Spirited Killer (1994) Review

AKA Plook mun Kuen ma kah 4 is a low budget Thai Martial arts film from the early 90s featuring a young Tony Jaa. Now the DVD set I bought put all the focus on Jaa as you can tell in the above international DVD cover. But he is in fact only in one segment of the film, but does get to show off some of his skills before making his exit.
The film follows a bunch of travellers out in the Thai rainforest, who must help a local village take down an evil man who is wreaking havoc in the rainforest, fighting and killing all who he encounters.
It's minimal on plot, but heavy on the action with a fight occuring pretty much every 5-10 minutes. The action is well choreographed and fun, though the film does get a little tiresome towards the end and feels a little excessive, like the opening setup which is needlessly padded out to almost 20 minutes.
Now the version I watched had an english dub which was of course awful and threw in some stupid humour, though interestingly when there was no talking they kept to the original audio. A thai dub was available but with no english subs, though I probably still would have been better off with it, its not like there's much to follow.
Overall the movie is fun to a certain extent but could have shaved some of its time off, even if it is only 90 minutes. **1/2

The Assassin (2015)

 

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first feature film in 8 years is a steadily paced martial arts drama, that has a very different feel to the usual martial arts films you see. It is a film of great beauty and elegance requiring patience from the viewer as it calmly unfolds (though it will sure be to slow for some). Despite it's beauty and very steady pacing, the film is actually isn't the easiest to follow and is slightly puzzling, so there were certainly times I felt a little lost, but I still got the jist of everything. The choreography is also commendable, nothing stand out but it fits with the films elegance.

Overall this is a very solid movie but not quite great, it's different from what we usually get from martial arts genre, but it's certainly not for everyone.

***1/2

Ip Man 3

The final installment in Wilson Yip's Ip Man trilogy and possibly Donnie Yen's last martial arts film (according to him). A solid entry that is not as good as the first two films but still a satisfying enough conclusion. Action choreography is really good as expected and the film is worth it for the somewhat dream match of Donnie Yen vs Mike Tyson. The plot is pretty standard stuff but it still has a small emotional core that doesn't hit as hard as it should but still evokes a little sadness.
Still overall its pretty good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as its predecessors. ***

The Battle Wizard (1977)

I do like mad martial arts films and this one is pretty damn wacky. Fully of dodgy effects, odd shots and editing and holding a very fast pace, this movie was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Wacky, strange and hugely enjoyable.
***1/2