing about it the anime from him for the first time, and his immense hatred for the anime was fascinating. I did a quick image search as a result of that discussion. It looked harmless, and nothing I would see from just a quick image search. However, he compared his passionate dislike for Anime-Gataris to my passionate hatred of My Hero Academia season 1 (man, do I hate that anime so much), and that kept it in the back of my mind. Of course, I gotta point out I this anime June 6, of 2018. Why still put in the date of when I completed something in these blog entries? In case I ever go crazy, I can blame it on one of these animes.

I would watch an anime about a DJ cat. To bad I ain’t.

Someone strong negative opinion on Anime-Gataris got me interested in seeing it instead of passing up on it. During this time, I was around 5 episodes away from finishing up Little Witch Academia so why not replace something I had a blast watching with something I wasn’t enjoying. Great logic I know, but I gave it a shot, and to be fair, it still sucked. The whole idea of Anime-Gataris is average high school student Minoa Asagaya becoming entrance into the world of anime, and its fanbase. Okay, that is an idea I can go along with fine. The problem immediately start to pop up since if you know about anything about anime, and its community you will still have to go through explanation after explanations about various things pertaining to anime. Be it genres of anime, anime production itself, the appeal of certain animes, and what not. You get the problem, if you’re well verse into the anime community these explanations are boring to sit through. It doesn’t help either Anime-Gataris loves to use the word anime so much in its dialogue to the point I wanted the character to stop talking about anime! For newcomers, it simply paints every aspect of anime in a positive manner in broad strokes coming across more like an advert to join the anime community than something informative.

When the characters aren’t talking about anime, I kid. That’s generally all the series focuses on. It’s in the title, but at the same time probably seeing the characters have an interest in something else would be nice. Mino Asagaya starts out a normal high school student who doesn’t anything about anime, and once she reopen her school’s anime club with her rich otaku friend in episode 1 that’s all Minoa attention diverts too. Much like how it portrays the anime community, and fandom it doesn’t bother to even mention the possible addiction one can have to anime. Minoa begins to ignore her one friend on the track team who isn’t into anime as the series goes on, and there’s no repercussion. The setup is right there to bring up Minoa sudden obsession with consuming anime to be discussed, and gladly ignores it. This anime doesn’t like conflict.

In terms of a story it’s a slice of life with no overarching story until the last two episodes. Almost the entire series is just Minoa learning everything surrounding anime, and trying to not get her club shut down by the student councils. In terms of conflict, that’s about it. The whole over the top evil student councils act gets old quickly. There would be some more conflict between the anime club members, but after episode 2 where there is some bickering. Also, the line “You’ll make anime cry” caused me to pause the episode, and reflect on life choices. Not long enough since I still continued. There was one interesting plotline where Minoa talks to an anime director whose effort received harsh feedback, and how it soured him to anime. This conflict gets resolved unsatisfactory, but at least it displays some kind of negative aspect around anime.

Unfunny reference number 65

When the “humor” isn’t all about making anime references it got some laughs out of me. There was one unexpected joke that made me laugh in episode 6. It was when Minoa, and her friends go to a shrine, and while holding up the good luck charms a bird poops on one of the charms Minoa is holding. It’s simple, but it got a laugh out of me since it came out of nowhere. Every other time it’s referencing some random anime. Simply referencing something does not equate to a joke, something this Anime-Gataris doesn’t grasp. The biggest drawback is having a mostly eccentric cast of characters so constantly seeing them do over the top things just becomes par for the course. Like one of the member believing one of her male member confess to another male member.

The last two episodes were the most entertaining since that’s when anime becomes one with the real world. Why it happens is convoluted, but at the same time this is a series that has a talking cat that on one pays attention too for most of the season. So anything is fair play in this series world. It actually starts taking shape in episode 9 when people ask for recommendation from the anime club, and the students replicate what they see from anime. You know, like building a working prototypes of working mecha legs, and building a Pyramid for a duel. This would be hilarious if the anime didn’t introduce a talking cat in the first episode. You know, kinda gives away something fishy is going to happen. Minoa talks to this cat who she refers to as Mr. Kitty, and Mr. Kitty is largely unimportant in the grand of schemes until the last two episode when he’s need to revert reality back to how it was.

