Director: Victor Vu
Year: 2017
Country: Vietnam
Alternate Titles: Lôi Báo
Genre: Action
Plot:
After being diagnosed with a deadly disease, a struggling comic book artist is convinced by a friend of the family to undergo an experimental procedure to cure his illness and return him to full health. Once the process has been completed, he and his wife notice that an unintended side-effect of the surgery is an increased set of superhuman capabilities, which he initially uses to perform feats of heroism for those around him. But as he tries to get used to his new abilities, he has to struggle not only with a further unintended side effect involving memories inherited from the donor for the surgery, but with dealing with the ruthless gangsters intent on getting the technology for themselves.
Review:
Generally, this one has quite a lot to like in this style. One of the better elements here is the setup that generates a believable superhero origin story in this type of environment. Introducing him as a struggling comic-book artist trying to make ends meet for his family and trying to get a comic book superhero title off the ground while also battling a terminal illness works to bring the audience onto his side from the onset. Seeing the virtuousness that he carries throughout the early stages of the film, where we see him choose the honorable qualities in life despite his lack of success and untreated illness, helps to sympathize with the guy so that he remains relatable throughout the movie.
Additionally, this ensures that the film is packed with the kind of quality action scenes expected in the genre, which keeps everything exciting and thrilling. Reliant on showcasing blinding martial arts speed and dynamic parkour-style abilities more than any kind of genuine supernatural power, the feats accomplished here remain quite reachable in a normal action film involving a person with a pronounced martial arts skillset. With high-energy fight choreography utilizing hand-to-hand skills as well as some accomplished acrobatics through some parkour-fueled chase scenes, the encounters and confrontations are fun enough until we get to the explosive finale. Not content to rely on these still-impressive elements, this provides a motorcycle chase and more gunplay to offset a big brawl to close everything out, giving a lot of positive points overall.
While there’s a lot to like here, this does have some minor drawbacks. The main issue at play here is that the surgery that allows him to unlock his newfound powers makes very little sense. This simply sets up a scenario involving organ transplanting and body-swapping without going into detail as to how it works, rather than detailing the process or how he’s able to conjure the memories of his original donor, aspects just glossed over, leaving a key part of the storyline somewhat frustrating. As well, this is also slightly overlong with an unnecessary setup involving the family dynamics, which runs on way too long for what it’s intended to do and brings a sense of redundancy while also enhancing the running time. These do manage to hold it back somewhat.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall highly enjoyable Vietnamese action film, this one maintains a lot of likable factors to make it a fun entry in the superhero genre while also working nicely as a straightforward action film. Viewers who appreciate either of those styles will find an entertaining enough movie here, while those turned off by the factors presented will want to heed caution.
This review was originally published on Asian Movie Pulse and is gratefully reprinted with their cooperation.
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