06-11-2022, 11:04 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-11-2022, 11:28 PM by Drunk Monk.)
Believe it or not, I’m still in Bollywood here - or more accurately, Mollywood. I think this was my first Malayalam film. There was a lot of buzz about this production prior to the pandemic, then I lost track of it.
It was surprisingly good. Not great but not bad. I did miss that Netflix speed function. Prime doesn’t play that.
A martial arts gang terrorizes a city near the Himalayas. A Wing Chun master helps the cops identify some of the gang using his martial network. The gang kills his family. He and his sister walk the road of vengeance. Yeah, cliche, but it has enough of an angle on it to make it work even the 2 hour running time was excessive, especially at the beginning.
The fights were okay. The lead Neeta Pillai definitely has some Wing Chun. There was a lot of buzz about how hard Jiji Scaria trained a year prior to filming, but that’s not much in martial years. Her forms suck but she can sell a punch and kick. The villains all seems to have some skills too. Almost the entire cast is credited as ‘introducing’ so for a first time effort, not bad.
The backdrops are incredibly scenic because it’s the Himalayas. The Indian markets and buildings have vibrant local color. And the villains’ lairs are these architecturally interesting abandoned structures.
Unlike most films, the heroes are beautiful. Jiji is cute but she has significant acne scarring, which you’d think they would’ve covered with makeup.
Mollywood has this weird device where warnings in Malayalam appear in little boxes whenever something illegal is represented - this ranges from drug use (the main villain, who is very good at being bad, sniffs coke off his index finger - which is a dumb wasteful way to snort), to smoking, to riding motorcycles without helmets to seat belts notices whenever they rode in a car. That was distracting but I approve of the idea. It takes you out of the movie and reminds you that it’s bad.
What I liked most was the general mercilessness of it. SPOILER ALERT when the villains kill the family, they bash in the skull of thr dad, kick a pregnant mom so hard she dies with blood bursting from her groin, and kill a little kid, although that’s off screen. When the heroes take revenge, they’re all in. Each villain is dispatched with angry glares and no hesitation. The heroes have no issues with brutally murdering everyone in the gang, some with some bone cracking coup de graces. END SPOILER
No dance numbers - maybe that’s a Mollywood thing. This plays out like most Kung Fu films with three long fight scenes that escalate well enough. There’s too much time spent setting up what a lovely family it is and then emotional recovery, but once the fights start rolling, it’s tasty ultravi.
D00M recommended - just fast forward to the location and fight scenes.
It was surprisingly good. Not great but not bad. I did miss that Netflix speed function. Prime doesn’t play that.
A martial arts gang terrorizes a city near the Himalayas. A Wing Chun master helps the cops identify some of the gang using his martial network. The gang kills his family. He and his sister walk the road of vengeance. Yeah, cliche, but it has enough of an angle on it to make it work even the 2 hour running time was excessive, especially at the beginning.
The fights were okay. The lead Neeta Pillai definitely has some Wing Chun. There was a lot of buzz about how hard Jiji Scaria trained a year prior to filming, but that’s not much in martial years. Her forms suck but she can sell a punch and kick. The villains all seems to have some skills too. Almost the entire cast is credited as ‘introducing’ so for a first time effort, not bad.
The backdrops are incredibly scenic because it’s the Himalayas. The Indian markets and buildings have vibrant local color. And the villains’ lairs are these architecturally interesting abandoned structures.
Unlike most films, the heroes are beautiful. Jiji is cute but she has significant acne scarring, which you’d think they would’ve covered with makeup.
Mollywood has this weird device where warnings in Malayalam appear in little boxes whenever something illegal is represented - this ranges from drug use (the main villain, who is very good at being bad, sniffs coke off his index finger - which is a dumb wasteful way to snort), to smoking, to riding motorcycles without helmets to seat belts notices whenever they rode in a car. That was distracting but I approve of the idea. It takes you out of the movie and reminds you that it’s bad.
What I liked most was the general mercilessness of it. SPOILER ALERT when the villains kill the family, they bash in the skull of thr dad, kick a pregnant mom so hard she dies with blood bursting from her groin, and kill a little kid, although that’s off screen. When the heroes take revenge, they’re all in. Each villain is dispatched with angry glares and no hesitation. The heroes have no issues with brutally murdering everyone in the gang, some with some bone cracking coup de graces. END SPOILER
No dance numbers - maybe that’s a Mollywood thing. This plays out like most Kung Fu films with three long fight scenes that escalate well enough. There’s too much time spent setting up what a lovely family it is and then emotional recovery, but once the fights start rolling, it’s tasty ultravi.
D00M recommended - just fast forward to the location and fight scenes.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse