Chinese Reviews Reviews

Film Review: Crazy Fist (2021) by Guo Qing

"Stop, he is an agent"

Aiming for impression instead of substance is not exactly a bad thing in cinema, and particularly in the martial arts genre, which actually thrives on this approach. There is, however, going too far one way, and “” is definitely one of those films where the sense of measure is lost quite early. 

“Crazy Fist” is screening at the market section of Busan International Film Festival

Through an introduction that uses elements from “Mortal Kombat” and then “Fast and Furious” we are introduced to the main protagonists. Shang-hai is a former MMA champion, who swore never to fight again, instead retiring to run his family's international business. Mai Wen is the new kid on the block, on his way to become his champion himself, but in order to do so, he has to win against one of Shang-hai's students. As the fight approaches, he meets Shang-hai's sister, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Jessica, a rather shady woman who is soon revealed to be part of a drug smuggling ring, approaches Mai Wen, obviously plotting something. During the fight, Mai Wen kills his opponent, enraging Shang-hai who decides to get back in the ring in order to exact revenge, despite his sister's pleas. Soon, however, a much bigger conspiracy is revealed, with Jessica in the epicenter. 

“Crazy Fist” is actually a movie filled with faults, but the two most major ones are definitely the writing, which makes no sense even for an action movie, and the second is the decision to dub the whole thing in English, making the already mediocre acting of the body builders and models that comprise the cast even worse. Furthermore, the movie, although posing as a martial arts one, instead actually functions more as a crime thriller after a fashion, in another element that faults its overall quality due to the writing, which makes the whole story more than absurd. The attempts at romance are equally mediocre, while the fact that one of the key protagonists is revealed as an undercover agent for the police is just laughable. 

Even worse, the action choreography is not that great, suffering particularly from the fact that the intensely bulky protagonists, with the exception of the ultimate villain, are slow. Wang Jiangyang and Yang Lei's choreographies, despite having some appealing elements, suffer due to the lack of speed, while the effort to “mask” the fact through editing and SFX does not work particularly well. 

What remains is just impression. The male protagonists look spectacular with all their muscles, the girls are all gorgeous, the underground arena looks as dangerous as possible, and the overall presentation of the seaside area is picturesque most of the time. Furthermore, is impressive as the femme fatale Jessica, while a cameo by the disappeared is definitely welcome. 

That is all there is, however, for a film that ends up worthy only for passing the time without thinking anything in particular. 

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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