I would talk about the characters, but you have the super eccentric fan in Kai Musashisakai, Arisu Kamiigusa the rich otaku, Nakano Mitsuteru the popular guy & the school’s prince charming, Erika Aoyama the closeted otaku, Miko Koenji who likes light novel, and Minoa Asagaya the outsider converted into an anime fan. Only half of these character receive any kind of development, and the ones that do don’t have much going for them either, Erika Aoyama is the most interesting since it’s implies she drifted from her former best friend due to how engage in anime. One let go of it while growing up thinking it’s for children, while Erika still enjoys anime, but doesn’t express it openly. Sadly, what could have been a intriguing subplot gets thrown to the way in favor of comedic antics. There’s Kai Musashisakai particular who loves doing over the top movements, roleplay as shounen characters, and believing he has magical powers. When he likes another club member you think the anime would do something with this, except for the fact…yep you guessed it. Nothing much happens with that.

I made a similar face while watching this anime

The only character in this series I’m conflicted about is Minoa Asagaya. She isn’t any different from the rest either since I don’t care about her, especially when English dub actress Dawn M. Bennett tried to hard to make Minoa sounds cutesy. Minoa cutesy voice became grating to me, in particular when you know what word already is constantly brought up by her. Yet, I still can’t help liking her a bit for superficial reasons despite my annoyance. One of them being I like the silly facial reaction she gave sometimes. It’s one of the few things that actually made me laugh consistently. There’s also the many points she overthinks stuff, but I sorta liked that. Showed she cared a lot about her friends, and wanting to get closer to them through a common thing they liked. It’s the closest this series gets to fully developing a character. Some of her lines like “You’ll make anime cry” made me cringe, but at the same time Dawn M. Bennett delivery of these cringey lines made it memorable. I should hate this character because she’s one dimensional, but I just can’t despite my better judgement. As for her character design, I don’t know. Minoa looks exactly like her sister, but with pink hair. Actually, let’s stop talking about her now before I get into a internal philosophical debate on whether, or not I think she’s cute.

On the technical side from the English voice acting, animation, and music it’s subpar. The animation never gets a chance to shine since you just have characters talking about anime nearly all the time. The only chance it breaks away from the mundane are during the last four episodes where the animation gets a bit more silly. On the other hand, WAO World (the animation studio) are lazy in this department too. The most evident being episode 8 where the studio reuses the terrible looking 3D dancing animation in the ending credit within the episode in its entirety. That’s pretty lazy. Episode 8 also deliberately has some crummy animation, but it makes sense context as to why that is.

As I’ve re-read this I notice this, I notice this scattershot post seriously over the place! More so than usual. I should have expected that since as an idea I like what Anime-Gataris could have been, but I don’t like what it actually is. Flat character, annoying anime references, and just coming across as pandering to its viewer with how much it showers anime with praise after praise. On one hand, I did like seeing Minoa attempting to make friends within the anime community, and getting attached to anime like her friend. It’s just all happened to quickly feeling lackluster overall. The only thing I took away from this series is I got no clue if I like Minoa, or not.

Anime-Gataris had some good intentions to show the appeal of anime, and its community from the perspective of someone not well verse in the medium, but it’s a one sided affair. Much like any other communities, the anime community also has its fair share of drawbacks none of which Anime-Gataris ever brings up. That’s just a simple part of reality, but as an introduction to anime it doesn’t work either. Simply generalizing anime fans as people who live, sleep, and breath anime 24/7. I won’t doubt there’s people like this, but it doesn’t show different type of fans in the community. For anyone whose well verse in anime, and its community will find it many scenes explaining basic things boring to sit through. While newcomers to anime will simply be bored by the lack of any interesting development the story story takes. It’s lighthearted slice of anime that in the end of the day is harmless, but doesn’t know what makes a good series in its genre.

If I were to rate this anime, I guess a 4 out 10.

