THE FOUR (Well Go USA, 2012) D: Gordon Chan, Janet Chun, w/ Deng Chao, Liu Li Fei. Rating: NNN DVD package: NN Rating: NNN
The Four makes enjoyable couch fodder if you like contemporary takes on the classic wuxia – kung fu action and magic – genre. It doesn’t reach the imaginative heights of Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame, for instance, but it’s handsome and loaded with wirework and CG action.
Sometime in the distant past, two rival cop teams – Section Six, solid conventional cops, and the Divine Constabulary, four kung fu masters with mystic powers – are after the same counterfeiting ring. Both groups spy on each other, and both sense a larger conspiracy looming.
The young cast is personable and competent but neither kung fu players nor wuxia movie veterans, so the action is shot to deliver its thrills (very effectively) via camera, cutting and effects.
The extras provide a light overview of the production.
EXTRAS Making-of doc, deleted scenes. Mandarin audio. English subtitles.
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