It’s a typical, predictable story, isn’t it? They’ve tried to twist it too much. It’s a simple story, and I’ll give you a brief idea without any spoilers. There’s a mute man who can’t speak. He has a daughter, and the man who is her father is a karate master. He’s a very strong man. If you’ve seen the movie Blast, like the one in which the karate master was, you’ll understand this is also a similar type of business. There’s a human trafficking ring going on. He’s kidnapping children. Then his daughter gets kidnapped. What he does throughout the film to save his daughter? That’s what you’ll really see in this movie.
Look, now, if I talk about the action in this film, it’s top-notch action. While watching this film, I felt like, “Man, I don’t watch all the Korean content, all the dramas, you know? Why isn’t it like this?” Look, I was able to watch this because they were talking in English. It’s not like they’re talking in Hong Kong. You know, I mean, it’s definitely a Hong Kong-based film, they’re talking in Chinese or Mandarin. After that, they haven’t dubbed it, they’re talking in English. So that makes me feel like, yes, I’m watching exactly the same thing. The second thing I really like about this whole film is like the Hong Kong Noah feel. The ret-ro type lights were moving, the neon lights were moving, that was really interesting to me. It basically maintained the vibe of the film. I won’t say it’s over-the-top, and like this. I mean, they tried to keep it a little grounded. Now, the third and most important thing, what I have noticed is… So far, I’ve noticed one thing that seems to follow a pattern in most South East Asian films: they have fights in claustrophobic settings.
[nasal voice] Like “Old Boy,” you might remember, the main theme is a hammer, and the other claustrophobic setting is a balcony. These are stairs.
There was a scene in this [nasal voice] where they’re holding him back during a full-on stairs fight, and he’s hitting him. Hitting him with a hammer. Oh, that’s a dangerous move.
So, I was wondering, why is that? Because most of the time, whenever I watch South East Asian cinema, it follows a pattern. So, I realized, yes, that’s their concept. I think Korean content might be similar.
I’ve been thinking about watching Korean content. After watching this, I felt like watching action. Now what I’m talking about now is the Bold Guy.
There’s a Bold Guy in this film. Tell me what this film is like? It’s like a stage in a video game. Just like if you play a few Triple A titles, there are stages built in. Not the old retro ones, not the NES ones, but the current ones, where the first stage is where our protagonist is going. He’s doing this, he’s doing that.
So, it was a similar pattern in this one. The first mission was where he stole his daughter and ran away. There was a fight scene. After that, there was the second scene where he goes looking for her. Then
the third scene came. Literally, I’d say, there’s a 10-minute story. Then a 20-minute fight. Then a 10-minute story. Then a 20-minute five-minute scene. This is the pattern of the entire film. The coolest character I found was the bald guy in this one. They created a character like in a video game, so there’s a way to kill a bald guy. It’s not like that; the bald guy never dies. So, this bald character was exactly the same. He’s not dying at all. I was like, man, it feels like I’m playing a game. If I had the remote in my hand, I might have felt like it was a game. Now, the third and most important thing was the story of the film, towards the end, I was like, look, he’s lost his daughter. I’ll tell you, I’m not giving away spoilers. If you tell me yourself, there’s a father trying to find his daughter. He saved his daughter. Technically, the story ends there. But after that, look, the story continues. A guy has gone mad and is cutting his fingers. After that, there’s something else.
No spoilers. After that, they stretched the story for half an hour. I personally didn’t click with it. I think that part seemed very illogical. He’s not dying at all. No one is affected.
They’re being killed. He’s killing too. Knives are flying from here. Arrows, this one, that one, but no one is affected at all. And a man who’s already dead.