Rating:

3

Year of release: 2005

Genre: action

Director: James Ha

Action director: Ridley Tsui

Producer: Lisa Chan

Writers: James Ha, Andy Liu

Editors: Ng Wang Hung, Chang Keung

Cinematography: Wong Ka Fai

Stars: Sang Wei Lin, Lin Quan, Zhao Yi, Frankie Chan, Wit Ying, Stefan Morawietz, Ridley Tsui, Wong Yi Yi

Not rated; contains IIA-level violence

DVD Information

Company: KAM

Format: widescreen

Languages: Cantonese, Mandarin

Subtitles: Chinese, English

Extras: trailer

Notes: A cheap DVD for a cheap movie.

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The King of Wrestlers

Oh, boy. Here we go again with another half-ass effort coming out of Hong Kong this year. Perhaps it's because I'm getting older and a little bit wiser, or the fact that I've sat through dozens upon dozens of these types of films over the years, but my patience with this kind of production is wearing pretty thin. Whereas back a few years ago, I might have been able to sit through and actually enjoy a movie like this (albeit with the aid of a few brews), now, when I see something as poorly-made and boring as The King of Wrestlers, it becomes more of an effort to avoiding hitting the fast-forward or eject buttons than anything else.

I'm not going to even really bother getting into the plot details -- The King of Wrestlers doesn't even deserve that. Bascially, there's a scrappy young kickboxer who wants to take on a old vet, who has retired after throwing a fight. There's also some Triads who want to kill the guy and a pixie-esque love interest, and a wise old mom... you get the idea. This is by-the-numbers cheapie action movie stuff all the way.

The big problem here is that there really isn't any action. It's a shame, because some of the actors look to be talented in that department. Instead, we get a bunch of throwaway scenes that add nothing to the movie, except to prolong the viewer's boredom. There are glimmers of hope when the action does rear its' head, but the payoff comes off as too little and too late to save The King of Wrestlers from being anything other than a Z-list production that deserves to be gathering dust on the video shelf, rather than polluting your DVD player.