Re: Born (2016)

Re: Born (2016) Original Title: RE:BORN リボーン Translation: Re:Born

Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Yura Kondo, Takumi Saitô, Hitomi Hasebe, Mariko Shinoda, Masanori Mimoto, Hiroko Yashiki, Makoto Sakaguchi, Orson Mochizuki, Kenta, Yoshitaka Inagawa, Akio Ôtsuka

Director: Yuji Shimomura

Action Director: Yoshitaka Inagawa

Zero Range Combat. This is a martial arts style founded in the early-mid 2000s by Japanese martial artist Yoshitaka Inagawa. The general idea of Zero Range Combat is to develop a system of close-quarters combat that could be taught to military operatives and law enforcement officers. The emphasis is on weapons, especially knives, but extends to objects like batons, flashlights, and even swords. The style is a synthesis of elements from Japanese Kobudo (or weapons), Muay Boran, Sambo, the Russian military art of Systema, Filipino Escrima, and Jieitaikakutōjutsu, which is the knife and bayonet system of fighting taught in the Japanese Self-Defense Force.

Re:Born was meant to be Tak Sakaguchi’s swan song from the action movie genre, after having worked in it for more than a decade, starting with the cult favorite Versus. Actually, his retirement started in 2013 following the completion of Sion Sono’s ode to guerilla filmmaking, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? However, so many people reacted with sadness to Sakaguchi’s departure from cinema that Tak decided to do one more action movie in hopes of making his fans happy. The resulting film was Re:Born, which may have started life as a Sion Sono script for a film called Kenkichi. The resulting film covers no new ground from a plot perspective, but tries to do for Zero Range Combat what Ong Bak did for Muay Thai, or Merantau and The Raid did for Silat.

The plot of the film draws heavily from films like Broken Path (2007) and Black Mask (1996), and is similar to that same year’s Headshot (2016) and the Shaw Brothers classic Avenging Eagle (1978). Tak Sakaguchi plays Toshiro, a quiet man who runs a small convenience store and lives with his niece, Sachi (Yura Kondo). Toshiro is actually a former special forces operative and assassin who was once known as “The Ghost.” He left his employer, The Phantom (Akio Otsuda, who voiced Snake in the Japanese version of “Metal Gear Solid” and Batou in the Ghost in the Shell films), after getting tired of the Phantom kidnapping children and training/brainwashing them into becoming assassins. Sachi is not his actual niece, but one of the kids whom he rescued.

Toshiro lives a quiet existence, working and raising Sachi, and occasionally visiting a fellow operative, Kenji (Takumi Saito, of 13 Assassins and Shin Godzilla), who became paraplegic after saving Toshiro’s life. He also finds time to go to a psychologist, Dr. Shizuka Matsumoto (Hitomi Hasebe, of “Ultraman Geed” and RoboGeisha) Toshiro finds himself being stalked by numerous assassins, all of whom he dispatches with lightning quick efficiency. It becomes clear that the Phantom is back and is hunting him and he teams up with a pair of assassins, Max (Orson Mochizuki) and Masaru (Kenta), to rescue Sachi when the Phantom’s assassins kidnap her.

The second half of the film is one long action sequence as Toshiro, Max, and Masaru have to infiltrate the Phantom’s base, located in a Japanese forest. They dispatch platoon and platoon as they work their way up the wooded hill until they finally can enter the base. Toshiro must finally face down with his former comrade Abyss Walker (Yoshitaka Inagawa), who, unlike Toshiro, is an assassin who simply loves to kill. I mean, the movie opens with the Phantom’s men running a combat simulator in hunting down Toshiro, only for Abyss Walker to show up and kill everybody for no reason whatsoever. Abyss Walker is the unreliable wildcard that the Phantom tolerates only because he is only person whose skills come close to matching Toshiro’s.

