King of Triads also known internationally as Bad Blood is another film directed by Dennis S.Y Law(Fatal Contact,Fatal Move, Vampire Warriors).King of Triads stars Simon Yam(Ip Man,High Risk),Bernice Liu(Legend is Born Ip Man,King of Fighters),Andy On (Black Mask 2,True Legend),Ken Lo(Circus Kids,Legend of Drunken Master)
A group of Triad members escape from prison,they have a valuable item for counterfeiting money.One of the members Andy Lok gets hit by a police truck and is arrested.In fear of his life Andy testifies and informs his daughter Audrey Lok(Bernice Liu)about his plan.The other Triad members are now fighting for power to see who will become the next boss.Audrey has a half brother,Andy Lok(Andy On) who manipulates him to take out the members one by one so they can both have control of the gang.
The story is probably one of the worst,most laziest put to film.The only saving grace about this movie is that there is lots of Hong Kong actors that are new and old.Chan Wai Man is one of the senior members and he has not stopped making movies ever since the early 70s.Ken Lo which is mainly known as the baddie in Drunken Master 2 also puts out some good kicks.The action was directed by Jet Li stunt double and veteran Hong Kong actor Hung Yan Yan.You can see the effort and the great editing and shots that are put in this movie.Andy On is one of the youngest stars and his moves are amazing for not being a martial artist.This movie was also to promote newcomer Wushu champion Jiang Lu Xia of Coweb.There is all type of fighting from weapons,hand to hand,guns.Sadly the director focuses more on the villians which are extremely weak compared to the heroes,and that's why the movie is not at all succesful.Just like his other movies like Fatal Move,Fatal Contact.If you have seen those two you know the endings are not very happy.Unless you are aware of these martial arts actors I recommend you get King of Triads aka Bad Blood.If you do not know who these actors are,you will be very let down.Rent it first.
I rented this flick out of sheer curiosity after seeing Jiang Lu Xia in action (via some fight clips that a friend sent me). She seemed a little rough around the edges, but I chose to give this flick a chance mainly to see what Jiang was capable of. Sadly, this movie turns out to be more about betrayal than it does actual vengeance. And with big name stars like Simon Yam, Ken Lo and Hung Yan Yan in the mix, I thought to myself 'what could go wrong?'
ReplyDeleteThe answer: plenty and a lot more. I saw Canadian-Chinese Bernice Liu in this and it appears that the story focuses a great deal on her. I don't wanna give anything away for anyone who hasn't seen this yet, but the movie does focus on her character's rise to power and Bernice's character Audrey is very ruthless in this story...her character's motives are very despicable and she doesn't care much for those who get hurt in her plan.
I kinda hoped that the fight scenes would be raw, hardcore and out of this world, but again, that was a let down. The fight scenes look rather rehearsed than they do an actual H.K. style stage combat sequence. There's a lot of unnecessary wire-work thrown in the mix and for a modern-day H.K. flick, I asked myself why was that even needed? Jiang's a wushu champion, so she shouldn't need any wire work for her fight scenes...just move swift and move fast like Donnie Yen or Jet Li. They tried to pass Bernice's character off as a person who knows martial arts, but just they way she carries herself in a fight it doesn't look like she has any real combat training. They did a combat sequence in which her character Audrey fights five or six dudes to test out her combat skills. Bernice looked too stiff in during the whole sequence...no fluidity at all. It was just a total mess.
Lastly, the ending to this movie will really leave a dull taste in your mouth. I know it did for me...when I saw the ending, I had a 'WTF?' style expression on my face and my brother was just cracking up a storm at my puzzled expression. Afterwards, we sat down with members of the 'plague family' and talked about the ending. We were all perplexed at the way Hung Yan Yan chose to end the movie, me especially. I was like, 'what's the message behind the ending?'
Not trying to prevent anyone from seeing this movie who might be interested, but I'm telling you now, don't go into this with high hopes, like I did.
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