~~~~~~~~~ SYNOPSIS ~~~~~~~~~ The story set in the near future on Earth, with Nova, a young man who seems to have special human powers and outstanding martial arts ability. Not much was understood about his power, though his mother always warns him to keep it a secret at all times. Like any other ordinary boys, Nova loves to who spend his day enjoying fighting matches and fantasising over a virtual idol/celebrity named Erika. To keep the young and arrogant Nova from trouble was his twin sister Belle and cousin Jazz. You soon discover that Belle also has some extraordinary power, such as manipulating and producing heat. As twins with special power, Nova and Belle can also communicate telepathically, which has a vast part to play later on in the film.
The film begins with Nova and Jazz having a fast laddish race on their hover scooters in the busy city. Soon Belle calls Nova to see if he would make it on time to watch the street fight match. A confident fighter called Iron Surfer was challenged to fight by Nova and lost to Nova. Eventually with a lot of fiasco, Iron and Nova became friends, as well as the love interest of Belle.
You will be enlightened to the history of their world 20 years ago before the time of Nova and Belle. The government has discovered a method to tap into the unused portion of the human brain through genetic modification of cells. However the experiment was soon closed without reasons. The only way a normal person can tap into the unused brain (known as No Access Area) was to be a wearer of only three Power Gloves. However, the glove only gives the potential of unleashing a maximum of 90% of the No Access Area of the brain.
This gives its wearer incredible power and one hundred police officers were selected to test them during the early stage of the making of the Power Gloves. Unfortunately all good things have got a bad sides to it. The glove seems to affect each wearer differently. It has been said that the more you use it, the more of your personality and humanity would be can absorb by the glove and you will begin to lost your identity.
Combat 21 was one of the victims, who became obsessed with power and created a force called 'Red Dragon Army' to rebel against the government and to give him the power to run the city. The other victim was Thunder, who was perhaps the most powerful fighter
among the 100 police officers due to his ancient martial arts background. Thunder is also the father of Nova and Belle, whom they believed, died many years ago.
Back to present future, Combat 21 realises that he can perhaps tap into 100% of the mind without using the Power Glove by using stealing Belle's power. Belle was soon kidnapped and the evil Combat 21 unleashes a poisonous gas into the dark city in order to gain control and to manipulate the citizens to do what he wants.
An Officer Dark came into the scene to ensure Combat 21 will be defeated. Dark was once the best friend of Thunder and also, one of the 100 guinea pig police officers with Thunder and Combat 21. With Dark's help, Nova and his new befriend Iron need to open up 100% of the No Access Area of the brain in order to defeat Combat 21 and to save mankind.
~~~~~~~ TEKKEN ~~~~~~~ 'The Avenging Fist' seems to have many English titles, however one that particularly stood out was 'Legend of Tekken'. It was said that this film was 'loosely' based on Tekken, the computer game. You can see some inspiration of Tekken -translated as Iron Fist, which would explain a lot about the Power Gloves that were used in the movie.
In some way, I can see the similarities between Nova and Jin Kazama, one of the main Tekken's characters. For a start, they have done pretty well when it comes to matching hairstyle. Also, Jin wears gloves for his Martial Arts fighting, which could be relevant to Nova's Power Glove.
Iron Surfer is also perhaps the spitting image of Hwoarang, a Tae Kwon Do fighter in the game of Tekken. In terms of anything else, I cannot really justify the connection between the game and the film. What was even more trivial was that Combat 21 was very much like Bison in Street Fighter!
I have only played the game a few times on Play Station, and I have to admit that I do not know much about the story of Tekken; therefore it is hard to find the comparisons. I guess they did 'loosely' base it on the game. I am not sure why 'Legend of Tekken' was not the title that was put forward in the end. Perhaps they have forgotten to get the copyright…or perhaps sample viewers did not see the connection between the game and the film. To those Tekken fans out there though, Japan and USA are making the authentic film of Tekken, which will begin filming this year (2006).
