It’s been a minute since a true, no-holds-barred actioner hit major cinemas — though props to Kirill Sokolov’s breezily gross horror comedy “They Will Kill You” for mostly filling the void — and boy howdy have we hit the motherlode with this high-octane martial arts brawler with a message we can all get behind. (Don’t kidnap children!)
We’re in an unnamed country in Southeast Asia, and tradesman Wang Wei (Xie Miao, “The New Legend of Shaolin”) has his life turned upside-down when some extremely well-connected human traffickers kidnap his daughter. (What did I just friggin’ say about kidnapping children?)
The good news is that the mute, mysterious man does happen to have, let’s say, a particular set of skills. But he can’t do it alone, so he reluctantly joins forces with Navin (Joe Taslim, “The Raid”), a journalist who’s been tracking this dastardly syndicate for his own personal reasons. Together, they will whoop an unholy amount of ass to get their loved ones back.
The film’s multinational approach is worth digging into; the English-language, Hong Kong-produced movie comes from Japanese director Kenji Tanigaki (the stunt choreographer for 2024’s “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In”), was shot in Thailand and features an international array of the genre’s most notable action stars demonstrating the best of their respective country’s fighting style. (The person likely most recognizable to American audiences? The mountainous bruiser as played by Brian Le, who was in “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and the locally made “The Paper Tigers”).
The result is a bombastic blast of bone-crushing brutality that will get an audience hooting and hollering with each body blow.
