Highlander: Endgame (2000)

Highlander: Endgame (2000)

Starring: Christopher Lambert, Adrian Paul, Bruce Payne, Lisa Barbuscia, Donnie Yen, Jim Byrnes, Peter Wingfield, Damon Dash, Beatie Edney
Director: Douglas Aarniokoski
Action Director: Donnie Yen

 

Back in the late 90s and early 00s, mainly before I left for my religious mission in September ’01, my friends and I did our very best to support Asian actors in Hollywood. We saw Black Mask in the theater…twice. I saw both Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Rush Hour 2 no fewer than three times at the cinema. Hell, we even paid weekend evening prices to watch Chow Yun-Fat in Anna and the King. We did our best to show our support to those from Hong Kong who tried their hand at Hollywood.

It was that same mentality that drove us to watch Highlander: Endgame at the theaters, despite none of us being fans of the franchise. To be perfectly honest, in 2000, all I could recall about Highlander was the director’s cut of the infamous subway sequence from Highlander 2: The Quickening. But, Donnie Yen was making his Hollywood debut in this movie—far less auspicious than Jackie Chan’s return to the Silver Screen in Rush Hour and Jet Li’s villainous take in the popular Lethal Weapon franchise. But work is work, and Yen’s Hong Kong career was in a bit of a slump by that time. So, we were just glad to see him working at all.

The movie opens with an older lady being killed by a bomb inside of an antique shop. That lady is Rachel Ellenstein (Sheila Gish, reprising her role from the first Highlander), the adopted daughter of Connor MacLeod (Mortal Kombat’s Christopher Lambert). MacLeod is obviously heartbroken to lose the closest thing to immediate family that he’s had in centuries, so he heads over to The Sanctuary, where Immortals go to spend eternity in a sort of forced slumber.

Some years later, a bunch of Immortals led by Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne, of Passenger 57) raid the Sanctuary and murder everyone there, both the normal humans who guard it and all of the Immortals, too. We learn that Kell was the son of a maniacal clergyman back in 16^th century Scotland who had Connor MacLeod’s mother burned at the stake for witchcraft. I guess giving birth to a son who can survive getting killed in battle would raise a few eyebrows at that time. In his subsequent bloodlust, MacLeod slays Kell’s father and runs Kell himself through, too. Unbeknownst to both of them, Kell was an Immortal, too.

The story switches back to Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul, who starred in the Highlander TV series), who has had dreams of IMPORTANT STUFF happening, even though he’s not quite sure what’s going on. He learns from a colleague, Methos (Peter Wingfield, also from the series), about the bloodbath at the Sanctuary, which he didn’t even know existed. Thinking Connor is dead, he visits the ruins of the MacLeod antique shop, where he is attacked by his ex-wife, Kate (Serpent’s Lair’s Lisa Barbuscia), and Kell’s minions. There’s a big fight and Duncan is eventually knocked out the window and impaled on a spike. A Shady Van comes to take his body away.

The Van belongs to a group known as The Watchers, mortals who make sure that the Immortals are playing The Game by the rules and not interfering with mortal affairs. Following the sacrilegious attack on the Sanctuary, there is now a shortage of Immortals and The Watchers are volunteering Duncan to be the first member of a new establishment. He gets saved and finds out about what he’s up against: although Duncan MacLeod has about 180 kills and Connor MacLeod had around 270, Jacob Kell has racked up more than 600. The odds are stacked against him…

Highlander: Endgame was meant to the be the Stark Trek: Generations of the franchise, allowing the movie MacLeod (Connor) and the television MacLeod (Duncan) to share the screen for the first time. The result is lukewarm. There really isn’t much of a plot: Jacob Kell wants to make Connor MacLeod’s eternity miserable and Duncan gets caught up in the middle. That’s about it. About half of the running time is dedicated to flashbacks detailing the time that Connor and Duncan spent together back in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, while the other half is spent with the small kernel of a main storyline and a couple of subplots that go absolutely nowhere. That said, I’m sure that Highlander fans were glad to see their two leading men spend as much time together onscreen as they do here.

The fault belongs to writers Eric Bernt and Gillian Horvath. The former is best known for Hollywood action films like Romeo Must Die and Surviving the Game. Those aren’t really the best written movies in the genre, but the former had a particularly complex story and the latter was a decent Most Dangerous Game rip-off. Horvath has spent the vast majority of her career working for TV, which is basically what this movie feels like: an extended TV episode (or made-for-TV movie). The extensive flashbacks combine with the thin plot to kill any forward momentum, which gives it that less-urgent TV episode feel.

