It looks like American born actor and martial artist Andy On has a new online movie gracing the small screen almost every week. “To Live through Death” sees him team up with another iQIYI regular, Hong Kong veteran action star Louis Fan Siu Wong as leads for the first time. Written by first time mainland director Ren Gao Liang, this action movie released by iQIYI, one of Beijing’s top video on-demand streaming platforms, is one of the countless movies flooding the web.
Joint Street, Tangda Island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean where migrant workers come to settle. Lin Hai Ya, a small-time thug, robs a stack of gold bars for gang boss Paquin (Yu Kang) who holds his wife and young daughter as hostages. The gangsters kill his family regardless and Lin takes off with the gold to his uncle’s clinic to get a facelift to change his appearance and disappears.
Fifteen years later and going by the name of Lau Chen (Louis Fan Siu Wong), he now works as a chef and stays in Chaofu Restaurant with owner Mina (Zhao Zi Qi) and her young daughter Di. One night a desperate young woman Xiao Mei (Eleanor Lee) shows up asking for help and changes their happy and peaceful life forever. The next day, Paquin’s mob turns up and kidnaps both Mei and Di. Meanwhile, believing that Paquin runs a human trafficking organization, a local police officer Wang (Andy Oh) eventually teams up with Chen to take him down for good.
Check also this video
Chinese filmmaker Ren Gao Liang, is better known as one of the cinematographers of “Hidden Strike” (2023) starring Jackie Chan and John Sena. It is clear that, like most mainland directors of the current online movies, he is trying hard to copy the style of Hong Kong action films of the past. The result here is a mixed bag of some fairly decent and well choreographed action set pieces and some pretty average fight sequences with some gun shootouts thrown in.
Obviously the one that stands out the most is the restaurant fight between Fan and On. The exchanges are very fluid, cleverly filmed and quite brutal as well and they almost destroy the whole kitchen. Another plus is the way they make use of the surrounding cooking utensils like a wok, kitchen chopper and a metal turner and turn them into makeshift weapons. The introductory fight in the clinic is also worth mentioning, brutal and very hard hitting with the combatants smashing into tables and walls for added impact. However, the final fight is just too long and a drag but the one in the balcony where On and Fan take on a bunch of gangsters is another highlight. Although the fights echo some of Jackie Chan’s movies, they are a delight to watch nonetheless.
As expected in most action originated movies, the lazy script needs a lot of rewriting. The simple plot which concerns the loss of a family member just about applies to almost all the characters in the movie. For a start, boss Paquin had Lin’s family killed and he in turn murders his own boss. Officer Wang’s father was also a victim of crime while doing his job. Suffering the same fate are Mina, the restaurant owner and the runaway girl Mei because their boyfriends cheated and left them behind.
In addition, Lin’s facelift operation scene is a joke. His “doctor” uncle only uses a bunch of acupuncture needles, no professional equipment, no anesthetic and only a knife to work on his face. Then as if to further insult one’s intelligence, Lin gets into a vicious fight almost straight away after his surgery and his new face still turns out just perfect with no scars whatsoever. That goes for the unstoppable crime boss Paquin too; no matter how many times one shoots or stabs him, he keeps going regardless, like a superhuman.
As mentioned before, without the bearable action sequences, this poorly scripted online movie would be unwatchable. No doubt Louis Fan is the main man here and again he shines in that department. But he seems awkward during those dramatic and emotional family moments with the female cast. Andy On has sort of a duo role here as a mole and a righteous policeman but his fights with Fan are the movie’s highlights. Otherwise he looks rather stiff just mopping along and his screen chemistry with Fan is not that great too. Yu Kang is adequate as the gangster boss and proves to be a good enemy for Fan and On. As Xiao Mei, Eleanor Lee is there to look pretty with nothing much to do. Zhao Zi Qi shows up as Mina to provide a bit of a love interest for Fan but eventually goes nowhere.
As it stands, while they do have their moments, the team up of Fan and On does not really set the screen on fire. Besides, this production offers nothing new or original, the laughable and illogical thin plot and the average acting in general all add up to a below average martial arts movie.
