Sons of the Wind: Bangkok Ninja

Directed by: Julien Seri

Starring: Williams Belle, Chau Belle Dinh, Burt Kwouk, Elodie Yung

Synopsis:

A troupe of free-running athletes and martial artists travel to Bangkok to set up a sports centre for the local kids. However, when they get there they cross paths with mixed race brother and sister Kien and Tsu, who've become embroiled in a turf war between a rich triad leader (Burt Kwouk) and his son-in-law, who is being backed by the yakuza.

ReviewBack in the early ‘90s, your typical Hong Kong action flick would consist of an action-packed beginning, then get all talky for the bulk of the running time before finishing with a big flourish. My favourite example would probably be Police Assassins, starring Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Khan (Yeoh). The first 70 minutes are a mixture of dull farce and police procedural, but I wore out my VHS copy watching the final fight scene over and over again.I was strongly reminded of this when watching Bangkok Ninjas, although not because nothing was going on during the mid-section (far from it in fact). It’s just that I had absolutely no emotional involvement in anything that was happening.

The film opens with an absolutely amazing sequence. Our intrepid athletes gather in Paris for game of chase-and-pass-the-ball (no idea what else to call it) over the roof-tops and in and around the buildings. The stunt-work here is pretty amazing and the whole sequence has a lot of energy.

Then the guys go to Bangkok, and while the visual spectacle continues, the heart and soul seem to have been left in Paris. The main problem is that the film loses focus and tries to tell too many stories. On the one hand we have our athletes, then there are the two mixed-race siblings who disagree constantly about which side they belong to, then there is their “master”, about to betray and usurp his own father-in-law. And then there are three hooded assassins whose loyalty depends on which way the wind is blowing. Amidst all the intrigue there is a blossoming romance and a weird mysticism element which is forgotten about until convenient, and even then doesn’t have much impact on proceedings. With so much going on, there isn’t enough meat on the bones of any of the stories and the viewer is being asked to care for a bunch of guys for two reasons only – They’re fish out of water and they’re good at jumping over buildings.

Like my old 90’s HK movies, though, Bangkok Ninjas redeems itself in the final reel. Again, none of the "heroes" have made much of an impression by this point (except Elodie Yung), but they’re the good-guys (I guess) and they’re up against an army of Yakuza and triad gangs. Finally, the frisson from that initial sequence is back, the soundtrack wakes up with an evocative electro-rock score unlike any other piece of music in the film and all the stops are out to make this big End Fight memorable.

Verdict

It’s a case of there being too many cooks – the plots get in each other’s way, stifling the development of the characters. However the two action scenes which book-end Sons of the Wind: Bangkok Ninjas are very decent indeed.

5 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)