~~~~~~~ REVIEW ~~~~~~~ The setting reminds me a lot like 'The Fifth Element', as you get to see that the city they lived in was very built-up and their lives were extremely dependent on technology. In a way, it is not that much different than some cities in our world today, where there are broadcasting plasma screens in the middle of the city. However, in the world of Nova and Belle, the technology is slightly more advanced as their impressive hover scooters and virtual idols are not something in our everyday lives yet. Even though their world is colourful, you can identify that it is not a pleasant place to live in. For a start, many of the citizens have not seen daylight and the sun for a long as they could remember. Also, the house that the main characters lived in is not the house that we know. Instead, it is a large flat from industrial buildings (hardly cosy).
The film relies heavily on CGI, which I could imagine it to be a real hype when released in Hong Kong. I have to admit that I was impressed with the contrast of slow motion and fast forwards in the fight scenes as I rarely see such editing. However, I felt that since it is a Hong Kong movie, I sort of wanted to see the choreography of the fight scenes properly and clearly. The CGI sort of spoils some part of them, as it can be too quick or fuzzy to make out the exact moves.
In some way, I feel that this film lacks the developments of many characters. The main focus was on Nova and his relationship with his father, Thunder. Yet, even so, I was disappointed with the storyline. Thunder was brainwashed and Nova thought his father was dead. The only time Nova and Thunder were able to have a fathery scene was during a computer simulation that Thunder has made before he was captured. I can only describe the script of the dialogue in the simulation as laughably cheesy, where the quote of "remember the world's greatest power is not hate, but love", was used about 5 times in one scene. It was annoying that by the time Thunder realises that he was brainwashed to kill his son and has finally woken up; without uttering a word to Nova, he sacrificed himself. Therefore I am not sure if the relationship of Nova and Thunder did developed, despite it being one of the main focuses.
You can tell that this is Alexander Wang's (Nova) second movie. I felt that his role as Nova was not fully
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fulfilled as he lacks aggression and seemed slightly under-developed as a hero of a film. However, he has to start somewhere and I could imagine that he was offered the role for his looks and popularity, rather than talent. I think he did a good job overall, but I felt that perhaps there are actors out there who could do a much better performance.Kirsty Yang (Belle) would have been in the television industry for seven years when making this film. I felt she performed well for majority of the film. You can sympathise with her as the caring and wise sister of Nova, though she can lack expressions at times which makes it hard to identify her emotions. I did think it was unfair that she lived in the shadow of Nova as she has equally great power and potential. I also felt that she was in the film for the purpose of being Iron Surfer's love interest; something pretty to go with a tough guy and that was that.
Gigi Leung (Erika) could have easily been editing out and her character could be scrapped without a problem. She was purely there as Nova's lover. She has no contribution to the war that was happening nor any fighting skills to enhance her character. It would have been clever if they wrote her in as if she had some historical connection with the family. Her existence was unnecessary and lacked development. The same could be said about Kar Lok Chin (Cousin Jazz), who was beaten within thirty minutes of the film and was not mentioned or scene until the last two minutes of the movie. Once again, his character really served no purposed to the storyline at all.
I felt it was a mistake that this film included the Hong Kong Legends - Yuen Biao (Thunder) and Sammo Hung (Dark). Biao did managed to get some impressive fight scenes in, though why put him in a silver metal mask? All you can see was his eyes, which meant he lacks expressions for majority of the time. On the other hand, I felt Sammo has not had many fight scenes considering he is the martial arts master. Having them both in did not do them any justice. The CGI also ruined the authentic fights that these two are more than capable of.
I do believe that the basic storyline of 'The Avenging Fist' is intriguing and interesting. There is such a huge chunk of a human's brain that is not used and the idea of how a Power Glove can tap into these parts is fascinating. However, something has made this movie failed in my eyes. They have tried to spend the first 30 minutes showing the life of Nova and Belle, which I felt was too long. This meant a lot of events that have happened afterward have to be rushed, therefore not fully developed.
I did not think the order of events was edited to its full potential. I followed the storylines easily, but I felt that there were too many characters, too much short scenes and too much events that were happening which made this movie slight flat. They spent too much timing having too much in it rather than focusing on developing an element.
I am not saying don't watch it, as I believe every movie is worth watching. But for those Hong Kong martial arts fans, this could be a disappointment. I think it is best to leave the CGI to the western industry.
~~~~~ INFO ~~~~~ Director = Andrew Lau / Corey Yuen Writing Credit = Sap San Chan Year = 2001 Duration = 90 minutes Language = Cantonese with English subtitle Cert = 15
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