The acting is just okay. Christopher Lambert is his usual self. If you like him in other things, you’ll like him here. If you don’t, this movie won’t change your mind about him. Adrian Paul’s performance is a bit uneven, as if there were a difference between TV acting and film acting and he hadn’t figured it out yet. Lisa Barbuscia is mainly around to look pretty and occasionally show off skin, which she also did in Serpent’s Lair. Then there’s Bruce Payne, once again overacting a storm like his notorious performance in Dungeons and Dragons. I thought he overacted with a bit more nuance in Passenger 57, but by 2000, the man was completely unhinged. I guess you need him to provide a counterweight to Lambert’s understated muttering.

Donnie Yen was the film’s action director and also has a supporting role as an immortal named Jin Ke. Yes, that Jin Ke. The same one who tried to assassinate the Emperor Qin. The same guy who was the subject of the critically-acclaimed The Empress and the Assassin. The same one who was the inspiration for Jet Li’s character in Zhang Yimou’s Hero. That guy. According to Donnie Yen’s website: “Yen contributed to the development of his character. Inspired by the assassin who fails (and appearing recently in The Emperor and the Assassin), Yen gave Jin Confucian values and made him an honorable man. Look for him in fight sequences and dramatic scenes.” [1]

What that basically means is that he gets two short fight scenes, a couple of lines of dialog, and then gets killed in a particularly ignominious way. I mean, do any of us really believe for two seconds that Bruce Payne can kill a sword-wielding Donnie Yen in a single blow? No. The entire scene in which Donnie kicks the bucket is so stupid that even 18-year-old me wanted to scream, “[Eff] you, movie!”

That said, the fight scenes aren’t bad. Donnie’s first fight has him doing his trademark double jumping back kick and a few other quick kicks. During the melee between Duncan MacLeod and Kell’s minions, Yen shows up wielding a kwan do and has a one-on-one with Adrian Paul. There is some good weapons choreography here, especially by Hollywood standards. The two eventually go at it hand-to-hand and both do some nice, complex wing chun-esque handwork—Donnie also unleashes his other trademark move, the jumping back kick. Sadly, the scene is interrupted by Bruce Payne and after that, there’s little reason for martial arts fans to continue watching. If you’re not a Highlander fan, just watch Donnie’s scenes on Youtube and move on.

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[1] - https://web.archive.org/web/20040609144451/http://donnieyen.com/films/2000_highlander.htm

Sci-Fighter (2004)

Sci-Fighter (2004)

 

Starring: Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, Aki Aleong, Lorenzo Lamas, Daneya Mayid, Christine Rodriguez, Chris Cassamassa, Rebekah Chaney, Gokor Chivichyan, Simon & James Kim, Eric Lee
Director: Art Camacho
Action Director: Art Camacho, Eric Lee, Joe Perez

Sci-Fighter is one of those unfortunate movies where the idea looks good on paper, the cast and crew are capable of enough of doing the premise justice, and yet the film just flops at every single turn. It’s a disparaging sight to watch an idea with potential self-destruct in front of your very eyes, with little visible explanation of how director-choreographer Art Camacho and lead actor Don “The Dragon” Wilson could not notice how spectacularly they were failing.

The film follows the story of kung fu teacher/professional kickboxer Jack Tanaka (Wilson, of Black Belt and Capitol Conspiracy). His dad, James Tanaka (Aki Aleong, of Braddock: Missing in Action 3 and The Quest), is a computer engineer for the government, whose pet project of the moment is a virtual reality system for training agents in combat—cue a glorified cameo by Lorenzo Lamas as one of said agents. Jack Tanaka has his hands full at the moment with his adolescent son, Brad (Daneya Mayid, who showed up in Kickboxer: Vengeance), who’s acting out in the aftermath of his mom’s untimely death. You know, throwing parties without dad’s permission, drinking beer, and *gasp!* kissing girls…in a jacuzzi!

James has a better time communicating with Brad than his dad does, and has come up with a way to try to bridge the gap: for Brad’s birthday grandpa gives him a “home version” of the combat simulator that Brad and Jack can play together and maybe bond a little over beating up virtual video game characters. At first, Jack is about as protective of Brad as Marlin is over Nemo. But then Brad plays the game by himself and gets trapped in it, so Jack has to go inside and beat all the levels in order to rescue his son.

There’s not a whole lot of plot: Jack and Brad have to get in numerous fights with different “digital” fighters (played by real-life martial artists) while James and his assistant, Sally (Cynthia Rothrock), try to fix the game and help from the outside. There is some talk about a computer virus infecting the game, which is why the main boss of the film is different from the main boss of the game…but it really doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of the story. The acting is as questionable as any other Don Wilson movie, with the standout being Aki Aleong (as expected—not that he does great work, but he’s the most talented actor of the bunch).

