On the surface, High Kickers sounds like a fairly appealing proposition : the beautiful and talented Eva Huang Shengyi in a film highlighting the Korean martial art know as Tae Kwon Do, with a living legend in the person of Gordon Liu (in one of his last roles before a stroke left him tragically diminished) lending credence to the project and support from Hong Kong mainstays Waise Lee and Mark Cheng. The plot, which concerns a young woman (Huang) seeking, and slowly gaining, the mentorship of an ageing Tae Kwon Do instructor (Gordon Liu) with an aim to defeat the champion (Mark Cheng) who accidentally killed her brother in an illegal match, isn’t exactly original or even plausible, but it might have been at least serviceable, had the productions values not been so incredibly dismal, and the directing so direly aimless and vague. Every aspect of the production is handled with a dumbfounding amateurishness. The writing is limp and builds absolutely nothing over the course of the film’s 80-minute runtime. The actors are all professionals that are either horribly miscast (50 year-old Mark Cheng as the national Tae Kwon Do champion), or ridiculously underused (Waise Lee barely registers as Mark Cheng’s coach, Gordon Liu is the only accomplished martial artist in the cast, but doesn’t get to fight). But even more damningly, the fighting is little more than a neverending series of poorly-shot high kicks performed quite obviously by stunt doubles, and limited to short skirmishes in non-descript gymnasiums and dojos. At the center of this anemic whimper of a film is Eva Huang Shengyi, a talented, appealing actress who deserves so much more. *
HIGH KICKERS (2013) short review
Posted in Film Reviews
Posted by LP Hugo on January 5, 2015
https://asianfilmstrike.com/2015/01/05/high-kickers-2013-short-review/
Previous Post
SILENT WITNESS (2013) review
SILENT WITNESS (2013) review
Next Post
THE GREAT HYPNOTIST (2014) review
THE GREAT HYPNOTIST (2014) review
Leave a comment
- Follow Asian Film Strike on WordPress.com
Asian Film Strike on Twitter
- RT @ukchinafilm: Come and join us for this timely discussion. @HKFilmart @hkfilmnet @AsianFilmStrike @AFF_HK https://t.co/xpiMRGGJkK 18 hours ago
- One of my all-time favorite HK shootouts: youtube.com/watch?v=nXu1QF… https://t.co/EBW2r3Tg2P 6 days ago
- First character posters for Wong Jing & Woody Hui's crime epic ONCE UPON A TIME IN HONG KONG (a thematic sequel to… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 week ago
- RT @chinaenews: Li Bingbing covers fashion magazine chinaentertainmentnews.com/2021/03/li-bin… https://t.co/22kki6KtmS 1 week ago
- Where the Censorship Blows twitter.com/rachel_cheung1… 2 weeks ago
Top Posts Today
Asian Film Strike on Instagram
Tags
aaron kwok alex fong chung sun andy lau andy on cynthia khan donnie yen eddie peng eric tsang fan siu-wong fantasy francis ng girls with guns horror jackie chan kara hui lam ka tung lam suet louis koo martial arts moon lee remake sammo hung kam bo simon yam song jia tony leung ka-fai wong jing yuen biao yuen wah yukari oshima yu nanRequest a review