The Chinese dirty dozen

After Bruce and Jet Li/Lee, it's time to cover the great Jackie Chan - at least a bit. The movie i want to cover today is one of the wackiest and most entertaining B-Movies i know (and i know quite a few).

Fantasy Mission Force

(aka Mission Force or Dragon Attack among a dozen other titles) is a Jackie Chan film in the way that Game of Death II is a Bruce Lee film - he's in it alright, but only for short fight scenes and he's more of a side character. It almost seems like a Godfrey Ho movie, but he shares scenes with the rest of the cast. Our main heroes are a bunch of misfits and cutthroats that get recruited to rescue Allied Commanders from the Japanese / the Nazis - yes it is supposed to play during WW2.

(The other expendables)

While the costumes for the heroes are strange, they are almost tame compared to the enemies they have to overcome. On the way through the chinese backwaters (one almost expects them to run into a shaw bros movie by accident), our friends encounter all kinds of random plot scenes.

Amazons led by a chinese Hugh Hefner, Ghosts, random Kung Fu Tournaments and Nazis that look like Mad Max villains all make an appearance, sometimes interrupted by Jackie Chan kicking some ass. 

-

(Pocahontas'es attack!)

The movie is unbelievably silly and you never know what happens next, but it also boast an amusing cast and the action scenes are actually not that bad - a must see for fans of entertaining B-Movies.

More legendary fists

Fist of Legend

Fist of fury is considered a classic, so it's no wonder that it got remade. Jet Li picks up the mantle of Chen Zhen in a remake that is actually much better in many respects. Aside from an unbelievably boring poster (The movie is called fist of legend? Lets put the fist front and center of the poster! What about the legend part? Just add some glowy text effect in the background. Thats it!)

(pure genius)

The tweaks to the story are surprisingly well thought out. Chen Zhen is actually studying in Japan and in love with a japanese girl. This might be one of the few cases where 90s political correctness actually improved a movie. You can see that they made an effort to be more nuanced and not have a scene by scene copy of the original. Not all japanese are bad guys and the villain, while still being over the top, is actually menacing.

(notice the lack of swirlable moustache)

The real upgrade is the fighting. While Let Li is known for wire-fu (think Once upon a time in China), most of the fight cheoreography in fist of legends is much more down to earth. The speed is pretty high and the stunt men actually know what they do. There is still a lot of tough guy posing, but Jet Li doesn't go as overboard as in the original. There is still a lot of one-vs-many fights with people flying through rooms after a simple hit, but the real highlights are the long and brutal one on one fights. The cinematography isn't as good as some Jackie Chan films, but the editing and the very controlled use of slow motion is top notch. 

Tanze Muay Thai mit mir, Muay Thai die ganze Nacht...

Revenge Of The Warrior
OT: Tom Yum Goong

Bild: PAL (1,85:1 / anamaorph 16:9)

Laufzeit: ca. 82 min

Ton:
Deutsch (DTS 5.1)
Deutsch (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Thailändisch (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Für den deutschen Markt gibt es eine Single-DVD (die ich habe) und eine Doppel-DVD mit den folgenden Extras auf DVD 2:

• Regisseur Prachya Pinkaew schildert die Dreharbeiten zur legendären extralangen "One Shot-Kampfszene" (35:11 Min.)
  Workout mit Tony Jaa (07:01 Min.)
  Interview mit Petchtai Wongkamlao (Mark) (01:35 Min.)
  Interview mit Bongkoj Khongmalai (Pla) (01:31 Min.)
  Interview mit Tri Nguyen (Johnny) (03:24 Min.)
  Interview mit Jing Xing (Madame Rose) (01:23 Min.)
  Interview mit Jonathan Patrick Foo (Wushu-Kämpfer) (02:06 Min.)
  Interview mit Kevin McGrath (Produzent) (01:35 Min.)
  Tony Jaa's "Ong-Bak"-Promotion Tour in Frankreich (03:08 Min.), in Japan (03:01 Min.), in Korea (02:41 Min.), in Taiwan (01:58 Min.), in den USA (01:31 min.)
  Tony Jaa's "Tom Yum Goong"-Promotion Tour in Korea (07:24 Min.)
  Tony Jaa's Guiness-Weltrekord: 1000 Menschen trainieren mit ihm "Muay Thai" (04:20 Min.)
  Artwork-Galerie (03:24 Min.)

Kurzinhalt
Als die beiden Elefanten von Kahms Familie von einer Mafiaorganisation aus Thailand nach Australien verschleppt werden, macht dieser sich auf nach Sydney um sie zu suchen. Dort angekommen muss er feststellen, dass er einem skrupellosen Feinschmeckerring auf die Schliche gekommen ist. Diese machen selbst vor bedrohten Arten nicht halt und auch die Polizei scheint ihre Finger im Spiel zu haben...