Director: Chaya Supannarat
Year: 2024
Country: Thailand
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Kung-Fu/Martial Arts
Plot:
After foiling a criminal operation, a secret government military operation learns the contents of dead drug-trafficked bodies they’ve recovered points to the involvement of a big-time criminal kingpin in Thailand that they’ve been after for years. Sensing the opportunity, they use one of their top agents on a mission to infiltrate the gang under the guise of a captured member of the enemy organization during the raid and finally bring him down, but when a series of complications arise from the escaped henchmen looking to reclaim his status in the organization, twisted allegiances with other members, and a panicked home-base worried about pulling him out, he fights to complete his mission and bring down the criminal head.
Review:
This was a decent enough modern action film. The story itself is decent enough, operating under the guise of the undercover operative working at a high level in the society to try to bring the head down which serves as a fairly predictable general setup. The concept isn't bad and allows him to get into the good graces of the boss where he spends the majority of the time operating with the middle-men in the organization where he makes a reluctant friend with a disillusioned member of the group that develops throughout the film as they battle the various thugs and different setups within their structure. The series of interactions involving the two building up their relationship throughout the film is a solid touch and helps to give them some sympathy for them over the film.
However, where this one works the best is the standout martial arts sequences throughout here. This is pretty nonstop with a slew of effective and high-energy sequences featuring plenty of well-choreographed sequences involving some skilled performers unleashed in great confrontations. With the initial battle capturing the henchmen in the dockyard is a frenetic opener, while the main encounters while inside the operation favor similarly fun and frenetic if shorter brawls like the street battle with uncooperative thugs, a hospital assault with various henchmen, and the highway confrontations involving the machine-gun thugs trying to put a hit on him. The final fight is rather fun where he seems genuinely outclassed and has to earn the victory through smarts and surroundings to succeed, leaving the fighting here with such a high mark overall as a highlight allows for a great time overall.
However, outside of that, the film is a bit lacking here. The main storyline is so cliched and formulaic that not many extra shenanigans are offered to bring this one a more original concept. None of this is all that interesting to play out either as the storyline isn’t that interesting when not dealing with the conscious-troubled member he forms a friendship with detailing no shortage of the sort of sequence with trying to keep his cover intact despite the cruelty depicted by his boss or keeping tas on the handler who knows his mission. It’s too bland to work, especially with the focus on trying to make everything compelling when no one else really makes an impression so these random characters make no notice on the journey throughout here. As this goes alongside the formulaic setup where it’s pretty easy to guess the storyline beats throughout here, it ends up being the factors that hold it back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A fairly fun and enjoyable martial arts effort, there’s a lot to like here when dealing solely with that factor of the film as the rest of this one does come up pretty problematic at times. Those who are hardcore fans of the style presented here or don’t mind the flaws present will have the most to like here while most others out there should heed caution with this one.
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