The Trigonal: Fight for Justice (Filipino 2018) by Vincent Soberano

[cranefly]

One of the most unique takes on the martial arts genre I've seen in a long while.  True, the protagonist has a pregnant wife and very bad things happen to her, because he needs a revenge motivation, but at least he doesn't have a dog, so that's a plus.  True, it involves an underground fighting tournament, with fighters of different styles coming from around the world to vie for a million dollar prize.  True, there's a drug cartel beneath it all, with juiced up fighters.  But here's the thing.  Here's what makes it stand apart.  The bouts take place on a triangular stage.  The trigonal, get it?  Absolutely riveting idea.

I'll confess to wishing for fighters with appropriate villainous names like Hypotenuse, Isosceles, Scalene, Equilateral .  But perhaps I ask too much.

It's a colorful mess of a movie, lurching along, making good enough decisions at key points to keep it afloat.  There's mostly mediocre fighting, and what might be superior fighting is hurt by average choreography.

DM is probably more in the know about the cast than I am.  Clearly there's some talent aboard, including a Chinese lady (Sarah Chang) who appears to be a Wushu expert.  She becomes the protagonist's corner man when he goes to the Trigonal, and though her character is all over the place, she provides a surprising amount of color (and humor) with her reactions and comments.

The protagonist (played by Ian Ignacio) isn't particularly good-looking, according to LCF, though she only glimpsed him near the end (passing through the living room) after he was all beat up.  But still, he's got a full head of hair, very long with lots of body, which the Trigonal officials required him to cut before he could compete, and he wouldn't, he refused, as a matter of principle...  Wait a sec.  I'm getting that mixed up with a documentary I recently saw.  He keeps his lush locks throughout.

Lots of styles and weapons presented in a scattershot way.  It held my interest, though not certain I'd recommend.

[Drunk Monk]

Sarah Chang was a former US Wushu Team member.  I don't remember offhand if I ever met her.  Maybe.  She was a student of Zhang Guifeng who comes to TCEC regularly. Zhang was a Beijing Wushu Team member of Jet Li's generation.  Our other TCEC MC, Chris Pei, is Zhang's husband.  

I don't know any of the rest of the cast.  

And the Trigonal concept is just poached from Star Trek - The Gamesters of Triskelion.  

Honestly cf, how could you forget Shahna.

[cranefly]

Dammit.  No wonder I grew up so normal.  I don't believe I saw that episode.

I was never much of a trekkie.  I only watched episodes when the preview showed Kirk shirtless.

Well, okay.  Apparently he's shirtless in this episode.  But at the time I had a phobia about lollipops.  And the very idea of people fighting with giant lollipops...

And no, I hadn't been exposed to Guandaos yet, so I didn't see that connection.


Back to the Trigonal, Sarah Chang impressed me in her role.  So many martial artists come across stiff, stoic, and expressionless when asked to act.  They're tough fighters, after all.  She was nicely flippant and playful in her scenes.  I almost think she was experimenting with a lot of her takes -- you know, almost outtake material.  And that afterwards, when she saw the finished version, she was saying, "Holy shit.  You kept that?"  Could be wrong, but that was my impression.  But it helps an overly somber and serious movie.


Not that I'm recommending it.

[Drunk Monk]

Dammit.  No wonder I grew up so normal.  I don't believe I saw that episode.

WHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT!?!?!

Most illogical.  

You could be blackballed for such heresy.  You must see it ASAP.  

It's basically an episode designed for a lot of random fight scenes with space weapons.  


In a trigonal arena


And Kirk vs. Shahna is soooooo ST: TOS.