Cinema-Maniac: Blood Heat (2002)

From my little experience in Japanese cinema away from their Samurai, and Yakuza movies. Japan film industry gives a general impression they have a disinterest in producing action movies. The closest Japan gets to producing their equivalent to action blockbuster is either a live action anime/manga adaptation, or their monster/Kaiju movies. I don’t know the reasoning behind this, but I do know for certain that Blood Heat (aka Muscle Heat US Title) wanted to hang with the best in the action genre, and be influential in its country. Obviously that didn’t happen because it barely left a mark even as a footnote in action cinema history.

Left kick missed!

Blood Heat is set in the futuristic year of 2009 following court martial ex-Navy Seal Joe Jinno (Kane Kosugi) in his assignment to put an end to the circulation of super steroid drug Blood Heat. When the movie started I was mostly on board with the story. Things were to easy follow, and were developing nicely. It was focus, and contained itself in it simplicity for thirty minutes. After those first thirty minutes the film issues of convoluted plot points, thin characters, and by the number storytelling deteriorate a passable action movie into a chore. Choosing to grasp more than it can actually achieve burying anything it actually does well in terms of writing. This is primarily due to the fact that it sets up  plot points, but doesn’t expand on them. Plot points like Joe protecting a little girl, the underground people calling themselves “sewer rats” starting a revolution, and Joe seeking vengeance remain flat in the overarching story. This wouldn’t be an issue if Joe Jinno desire to take vengeance was fleshed out at all. Joe gets the entirety of one scene showing Joe, and his partner bond before Joe’s partner bites the dust. Before that, the only scene Joe, and his partner share is Joe getting recruited into his current assignment. Just simply stating through dialogue Joe, and his partner have become good friends won’t generate investment like the movie think it will.

The drug itself, Blood Heat, main function is basically acting like a super steroid. Established in a newsreel it is revealed Blood Heat can increase the physical capacity of the user five times over the normal limit, and the user becomes depended on it after a single dose. You might think that user would be able to punch a hole in a person face with that much boost in physical strength, but it doesn’t. Blood Heat, the drug, is mostly used for blood combat in the Muscle Dome (a death combat arena), and its effects are pretty lame when in sight. This also creates a numerous amount of logical gap within the film establish universe; like why doesn’t the film villain provide Blood Heat for all his henchman if it can enhance their physical abilities. Since the film doesn’t clearly get across much negative side effects in using Blood Heat it’s questionable why the villain doesn’t do this. Another issue would be the lack of impact the drug is shown to have in civilians. It’s stated that Blood Heat is spreading rapidly, but hardly shown being consumed when the film’s villain isn’t around.

So this is how a Japan in over two decades of depression looks like. Kinda nice.

Biggest faults of the writing comes from director Ten Shimoyama inability to hide his budgetary shortcomings. It’s established in the first five minutes that Japan had been in a depression for over two decades, yet decides to show aerial shot of a nice looking Japan. Adding to the disservice he does to the writing is not displaying a more economically broken Japan. in its set designs There’s not much dirt on the actors playing the Sewer Rats gangs, and is too nice looking in the environments to visually get across a economically depressed Japan. Simply making the background a little ugly, or filled a little trash isn’t too much to get the setting correct. There’s also his overblown direction at times to scenes that don’t need it. When actor Kane Kusogi sees his partner getting killed, instead of letting the sight of Kane Kusogi being depressed in the rain do its job. Here comes Ten Shimoyama choosing to insert a cheesy Spanish guitar, and violins instrumental to the sequence. A simple moment of seeing Kane Kusogi down in the rain is made cheesy by the inclusion of music. Creating a unintentional cheesy nature during the film’s most serious moments. Especially the crucifixion of actor Show Aikawa was pretty heavy handed in the many contrived monologues trying to make itself appear deeper than it actually is.  Adding onto the list of issue is Shimoyama pacing. Portions of the movie felt longer than they actually were, while portions that should have been longer feel to short. Resulting in a movie, and story that feels underwhelming on all front. There’s no raising action in narrative to make things feel like they’re escalating, and without engaging characters you’re left with what eventually becomes a chore to watch after the first thirty minutes. 