An alternate title for Re:Born could be Throat Slit: The Motion Picture. The entire purpose of Zero Range Combat appears to be finding the quickest angle and movement to reach the opponent’s throat and slice it. Or stab it. Or perforate it. Or puncture it. It feels like a mixture of a layman’s understanding of Ninjitsu mixed with Special Forces knife fighting. That is certainly how Tak Sakaguchi plays his character in his fights. He sneaks up on an opponent and slits their throat. Or parries an attack and goes for the throat. Or parries an attack, twists a limb, and then slices the throat. His character is also super-fast and can dodge bullets (according to Wikipedia, this is one of the claims that Zero Range Combat makes for its practitioners), which prompts his opponents to switch to knives and close-quarters combat, giving him the opportunity to slit more throats.

Tak Sakaguchi uses mainly knives and fisticuffs in his fights. For the latter, there seems to be a mixture of small two-edged knives, one-edged knives, and intimidating curved blades that look like something you’d see in an Iko Uwais movie. The big weapon that Sakaguchi and Yoshitaka Inagawa use in their action sequences in a curved blade that is perpendicular to the hilt. When those two finally square off at the end, they use a mixture of knife fighting and an open-handed fighting style that my colleague Paul Bramhall described as “drunken capoeira,” although to me it looked like “Spazzed-Out Monkey Fist.” 

Right before the three protagonists start their raid on the Phantom’s compound, there is a scene where they are discussing how Toshiro let Sachi be kidnapped because he could track to her to their base. Max hands him a handgun that Toshiro examines, holds, points in a mock fashion, and then returns to Max. He then takes a knife from Masaru, holds it, and says that it will suffice. I imagined in my mind an alternate scene where Masaru would hold a tray full of knives and bladed weapons—switchblades, bowie knives, butterfly knives, kama (sickles), etc.—and Toshiro would just stock up on bladed weapons that he would be able to cut throats with. Now, imagine my joy after watching Toshiro slaughter dozens of soldiers with regular knives (and a folding shovel) when the second-to-last platoon shows up to stop him, and he randomly whips out a pair of kama and goes to town on them. That made me particularly happy, especially since they had not been established as a weapon in his arsenal before. It almost feels like I willed that scene to happen.

Tak Sakaguchi ended up NOT retiring and was back in the game after two years making movies, including Crazy Samurai Musashi, which is essentially a 70-minute sword fight (without cuts, I believe). He also had a supporting role in Kingdom, where he plays a Qin military officer who uses a “Drunken Chanbara” style of fighting. His most recent film was One Percenter, a meta-esque film about an action actor facing off against a pair of Yakuza gangs who have interrupted the filming of one of his movies. People have called that Re:Born 2. I posted at the Kung Fu Fandom the other day that I would like to see Tak Sakaguchi take on Donnie Yen in the upcoming Flash Point film. Probably will never happen, but a man can dream.

Is Re:Born going to be known the greatest martial arts action film ever made? No. But it does have martial arts action in spades and it’s all well-choreographed, even if a bit repetitive. As a showcase for Tak Sakaguchi’s bad-assery, however, it gets major points. I’m glad that he hasn’t retired yet.

Lady Bloodfight (2016)

Lady Bloodfight (2016)

Starring: Amy Johnston, Muriel Hofmann, Jenny Wu, Kathy Wu Jia-Xing, Jet Tranter, Ng May-Ling, Rosemary Vandenbroucke, Lisa Cheng Lai-Sho, Ho Wing-Yin, Kirt Kishita

Director: Chris Nahon

Action Director: Xiong Xin Xin

Lady Bloodfight was first announced in early 2015. However, much like the Kickboxer reboot, there was a large gulf from the original plans for the movie and what we finally got. Like Kickboxer, this was meant to be a remake/reboot of a Jean-Claude Van Damme classic, in this case, Bloodsport. Indeed, the original title of the project was Lady Bloodsport and would focus on an all-female Kumite competition set (once again) in Hong Kong. Producing the picture would be HK cinema expert Bey Logan’s B&E Productions, with assistance from Kathryn Bigelow’s Voltage Pictures, thus making it a HK/US co-production.