The problem with this film—and we’re talking a movie that currently holds a 2.7 out of 10 on the IMDB—is that Art Camacho’s action direction is completely all over the place, while Don “the Dragon” Wilson fails to make a decent showing for himself. Besides the father-son reconciliation story, the movie sort of purports to be about how kung fu is a way of life. That’s fine and, considering that Don Wilson studied Pai Lum Kung Fu under his brother, it would be a nice change of pace for him to integrate some classical forms into his screen fighting. Except that never happens. Don Wilson does the same old (slow) punches and kicks that he does in all of his film, with no sense of speed for performing in front of the camera. His fights have the same punch-stop-block-stop-kick rhythm of his 1990s films, even though this is 2004 and imported Hong Kong talent had already rendered that sort of thing obsolete. If you’re going to make a movie in which the character wants to glorify kung fu, then a) have him perform kung fu and b) have him look good doing it. The bizarre thing is that his son, played by a then-newcomer Daneya Mayid (a kenpo stylist), does all the complex and lightning-fast handwork that we’d expect from a kenpo stylist (see any Jeff Speakman film) and looks 100x better than the main star. How can we accept his dad as the main star and the “best” fighter in the film when he gets outshone by his son in every. Single. Fight?

Much like 1992’s Black Belt, there is a huge supporting cast of champion martial artists, whose accomplishments are placed beneath their names in the opening credits. Thankfully, unlike that movie, each of them gets his (or her) own fight to show off their skills. The showstopper is the legendary Eric Lee, an actor and action director from the old school days and choy li fut master. Choy Li Fut is known for its extensive weapons curriculum, of which Eric Lee has built his reputation in martial arts sequels. So when he shows up here, he performs a dizzyingly-fast demonstration of the saber-and-chain-whip combo, which is awesome. What is not awesome, however, is watching him get taken down by Wilson, who defeats him with slow and simplistic bo staff techniques. It’s almost insulting to the man’s talent.

There are other hiccups in the action direction, too. Many of the game’s levels are filled with random ninjas (a lá Bad Dudes) that show up and challenge our hero (or Brad) before the boss is confronted. Although some of those fights are adequate for a low-budget American film, sometimes they are hampered by nonsensical video game logic. Like how he beats Chris Cassamassa (Scorpion in Mortal Kombat) in a fight, advances to the next level, and is soon surrounded by ninjas who circle him and take cheap shots at his knees. He claims that he’s not able to fight back until his dad shows up as a hologram to up his level. There’s an attempt to explain this within the logic of the game, but it’s really stupid and just a waste of time and martial talent.

Speaking of which, do not expect much from Cynthia Rothrock in this film: she appears in a non-fighting role as Dr. Tanaka’s assistant and has a role in the video game as a goddess figure. As the latter, she has a brief wire-fu segment against the Computer Virus Fighter, which tries to look like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but looks slow and silly instead. Very awkward moment in the film. Even more awkward is the 1990s-series “Ghost Writer” level of CGI on display throughout the film.

After this movie, Don “The Dragon” Wilson would make two movies in 2006 and 2007, and then not headline another project until 2015’s The Martial Arts Kid. That placed Don in a supporting mentor role. Similarly, Cynthia Rothrock had a supporting role in the obscure 2007 film The Lost Bullet, followed by 2012’s Santa’s Summer House, and then 2013’s Badass Showdown, which also saw her in a mentor role. Although both Wilson and Rothrock continue to be busy on the film scene until the present, their days as the King and Queen of the twin Iron Thrones of DTV Martial Arts Cinema have long since ended. In many ways, we may see Sci-Fighter as their joint swan song to their reign atop the skeleton-covered hill that was the American B-movie scene. It is a great shame, then, that this film is so mediocre that showed neither Rothrock nor Wilson (nor Lamas, for that matter) at the top of their game.

Love & Sex in Sung Dynasty (1999)

Love & Sex in Sung Dynasty (1999)
Chinese Title: 宋朝風月
Translation: Sung Dynasty Wind Moon

 

Starring: Chin Siu-Ho, Chiu Lai-Yee, Monica Chan Fat-Yung, Elvis Tsui Kam Kong, Shing Fui-On, Phillip Ko Fei, Xing Yu
Director: Phillip Ko Fei
Action Director: Ko Chun Kit, Jimmy Ko Chim Mei

 

The early 1990s wire-fu boom more or less burned out after the failure of Tsui Hark’s The Blade in 1995. There were some stragglers who apparently didn’t get the memo, like Yuen Woo-Ping’s Tai Chi II and Sammo Hung’s Once Upon a Time in China and America. But then in 1998, the CGI-heavy comic book fantasy The Storm Riders came out and set the stage for Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to change the game forever. And right smack dab in between those two groundbreaking movies was this obscure, low-budget wuxia film that harkened back to the earlier part of the decade, albeit with less wires and (practical) FX than your average Ching Siu-Tung film boasted. It really is the last old school wuxia to come out of Hong Kong, as far as I can tell.