The biggest surprise in the movie is a good chunk of the dialogue in Blood Heat is spoken in English, Japanese, Cantonese, and a little bit of Korean in the film just for added measure. More surprising is the acting in the movie is pretty solid. Kane Kosugi is the film leading action star. Doing all his own stunt he more than has the physical abilities to carry a movie. Looking proficient in his fight sequences, and being able to perform his fight scenes with ease like many famous onscreen martial artists. His commitment on the action makes it a shame he hasn’t gotten many opportunities to take the leading role. Although, that could be do to his middling acting abilities. He’s able to make awkwardly written English dialogue sound when he delivers it, and his Japanese dialogue he’s able to put a bit anger in his delivery. He simply lacks range in his acting ability always looking angry in nearly all of his scene. Kane Kusogi also lacks charisma explaining his lack of comedy scene, or long takes during dramatic portions past a certain point in the movie.

Most disappointing performance is easily from Show Aikawa who can’t do anything in his role because of his limited time. Best he could provide for his character is simply putting on sunglasses, and looking cool. Caring about him, or his character he’s unable to do anything on that front. Same with Misato Tachibana who who plays Show Aikawa sister isn’t in the film much either. Both of these actors lack of screen time make is made very evident in sequence that meant to be the dramatic height of those two character arcs, but nothing emotion is gained from it. Masaya Kato is enjoyable over the top as the film’s main villain. His line delivery are simply blissful when spouting out ridiculous English dialogue you simply can’t take him seriously. When speaking in their native language the Japanese actors are okay to mediocre, but when speaking English it’s pretty rough at times. Although, some of it is to blame on the awkward, and at times grammatically incorrect English dialogue.

Not even the glass is spared in this fight sequence.

The fight choreography is handled by Jackie Chan’s stunt team regular Ming-Sing Wong. Creating Hong Kong style action with the look of Japanese cinema. For the first half of the movie, the action sequences are on par with Hong Kong action cinema. Choreography is creative in its limited setting, typically in tight corridors with little room for error. Kane Kusogi fighting a dozen men in a hallway is the obvious highlight with slight usage of wire work. This fight sequence is tight being able to actors in the background waiting for their que to attack. Hiding the background actors expertly as the choreography has Kane tossing henchman like rag dolls to the people in the hallways. When someone attacks Kane, the cinematography keeps anyone in the background out of frame placing the focus on Kane, and the single person he’s fighting in that moment. This is one smooth, and seamless looking action sequence.

Making it a shame the remainder of the action sequences are lame. The cinematography isn’t as tight with Kane fight against Joe Lee is the sleepiest fight in the movie. Having some sparse shots where contact isn’t made when trading blows. Joe, and Kane Kusogi fight in the Muscle Dome suffers from one sided nature. At first Kane Kusogi is pummeling Joe Lee, but than the reverse happens once Blood Heat kicks than Kane Kusogi gets beaten without using any counter maneuvers. This is a boring fight since both actors are clearly capable of doing complex choreography, but the baffling decision to not show Joe Lee, and Kane Kusogi on some kind of even ground makes the long fight sequence dull. Then comes the climax which is also disappointing, and the slowest fight sequence in the movie. All to this point all the previous action sequences had actors performing them at normal speed. In the climax, Kane Kusogi, and actor Masaya Kato fight with sledgehammer, and it’s slow moving. Revealing the setback of having two actors fight with sledgehammer as both simply trade blows, and dodge without doing anything impressive in the matter. Once both actors drop the sledgehammers, both knee cap each other before throwing a single flying kick ending the fight. You don’t get to see the final blow in the fight as it cuts to black! Talk about anti-climatic.

And one last gif of Kane Kosugi doing something cool. His own stunts.

Blood Heat is the definition of brainless action cinema, and on some level it can be enjoyable on that front. It’s tries it hardest to be a Hollywood level action blockbuster, but without the budget it falls more in line of B-movie with some competent production values, some competent action sequences, and a competent enough lead in Kane Kusogi to carry the film. Bad aspects are obviously the poor writing unable to develop anything engaging, and bad direction that’s unable to visually tell its story, nor pace it properly. If you’re ever in the mood for brainless entertainment that’s somewhat watchable Blood Heat is not a bad choice, but otherwise you ain’t missing much in this little film that couldn’t cut it for the big leagues.

Rating: 4/10