As these things go, there were some casting hopefuls that did not pan out in the final product. For one, Selina Lo (Time Rush and Triple Threat) was supposed to play the main protagonist. According to the IMDB, producer-writer Bey Logan wanted more recognizable faces like Shu Qi and Maggie Q in the film. By the time that filming started about a year and a half after the project’s announcement, the title had been changed from Lady Bloodsport to Lady Bloodfight, thus bringing to mind the 1989 Japanese film starring Yasuaki Kurata. 

Instead of Selina Lo, up-and-coming Hollywood stuntwoman Amy Johnston was brought onboard as the main heroine. French director Chris Nahon, director of Kiss of the Dragon and Blood: The Last Vampire, signed on to direct. And the fight action was put in the hands of Xiong Xin Xin, who had done great work choreographing a female protagonist in Coweb. There was enough potential here that Lady Bloodfight could be something special.

But…

The movie opens in 2010/2011, kicking off with the final fight of the Kumite—despite the title change, the story is still ostensibly linked to the Bloodsport franchise. The final two combatants are Shu (Muriel Hoffman, of Covert Operation and “Dream Defenders”), a Wudan stylist, and Wai (Kathy Wu, of “Bosch: Legacy” and “Heroic Journey of Ne Zha”), a Shaolin stylist. The two fight to a standstill and the fight is declared a tie by the judge, the now-female head of the Black Dragon Association (Cynthia Ho). The two refuse to share the final fight purse and the Black Dragon leader tells them to each find a disciple and train her for the next Kumite.

Four years later, we meet Jane Jones (Amy Johston, of Accident Man and Female Fight Squad), a young waitress living in Sydney. After she gets fired for beating up an asshole customer—the SOB had it coming to him, to be honest—she gets jumped in the car garage. She comes out victor, but ultimately decides to leave home and head to Hong Kong. You see, she has been raised largely by her alcoholic smoker of a mom after her dad, a martial artist, disappeared in Hong Kong years earlier. Anyway, she gets jumped by a gang who preys on tourists and is rescued at the last moment by Shu, who has been hanging out at a (rundown) Wudan temple hoping to find a successor. Shu convinces Jane to train under her, although she is reluctant to let Jane participate in the Kumite. Wasn’t that the entire point of finding a disciple in the first place?

Meanwhile, a young martial artist named Ling (Jenny Wu) visits a school in Kowloon run by Wai. Ling challenges one of Wai’s students and promptly beats her down without breaking a sweat. Wai offers to train her for the Kumite, but the Ling initially refuses. That is, until she tries to break into the school and steal Wai’s prized sword (reminiscent of the original Bloodsport). Wai duels with her and bests her, ultimately convincing her to represent her in the Kumite.

Both women train until it’s time for the competition, at which point the film progresses like your average martial arts tournament film. Jane quickly befriends a nice girl named Cassidy (Jet Trenter, who was attached to the movie since its inception). There is a super-buff bitch fighter named Svietta (Ng May-Ling, of The Suicide Squad and Debt Collectors). The Black Dragon Association make a big deal out of a white girl representing a Chinese kung fu school. And there is a shady better, Mr. Sang, who may or may not be associated with not only Jane’s dad’s disappearance, but the rivalry between Shu and Wai as well.

According to the IMDB, Lady Bloodfight cost about ten million dollars to make (and made a paltry thirteen thousand dollars from limited theatrical releases—maybe it was more successful on DVD). Unless movie production costs have become extremely inflated—which they have, but this was shot in Asia, so it should have been a little cheaper—I do not know where the money went. Most of the Kumite fights are filmed at a shipyard between a bunch of large containers. There are only a dozen or so people watching the fights at a given time. 