Set during the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960 – 1279), this film follows the trials and travails of the Ouyang family, who belong to the Kunlun Clan of martial artists. There are two retired scholars with ties to Kunlun: Ouyang Hung (Elvis Tsui Kam Kong, of Prison on Fire 2 and Girls Unbutton) and his brother, Ouyang Tin. Hung has a son named Spring (Chin Siu-Ho, of Tai Chi Master and Fist of Legend) and Tin has a daughter named Ping (Chiu Lai-Yee, of Millenium Dragon and Black Cat in Jail). Spring and Ping have grown up together and clearly love each other, but their parents have different plans for them…but their names rhyme! They MUST be made for each other!

So, one day Spring and Ping are out on the town when they learn that the local General Pong (Shing Fui-On, of The Killer and Cheetah on Fire) is holding a martial arts tournament to find a husband for his daughter, Kuen (Monica Chan, of Full Alert and God of Gamblers II). Ping, dressed like a man, decides to participate as a joke and ends up winning. Although Kuen eventually discovers the ruse, it does give Ping a few days to stay at the Pong estate. Ping at Pong’s. Oh dear. She discovers that General Pong and Master Sheung are planning on a coup d’état to establish a new dynasty.

Ping finds the letter that would incriminate them and takes it back to show her Uncle Hung. At this point, Spring is studying kung fu at Shaolin for…reasons…so Ouyang Hung sends Ping to Shaolin to fetch him. While she’s gone, Pong’s two sons and his top killers—Heaven and Earth (one of whom is director Phillip Ko Fei)—are sent to the Ouyang estate to murder everybody. Since only Hung is there, he gets it. When Spring finds out, he declares a mission of vengeance against the Pong family and kidnaps Kuen during his first assassination attempt. Kuen eventually falls in love, while Ping is sent from Shaolin to Emei Mountain to improve her kung fu in the company of the nuns there.

Apparently, there are two versions of this movie: one presented by Jacky Wong of the Winners Workshop Production Company and another presented by Jeremy Cheung of My Way Film Company. Although both films apparently have the same cast, there are some slight differences in the crew. The version I watched was the Winners Workshop one, whose official English title is indeed Love & Sex in Sung Dynasty. While there is a fair amount of love, there is no actual sex in this movie. I’m guessing that the sex was filmed for the other version, although there’s nothing in the story that would suggest the presence of T&A. So, I’m guessing the story is slightly different.

Although a Jess Franco-ish approach to filmmaking—multiple versions for multiple markets with differing censorship laws—would explain why a movie with “Sex” in the title might actually be bereft of the same, it does not justify the myriad of plot holes in this movie. Early on, Ouyang Hung (the dad) mentions that his son Spring has been arranged to marry the daughter of Ching, husband of Master Sheung and a former flame of old Hung. We never actually see said daughter, and the arranged marriage never again shows up in the dialog.

The film also has a bizarre sense of time, as if Shaolin, Kunlun, Ermei and the capital are all located within a day’s walk from each other. At one point, Ping arrives at Shaolin and is directed to Emei, after which she meets up with Ping and Kuen shortly afterward. But then she talks about staying at Shaolin with her dad until he got sick and died, but we the viewer never see anything like that onscreen (or anything that might even suggest it). And how could she go to Ermei and vastly improve her kung fu over the course of a day? So, did only a couple of days pass? Or did months pass between Spring’s kidnapping Kuen and Ping’s reunion with them—which by this point, Kuen has fallen for Spring. I’m guessing a low budget film like this was made in a hurry, so re-writes to the script were just not possible.

The action in this version was brought to you by fourth-string action directors Ko Chun Kit and Jimmy Ko Chim Mei. Ko Chun-Kit was a long-time collaborator with Phillip Ko Fei, both in front of and behind the camera. His work as action director was limited to a handful of late period Ko Fei films and some adult/Cat. III movies, too. For co-choreographer Jimmy Ko, this was his only gig as fight choreographer. The movie resembles an early 1990s Ching Siu-Tung film, like Butterfly and Sword and The Heroic Trio, with lots of spinning and twirling to complement the more basic swordplay. There are some wire-stunts here and there, but I’m guessing the crew had neither the time or budget (or talent) to do anything complex, which is actually for the best. The swordplay is more grounded than most wuxia films of that decade, which is actually refreshing. The only thing about the action I didn’t like was the occasional blurry shot of Chin Siu-Ho rushing at (or past) the camera in order to convey the idea of super speed. Those moments were cheesy. Also, the final fight between him and Phillip Ko Fei is a bit too short. Does this movie deserve to be forgotten? I don’t know. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great. But I appreciate good ol’ fashioned balletic spinning and twirling at a time CGI was seeping into the HK movie scene.