Skillfully trained in multi types of martial arts like Jiu-jitsu, Jeet Kune Do, Sanda, kickboxing and MMA, Mainland Chinese actor, screenwriter, director and fight choreographer Yue Song is back after his sting in the lukewarm “The King of the Streets” (2012), China's first street-fighting film.
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The thin plot of “The Bodyguard”, also known as “Super Bodyguard” or “Iron Protector”, concerns a disciple of the Iron Feet clan, Wu Lin, played by Yue Song. After the death of his master, Wu wanders into the modern city of Lengcheng (Cold City) looking for his martial arts brother Li Jiang (Shi Yan Neng). White doing a split in the city square, like Stephen Chow did in “Shaolin Soccer” (2001), a bunch of gangsters was chasing after a rich businessman run pass and interrupted his busking. Regardless, Wu effortlessly fights off the attackers and saves the man's life.
Suddenly, Wu finds himself in a confronting situation as more men dressed in black suits show up. However, as it turns out, their leader Li Jiang is actually the man he is trying to locate. Li, the senior disciple who left his Iron Feet clan years ago, now runs a prestigious bodyguard company. Naturally, Wu soon gets the job of protecting Fei Fei (Li Yu Fei) the daughter of the same rich businessman whom he saved before. Meanwhile, a more powerful and sinister gang plans to take over the city which involves the kidnapping of Fei Fei, that leads Wu to go after them single-handedly.
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One-man army Yue Song is surprisingly appealing with his wistful smile and deadpan looks in this old school kung fu film transported into a modern world setting. Unfortunately, the plot borrows heavily from almost all action films and offers nothing new or surprising. But Yue is genuinely the real deal here when it comes to hard-hitting and brutal action on films, even though he fails to bring enough emotional or depth to the mix.
Impressively choreographed by Yue himself and with some input from Shi Yan Neng, the fights are amazingly fluid and impactful. In general, the wire-enhanced fights are of the one-against-many variety, including one grueling highlight showing Yue take on what looks like nearly a hundred gangsters in a warehouse brawl. However, there are still some quite brutal one-on-one fights in which he goes toe to toe with the oversized supporting fighter Jiang Bao Cheng. Furthermore, he even gets to fight his fellow rogue student Shi not once but twice.
In addition, there is an interesting Jackie Chan style of parkour and car chase scene in the city streets earlier on in the film, which puts Yue's skills in great use, especially the part where he crashes through a van's front windscreen. Unfortunately, this sequence is also full of continuity errors and incoherently filmed. Plus, Yue is wearing his Iron Feet clan's heavy iron boots which further makes the whole exercise less impactful.
Veteran Michael Chan Wai Man has a memorable cameo role but unfortunately, we don't get to see him in action and Collin Chou also shows up in a brief but welcoming flashback fight. The rich spoiled brat Fei Fei, played by Li Yu Fei is as typical as they get, an annoying character at first who later warms up to her protector Wu. Although there is a hinted love affair between them, they just don't have the on-screen chemistry to carry the romance through. Nonetheless, the always reliable Shi Yan Neng flairs much better as the sinful and angry student who hated his master for not teaching him the clan's “Way of the 108 Kicks”.
Interestingly, the film boldly claims itself in Mandarin as “Asia's most brutal kung fu movie of the last 20 years”. But translated or perhaps mistranslated in English, it becomes “The best kung fu movie of the last 20 years” instead. But there is no doubt that leading man Yue Song, his stunt team, cast and crew all put a lot of dedication and effort into the action department. The amazing fight sequences are extremely entertaining and a delight to watch. However, Yue should just be the leading kung fu actor and leave the writing, directing and editing to the professionals in those fields.