I know that building a tournament set for the Kumite, complete with bleachers, may not have been possible, but surely they could have spent more money on extras to play spectators. A hundred some-odd spectators betting the big bucks would make it believable that the Kumite could be self-sustaining institution. Only a few rich businessmen and no sign of video recording to post the Kumite on the Internet make me wonder how the Black Dragon Society keeps itself afloat.

(Note: I had a similar feeling watching The Slender Man recently, which makes me wonder just how many movies these days are fronts for money laundering.)

There are about sixteen female fighters, but we only get to see a few of them actually fighting. Half-French actress Rosemary Vandenbroucke (Martial Angels) gets introduced as Brazilian capoeira fighter, but then does not actually fight onscreen. Sixteen fighters mean eight fights in the first round, four in the second, two semi-final matches, and then the final championship. The Quest was able to show us a tournament with the same set-up in its entirety, even if a few fights were over in a few punches. Bloodsport gave us an even larger roster, although the progression of the tournament did not always make sense, given the number of fights that Van Damme’s Frank Dux ultimately participated in. So yeah, the lack of showing the tournament in its entirety is very disappointing to me. The movie does give us a tournament montage, but without a faux-“Eye of the Tiger” song like “Fight to Survive” playing in the background, it doesn’t work that well.

Personally, I was quite disappointed with the action. Xiong Xin Xin had done great work in Coweb and there is no reason that he couldn’t have repeated the work he did there. Most of the women are trained martial artists and/or stuntwomen. There is even a bit of weapons work as the second round of the Kumite is completely weapons based, although the dialog refers to everything as a “sword”—medium-handled assault blades, Butterfly swords, and dao (saber, or broadsword). Amy Johnston picks up a huge horse-chopping blade for her fight against a woman wielding the kwan do, although we never saw her training with that weapon during her training sequence. We also see Johnston learn baguazhang from Shu, but she doesn’t use it a lot in her fights: mainly just generic modern kickboxing.

The choreography has its moments, but the actresses can’t seem to sell the impact of the fights. Maybe it’s the lack of exaggerated sound design. But it’s probably intrusive camerawork and confusing editing, the latter of which was overseen by director Chris Nahon himself. In an interview about Kiss of the Dragon, the late Corey Yuen stated that Chris Nahon liked doing handheld camerawork, but it doesn’t work here. Nahon tries to sell the impact by using A LOT of blood—the women bleed heavily after taking one or two punches to the face—but the moves themselves don’t convince. I’m told that this is at least better than Raze (starring stuntwoman Zoë Bell and featuring Amy in a smaller role) and Female Fight Squad, and it’s miles ahead of Fight Valley. But like Kickboxer: Vengeance, you’re really better off just watching the 80s movie that inspired this.

Kicboxer: Vengeance (2016)

Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016)

Starring: Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Davi Bautista, Sarah Malakul-Lane, Gina Carano, Georges St-Pierre, Darren Shahlavi

Director: John Stockwell

Action Director: Larnell Stovall

After watching Kickboxer: Vengeance, I am convinced that the movie is a product of the 1980s in the sense that you cannot to do the same thing in any other time. Either that, or director (and former actor) John Stockwell (Into the Blue; Dark Tide) is simply not a very good director. The Kickboxer reboot was announced in 2013 and early on, it was rumored that it would be helmed by Hong Kong actor-turned-director Stephen Fung. This was shortly after Fung had done the Tai Chi Zero/Hero duology. I almost wish he had stayed on board, given the final product we got.

Fung was still associated with the project as late as 2014, when Alain Moussi, Dave Bautista (who was about to hit it big as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy), Georges St-Pierre were announced in the cast. Apparently, Fung wanted the film to be “dark and gritty,” whatever that would mean in a Kickboxer film. By the middle of 2014, Shu Qi was rumored to be in talks to play (presumably) the love interest while J.J. Perry was said to be onboard as fight choreographer. That was exciting in itself, considering the job Perry had done on Undisputed II: Last Man Standing. Turns out that J.J. had passed the job onto Larnell Stovall, who had been on J.J. Perry’s team and was choreographer of Undisputed III: Redemption, on which he had done a superlative job.

