Raging Pheonix [Guest Writer] (4¾ Stars)

Okay this is my first post on the site so I knew it had to be a good one to begin on a positive note and I found the perfect movie because it came out of nowhere and was completely unexpected.

The story goes like this: A violent gang is abducting and killing women around Thailand. Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers. In a botched kidnap attempt, Deu is saved by Sanim's crew. After learning their unique martial arts style, Deu helps lure the gang into an epic battle to save the women across Thailand.

The storyline seems pretty straightforward and you would think everything is expected and while some of it is there are some twists that leave you intrigued to the very end. The beginning of the movie was a little off-putting for me mainly because it almost seemed comedic and unrealistic at least from where we enter into the story. Spoiler alert (although I'm not really giving anything major away, I still thought it appropriate to let you know beforehand). In the beginning after the introduction scene where we see random women disappearing we cut in on the Deu where she's told she has a band gig that night. Cut to scene in the bar where they are rocking out and suddenly at the end of the song she throws the sticks down (she's the drummer) and runs across the bar to attack (in an odd manner) some random guy demanding why she was kicked out of the band. She ends up hanging around his neck like some awkward and clumsy necklace as people try to drag her off and then suddenly we see her being left behind by her band and she ends up falling in a field of tall grass and crying to the sky about why she is supposed to be so lonely and the pity party ensues. Now the beginning isn't QUITE as jarring as I make it sound; I wanted to get the bare information down. This is what confused me in the beginning because we don't know anything about this character and I have no idea that I'm supposed to sympathize with her plight and feel more confusion and bewilderment than empathy. We later learn that she was abandoned by her family when she was young but we don't know this in the beginning. I think it would've been better if they had maybe done a lil flash back to show her history- perhaps a quick memory of her abandonment as a child somewhere in the beginning when she is first introduced to us. I will also admit there were a few inaccuracies to the movie at times for instance the leader of the smuggling ring caused some question marks to pop up all over my head and with the quick way that she ended up going from complete noob to fighting genius in such a short time (we have to go on the assumption that the training is actually longer than the montage) but if I wanted to watch something that really made me think then I definitely wouldn't go for an martial arts movie. I always think those type of movies, while it can have some great moments in between the fighting, is meant to lead me into a fantasy world so I can go with the flow when something otherwise unbelievable is presented to me.

But with all of that being said, I absolutely loved this movie and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys a good action movie with some angst-y drama in it. The quality of the film was surprisingly good and the fighting style was really unique and almost reminded me of LXD (League of Extraordinary Dancers) with a bit more punch (literally). I was never bored throughout the movie because it kept the pace up and the action was really engaging. I wasn't even bored when they did the dramatic scenes to go into their past because they kept it simple and let us get deeper into each character. The ending was a surprise too and maybe it's because I come from a family of fighters, army, marine, and navy brats that I appreciate quality action films so much. The fighting, while unique and entertaining, was realistic with the style. For example the way that the female lead used her body during fighting made sense. I didn't get the sense that "oh that was so fake and over exaggerated". Honestly it's probably one of the best martial arts films I have seen lately and despite the beginning.

This is a definite must-see in my opinion! If you do watch it, just go with the thought in mind that it has it's serious moments but also it's comedic breaks in there as well which let me laugh while I enjoyed a good fight. I'm simple like that I guess. Heh.