NOVEMBER 18 — Action films, especially fight flicks, usually have a pretty bad reputation, even among casual movie fans. 

More often than not, they’ll be accused of having weak or ridiculous storylines, cardboard characterisations and of course cartoonish logic. 

For me, I’d be willing to forgive almost anything in a fight flick as long as the fights are awesome and I can emotionally connect with the lead character or his or her mission.

Great storylines are a mere bonus in fight flicks, because their raison d’etre is nothing more than to serve viewers with a creative variety of fights of all kinds. 

So as long as they can blow me away with one incredible action set-piece after another, I’d be more than happy to sit back and enjoy the ride.

2017 has been a pretty bountiful year for fight flicks, with John Wick: Chapter 2 and Atomic Blonde representing the higher budgeted studio fare and the DTV (direct-to-video) and indie/foreign language market having already seen highly anticipated titles like Headshot and Boyka making their mark on home video, and that is without taking into account the rich bounty that can be found in East Asian cinema.

Talking about East Asian action cinema, I’ve finally gotten the chance to see two relatively new fight flicks after their recent debut on home video in the US and the UK.

So if action movies are your kind of thing, please do read on and check them out!

The Villainess

An incredibly bonkers, boldly emotional and highly entertaining viewing experience from the still very fertile waters of South Korean cinema, this new film from director Jung Byung-Gil (who previously did Confession Of Murder) is probably going to end the year as the best fight flick of 2017, with all due respect to John Wick: Chapter 2 and Headshot. 

Despite its dizzying nods to other films, with plenty of scenes that directly reference classics like La Femme Nikita, Kill Bill: Volume 1, A Bittersweet Life, Oldboy and Tom-Yum Goong, Jung has still managed to carve out something unique here by melding two genres that have long been the trademarks of South Korean cinema — the revenge action film and the melodrama.

We begin the film in Hardcore Henry-like first-person POV mode as we follow the lead character as she slashes, punches and shoots her way through roomfuls of bad guys before she gets arrested by the police, and is then turned into an assassin by the national security service. 

With a plot that relies heavily on strategically placed flashbacks that usually mirror what’s currently happening in the lead character’s life (which I don’t want to spoil for you, so there won’t be any specifics here), The Villainess is ultimately a tragedy about the injustices that can befall a woman by systems of patriarchy. 

As involving as the story is, however, it’s still nothing compared to the unbelievable action set-pieces that Jung has managed to stage for us and that lead actress Kim Ok-Vin (of Thirst fame) has so admirably performed.

This is The Raid-level stuff, I kid you not, and may even surpass it in some parts, courtesy of some crazily choreographed camera movements that capture some similarly crazy fight choreography that, more often than not, give you the illusion that you’re watching an elaborate single take fight scene. 

Far-fetched as only melodramas can be in terms of the coincidences in its storyline, it only adds more power to an already emotionally charged story. Kick-ass is all I can say about this one.

Iron Protector

If The Villainess is oh so modern in the very elaborate ways that it layers and tells its story, then writer-director-actor Yue Song’s second feature length directing effort Iron Protector positively feels like a throwback to the breakthrough years and glory days of Jackie Chan when it comes to its completely goofy story. 

Previously titled The Bodyguard and even Super Bodyguard, before its American distributor decided to re-title it Iron Protector to differentiate it from Sammo Hung’s The Bodyguard, this one is pretty similar to The Villainess in that it also attempts to meld the familiar tropes of fight flicks with the far-fetched tragedy of melodramas. 

Telling the story of a country bumpkin who leaves the village for the city after the death of his martial arts master, our hero ends up becoming a bodyguard (thanks to his awesome martial arts skills) and is tasked to protect the daughter of the richest family in the city.

Its pretty nonsensical story then brings in attempted kidnappings, a group of gangsters, some kind of sinister big baddie with plans for power that also won’t make much sense if you really think about it, what distinguishes Yue Song’s film from plenty of other China and Hong Kong-made fight flicks nowadays is his fierce commitment to wanting to find something that at least feels or looks new to stage as an action set-piece. 

Its low budget of course prevents it from being the slick action spectacle that is The Villainess, but he makes up for it with some pretty brutal poundings that are shot in a manner that’s probably a study in ADHD, but actually suits the film’s fighting style very well.

A throwback to the more innocent days of early 80s Hong Kong kung fu flicks, Yue Song has still got some ways to go in terms of writing and telling a coherent story, but he’s already taken quite a few big steps forward here in terms of his action directing skills, especially considering the mess that was his debut film The Wrath Of Vajra. 

With this much progress two films in, let’s hope he really hits his stride with his next one.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.