At about the same time, Jean-Claude Van Damme had not been cast yet. In fact, there were rumors that mentor/trainer role would go to Tony Jaa himself. There were even rumors that Scott Adkins would show up in a fighting capacity at some point. That was followed by the “will he/won’t he” rumors of whether Dave Bautista would be playing Tong Po or an original villain. It appears that first he would be playing Tong Po, then he denied it, and finally confirmed he would. A few months later, Scott Adkins announced that he had turned down the role of Eric Sloane, the main character’s brother, based on the small size of the role. Given Adkins’s popularity at the time, and knowing what we do about how little Eric is in this version of the movie, I understand why. 

By the end of 2014, more changes were being announced. First, Tony Jaa announced that he was pulling out due to scheduling issues, presumably on SPL 2: A Time for Consequences. That was probably for the best, given the size and fight time of the role. More unfortunate was that Stephen Fung had left the project and was replaced by John Stockwell, whose previous foray into action was directing Gina Carano in In the Blood. Filming started in December of 2014. At the time filming started, Jean-Claude Van Damme was announced to play the mentor. And we learned that Thai supermodel Sara Malakul Lane would play a detective on Tong Po’s trail. That was a departure from Mylee, the rural shopkeeper from the original. Both Gina Carano and Darren Shahlavi were announced to have signed on within the same week.

There were some problems early on in the shooting, stemming from a fiancier pulling out of the film and there not being enough money to pay the crew. Thankfully, the producers were able to find a replacement and by February 2015, they were able to pay everybody and continue production. The rest more or less went off without a hitch, with filming being divided up between New Orleans—Dave Bautista’s scenes were shot there in order to avoid scheduling conflicts with Bautista’s other projects—and Thailand, where most of Van Damme’s scenes were shot.

The film starts in Thailand with our hero, Kurt Sloane (Alain Moussi, of Jiu-Jitsu), showing up at a secret Muay Thai compound in the Thai hinterlands looking for Tong Po. He claims he wants to train there and faces off with one of the students, Kavi (Georges St-Pierre, Batroc in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), in order to prove his worth. That evening, Tong Po (Dave Bautista, of Killer’s Game and Skyfall), shows up to give his students a demonstration. Later that night, Kurt sneaks out of his bedroom with a pistol, intent on killing Tong Po.

Cue a flashback. Three months earlier, Kurt was in the States with his brother, Eric (Darran Shahlavi, of Ip Man 2 and Tai Chi II), celebrating the latter’s recent karate championship victory. During the festivities at the family gym, they are visited by a fight promotor named Marcia (Gina Carano, of In the Blood and Haywire). Marcia informs Eric of a fight opportunity in Thailand that promises a 400K fight purse just for participating. Kurt does not like the idea, but Eric thinks it’s a good opportunity to buy the property where their gym is and be set for life. Eric eventually leaves for Thailand. Three months later, Kurt receives a plane ticket in the mail and an invitation to watch the fight.

Kurt arrives in Thailand just in time for the fight. Actually, he arrives as the fight is underway. Given that he got the plane ticket earlier, how could he be late for that? Anyway, Kurt can only watch helplessly in horror as Eric’s opponent, Tong Po, not only gives him a sound beatdown, but snaps his neck, killing him instantly. The police, led by Detective Liu (Sara Malakul Lane, of Sharktopus and Jurassic City), show up to disperse the crowd. Liu has been meaning to arrest Tong Po on murder charges, but can never get enough witnesses for it. Liu wants to keep Kurt around as a witness, but her boss, Tran (Hawn Tran, of Eat Brains Love and Haunting on Fraternity Row), demands that Kurt be sent back to the States immediately. Hmm….

