Notable Cast: Tony Jaa, Chen Duo-Yi, Eason Hung, Xing Yu,
Philip Keung Ho-Man, Yu Bolin, Mao Fan
Although Tony Jaa has seen his fair share of little cameos
or more minor secondary roles throughout the years, lately, he’s taken chiefly
roles as part of an ensemble or as a second lead to someone else. Were the days
of a Tony Jaa lead film already over?
Well, if there’s any industry that can revitalize a career in action with
minimal risk and maximum reward, it’s the damn Chinese streaming industry. So,
in a strange twist of fate, it’s not flirting with Hollywood that would
reignite Jaa’s leading man career, but it’s a straight-to-streaming action
flick like Striking Rescue. Not that this one is going to find a ton of
new fans, but it’s definitely going to light the fire for a lot of action fans
with its blend of baseline action drama, brutal action beatdowns, and a very
shouty, darkened performance by our leading hero, the hero of elbows and knees.
Striking Rescue is the kind of film his fan base has been asking for -
light on plot, heavy on beatdowns.
It’s not that an action film of this caliber needs to be light on the plot, but
it’s spending its time and budget on what its audience wants, and there’s
something to be said for that. Tony Jaa plays Bai An, a grieving father who
lost his wife and little girl to drug smugglers, mainly told through repetitive
flashbacks. It’s the kind of mature role that the illustrious Thai actor needs
to go for in this new era, and he gets to do a wild-eyed, unhinged, and shouty
performance here that - while calling it ‘great’ would be a stretch - is
exactly what the film needs to power its action.
He’s partnered with a young girl, He Ting played by Chen
Duo-Yi, whom he accidentally rescues from kidnapping (possibly assassination?).
She’s important because she’s the daughter of the man that Bai An blames for
the death of his family, but she’s more important because she’s the surrogate
for his own daughter. You know, cause there’s a big father/daughter
relationship that both characters are missing in their lives. It’s the kind of
disgruntled hero n’ young kid duo that comes standard for a lot of action
films, and it serves its purpose here. She helps him rediscover his humanity,
and he teaches her how forgiveness heals—that kind of stuff.
Plenty of viewers may find this narrative with these
characters as mundane action drama, mainly as they uncover a larger conspiracy
at the heart of their attempts to find some truth, but it gets the job done. It
helps that the film is littered with some fantastic secondary performances like
an over-the-top sniveling sinister turn by ex-Shaolin monk Xing Yu as a
well-dressed badass villain or Eason Hung as a bodyguard turned partner for Bai
An. The film doesn’t need well-defined characters or dynamic plotting when it
has character actors that eat scenes and action that crushes rib cages.
To be fair, the latter is the reason to see Striking
Rescue. The streaming age of Chinese cinema is continually getting better,
and some of the best action films of the last few years have come from this
industry. Director Cheng Siyi gave us the highly entertaining film Desperado
earlier this year, and he did not disappoint with this one either. Whether it's
the classic brutal Muay Thai knees and elbows that decimate a slew of faceless
henchmen as Jaa batters them through fully destructible environments, a frankly
impressive motorcycle stunt chase that parallels the golden age of Hong Kong
action stunt work, or a tinge of heroic bloodshed elements in the finale as
Tony Jaa and Eason Hung team up as a two-man siege on a drug kingpin’s rural
base, Striking Rescue has it all for the action fans. It’s
skull-shattering hits and bombastic stunts galore for large swaths of the film,
and fans will eat it up. This is what we all came for, and it does not hesitate
to deliver. Does a film like this need an axe-wielding psycho henchwoman with
high heels and red sunglasses? No, but also very much, yes.
All in all, Striking Rescue knows that its script is
thin and that broadly painted characters weigh down some of the performances,
but that doesn’t stop it from energetically performing to the best of its
abilities. It’s kinetic in its action and propulsive in its pace. Truthfully,
it’s the perfect kind of film to re-introduce the world to Tony Jaa as he
smoothly steps into the streaming Chinese film industry.
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