9to5 (dot cc)

Guys omg. Seriously. I don`t know how I managed to not see this movie in the schedule this year, I`m so happy my friend Brian brought it up. Donnie Yen you guys! Donnie Yen!!!

To be fair, I did kind of gloss over all martial arts related films when making my selection. I kind of burned out on them, soooooo many kung fu movie nights. I think it`s been about 10 years since I watched a new one. I guess I was due hahaha!

I seriously fucking loved this movie. Holy shit was it good. I cannot tell you how much I missed fight scenes executed by real martial artists, like Donnie Yen and Wang Baoqiang did in this film. It felt like water in the desert. I cannot tell you how much of a difference it makes. Not only that, but they action scenes were filmed so clearly and so well framed, since there was no need to compensate for so-so choreography, or a quickly trained actor with very little martial arts experience. The moves were there, executed to perfection, displayed for all to see in raw fucking detail.

I`m sorry for swearing so much but good god did I need some good kung fu action!

Ok all gushing aside, the film did have a couple of ‘meh’ factors. But they were minor and in no way diminished my enjoyment of the film.

For one, chinese kung fu movies generally hire martial arts performers turned actors, instead of the other way around. Which often means their primary skill set is kung fu, not acting. In this case it wasn`t so bad, honestly. Sliiiiight over acting from Wang, but Donnie was stellar as always. I think Donnie`s love interest was the one that bothered me most honestly. Good expression, but line delivery left a bit to be desired.

My only other ‘meh’ moment was the symbolic restraints. I`ve seen this so often in asian films. Something symbolic, to represent the need to remember to do or not do something great or terrible. In this movie, Donnie`s character is struggling with restraint when he fights. He`s already killed a man without meaning to, and he fears he may do it again. So his lady ties a piece of rope around one of his wrists, and says “Here. Let this rope restrain your fists, so that it may never happen again.”

Not like, “stop fighting” or “fucking control yourself” or anything. Just, here is a reminder that if you hit someone too much, they will die.

Sigh.

I guess it`s cute if you`ve not seen this sort of symbolism for a crucial plot point, but like I said… I`ve seen many chinese kung fu movies.

Otherwise, the story was good and the action was fantastic. Definitely watch this movie, and then realize you`ve wanted to take kung fu classes all this time, but never really knew it!