Kurt manages to skip his flight and remains in Thailand, which brings us back to the opening scene of the film. Anyway, Tong Po has Kurt arrested for attempted murder, but Liu is able to step in and whisk him away to the compound of Durand (Jean-Claude Van Damme, the original Kurt Sloane), the Muay Thai master who had trained Eric prior to the fateful fight. Kurt demands that Durand teach him, too. Initially, Durand is reluctant, but the two square off and I guess Durand sees the “warrior spirit” in him and agrees to train him. From there, the film more or less follows the general template of the original: training, fight at a club, more training, fight against other Muay Thai fighters, more training, finale.

There are some kinks in the formula. Like I said, instead of the mentor’s niece, the love interest is a female detective. Sara Malakul Lane is a beautiful woman and has a great body, but the love is very much “it’s in the script.” The first training montage has a completely random love scene spliced in the middle, although there has been absolutely no build-up to them falling in love or previous romantic chemistry beforehand. In the original, there was a gradual build-up to Kurt and Mylee falling for each other, plus some things happen to the latter that serve as the impetus for Kurt overcoming Tong Po at the end.

There is also addition of the Kavi character, played by Georges St-Pierre. He is Kurt’s first opponent at the Tong Po compound and is later kicked out. Durand lets him stay at his place on the condition he assist Kurt in his training. But there comes a point that he disappears from the story and reappears at the climax, with his arm inexplicably in a cast, yelling “Naht Suu Kao!” (or “White Warrior”). This is obviously a reference to the original film, but there is no reason for Kavi to do this (unless he is playing a Thai person). In the first Kickboxer, “Naht Suu Kao” was a nickname given by Kurt’s master after his first official win. Here, it shows up only to remind us that the filmmakers watched the original.

The new films axes the original crime bosses whom were the backers behind Tong Po. They were scum, but they did the fights in a legal and legitimate manner. This film places the fights in an underground / illegal context, all staged by a seedy promotor. I’m not sure if that is less or more believable. I think less so, since outfits like that depend entirely on money from betting. And since Tong Po is undefeated, I think there would come a point that nobody would bet against him anymore. Even Undisputed II brought that idea up, which is what led the Russian jailers to bring in George Chambers as a suitable opponent for Boyka. By having the fights as legit in the original Kickboxer, you could see the huge crowd draws as a way not only keeping the Law out of their business, but guaranteeing income on the bouts themselves.

Speaking of bouts, how do the fights fare? Well, they were not as good as I was hoping. Some of the problem is that they are over-edited in a number of places. It doesn’t reach The Bourne Supremacy levels, but it is distracting. The choreography ranges from “typical 90s Van Damme movie” to something a little closer to what Larnell Stovall did in Undisputed III. This is the weird part, Moussi has some great moves and is a talented fighter. No doubt about it. But his fights seem to be missing a real sense of impact. On the other hand, Van Damme fights quite a bit in this, and though his onscreen style hasn’t changed from the 1990s, he sells the impact a lot more than his more youthful co-star does. What this film has over the original is that there are lot more fight scenes in total. The original had two fights with Eric Sloane, the infamous juke box fight, and two tournament fights with Kurt (including the finale). This one has a fight scene every 5-10 minutes, which is appreciated. 

The original film also establishes that Xian’s tutelage was more than enough to prepare Kurt for Tong Po. There is a scene before the climax where Freddy Li (Lee Ka-Ting) goes to his boss to ask for a loan to make a bet with. When Freddy informs him that Kurt has been training under Xian, the boss’s smirk turns into a frown. Moreover, Freddy is worried enough that he has Eric Sloane kidnapped in order to use as leverage against Kurt during the final match. It is only Eric’s rescue and arrival at the match that turns the tide and shows us that Kurt was more than a match for Tong Po to begin with.

In this film, Kurt Sloane and Tong Po have a lengthy final battle, which is played out in stages: open-handed, with broken glass (a reference to the original), and then with weapons. The film has Tong Po winning throughout the entire match, only for him to suddenly get a final adrenaline rush when he’s near death and make the comeback. This happens in a lot of movies to varying degrees of believability (with Tapped Out being at the bottom), but I think the original film did it better. The suspense was built on “will Kurt survive long enough for his brother to be rescued?” Here the suspense is, “When will Kurt figure out that he’s better than his opponent?” It doesn’t fully work in this case.

The original Kickboxer is an American martial arts classic. I would not have been remade otherwise. This one has a few good fights, but otherwise is a mediocre movie. I appreciate that it followed the general template of the original while doing things different along the way. It’s that those changes turned out to be to the movie’s detriment. I can only wonder if things would have turned out better with Stephen Fung at the helm.

Boyka: The Undisputed (2016)

Boyka: The Undisputed (2016) Aka: Undisputed 4: Boyka 

Starring: Scott Adkins, Teodora Duhovnikova, Alon Aboutboul, Julian Vergov, Brahim Chab, Paul Chahidi, Petio Petkov, Valentin Ganev, Vladimir Mihaylov, Martyn Ford

Director: Todor Chapkanov

Action Director: Tim Man

I always find it interesting how the Undisputed franchise switched protagonists at the third film, going from boxer George “Iceman” Chambers (Ving Rhames in the first, Michael Jai White in the second) to Russian convinct Yuri Boyka. I know little about the first film. The second film had Chambers being framed for a crime he didn’t commit just so the Russians could have him imprisoned and provide a decent opponent for Boyka. His arc ended there and finding another reason to go to jail would be just as silly as John McClane finding himself in the middle of terrorist activity a third, fourth or fifth time? I mean, how absurd.

So, starting with the third film—and due in large part to Scott Adkins’s growing popularity—the torch was passed to villain Yuri Boyka, who became more of an antihero. He fights against people who are obviously bad, but he’s still a complete asshole to everyone around him. This fourth film humanizes him even more, even though he still lives for the fight and acknowledges that fighting and beating people to a pulp is really the only thing he’s good for. 

The film opens in Kiev, Ukraine a few years after the events of the third movie. I’m wondering if the Ukraine-Russia conflict has anything to do with the difficulties in making a fifth film. Boyka is living there fighting in underground matches and splitting his purses between a simple lifestyle and donations to the local Orthodox church. The priest (Vladimir Mihaylov, of The Legend of Hercules and The Expendables 4) tries to convince Boyka of giving up his violent ways, but the latter still believes that fighting skills is the only talent God bestowed upon him. Shortly after his latest match, Boyka receives a visit from his current agent, Kiril (Paul Chahidi), who has some good news: if he wins his next match, he’ll be eligible to participate in an Eastern European Martial Arts Championship in Budapest.

Boyka is more than happy with the news, since it means that he may hit the big leagues and can leave underground fights behind. His next opponent is a Russian amateur named Viktor (Emilien de Falco, who has worked as Jean-Claude Van Damme’s stunt double). Their fight is well-matched initially, but Boyka turns out to be the newcomer’s superior. The problem is that the dude does not know when to simply stay down, getting up and trying to ambush Yuri after the latter thinks he has won. Boyka gives him a sound thrashing for his treachery. The problem is that that last punch to the head gives Viktor a concussion from which he does not recover. He passes on in the hospital a few days later.

Although he is a fighter at heart, Boyka no longer wishes to be an actual murderer (as opposed to his life prior to getting incarcerated) and is crushed by this revelation. He learns that Viktor left behind a wife named Alma (Teodora Duhovnikova, of The Shepherd: Border Patrol and Day of the Dead: Bloodline) and some sizable debts. The money is owed to a crime boss in Grovny named Zourab (Alon Aboutboul, of Rambo III and London has Fallen), who lusts after Alma. For now, he is content with making her work as a waitress at his fight club to pay off the debts. But it is only a matter a time before he either tries to rape her or force her into prostitution.

Against Kiril’s wishes, Boyka takes a clandestine van across the border into Russia with the intent of apologizing to Alma and giving her his winnings as compensation. After all, the tournament in Budapest is in two weeks. Once in Grovny, Boyka finds out that Zourab is keeping Alma on a very tight leash, complete with a guard at the community center she runs. He finds out where she’s working and discovers her situation. He tries to apologize, but she refuses to accept it. He ultimately makes a deal with Zourab to fight in three matches, including against the club’s reigning champion, Igor (Brahim Chab, a member of Jackie Chan’s stunt team and choreographer of the recent Monkey Man film). But you know what they way about honor amongst thieves…

Undisputed III was subtitled Redemption, but to be honest, that film only covered Yuri Boyka’s physical redemption. He had been the best. He ignominiously lost to Chambers. And he reclaimed his position as the “most complete fighter in the world” by defeating Marko Zaror with a bum leg. Boyka: Undisputed is about Yuri Boyka’s spiritual redemption. He is already making amends for his violent past (and present) by giving to the church. But he soon finds himself in a situation where he must make some great sacrifices in order to redeem himself in full. I know a lot of people did not like the ending and felt he deserved better. I get it. I think it shows what lengths he is willing to go to in order for his soul to feel peace and have a good night’s sleep.

The action direction has switched once again, this time going to Tim Man. Tim Man had already choreographed Scott Adkins in the superlative Ninja: Shadow of a Tear by this point, so he knows how to get the best out of Scott. And as expected, Scott gets a great exercise for his aerial kicks. The same way that Donnie Yen’s signature kick is his jumping back kick (which Scott performs here), Adkins’s signature movie is probably the jumping crescent (or spin) kick that goes over the opponent’s head and turns into a drop kick with the other leg on the way down. I believe that it is known as the “Guyver Kick.” You can bet your last dollar that he’ll do that in this film.

But that is not all. In one fight, he does a variation of of “Guyver Kick” in which he does a jumping front kick and then comes down with a drop kick from the other leg. While fighting Viktor, he does a “Bicycle Kick,” or double jumping front kick with a drop kick twist. He also does a Jump Double Back Kick, similar to how Donnie Yen closes his fight with Michael Woods in Tiger Cage II. In his fight against Boris (Trayan Milenov, who did fight choreography in Black Widow and Secret Invasion), there’s a neat move where Adkins gets his legs kicked out from under him, but rallies that momentum in a double “No-Shadow Kick,” or jumping side kick. He also does the Donnie Yen trademark jumping back kick, only to throw his other leg out for a second hit*. And watch for him doing a jumping crescent kick that he transforms into a leg scissor takedown.

For many, the best fight of the film is Boyka’s second bout for Zourab, which pits him against the Ozerov Brothers, played by choreographer Tim Man and Andreas Nguyen (aka Andy Long, who was a member of Jackie Chan’s Stunt Team in the mid 2010s). That features some strong two-on-one choreography as he has to deal with a pair of talented kickers. They are not nearly as muscular as Adkins, but they have the speed and agility and numbers to make up for it. Boyka takes a brutal flip kick to the back at one point that made me wince.

The big finale pits Adkins against a Russian convict named Koshmar, played by man-mountain Martyn Ford. Ford is not especially flexible or technique oriented: he just a six-plus foot mass of muscle, not unlike Nathan Jones (but more intimidating in appearance). That way, the fight is more about Boyka trying to survive long enough to wear him down rather than out-skill him. It is his hardest fight, mainly because Ford is such a superior physical specimen. What for Adkins doing the Double Jump Back Kick again, but turning it into a Triple Jump Back Kick when he throws in an extra front kick on the way down. My gripes about the finale can be summarized as a) there is little dramatic tension leading up to it and b) it is a little short. There was greater drama in the preceding fight against Igor than this one. But like the rest of the movie, it is a fine showcase for the talents for our favorite Russian antihero played by a British guy with a faux-Russian accent.

* - This one is different from Jump Double Back Kick, which requires him to do a front kick to push off his’s opponent’s body and get airborne to get into the jumping back kick.