Super Bodyguard 超级保镖

Not quite the self proclaimed “the best martial arts movie in the last 20 years’ but none the less a welcome return for full contact fight fest.

Chao Ji Bao Biao

Directed, written and produced by: Yue Song

Starring: Yue Song, Shi Yanneng (aka Xing Yu), Li Yufei, Collin Chou

Duration: 90 minutes

2016

Chinese cinema recent output of martial arts films can be rather disappointing, with much focus of VFX trickery and quick edits, in comes Yue Song who confidently declares his latest feature “the best martial arts movie in the last 20 years”. Super Bodyguard is Yue Songs second directional effort, after his directional debut King of the Streets released in 2012, though Super Bodyguard never reaches the lofty heights that it claims to be it is none the less a good effort in breathing some much missed bone crunching on screen martial arts mayhem.

Super Bodyguard follows martial arts master Wu-Lin (Yue Song) who ventures to the great urban metropolis, recruited by martial arts brother Jiang Li (Shi Yanneng formerly known as Xing Yu) to join his bodyguard company. Wu-Lin and Jiang Li share a history of training under the same master with Lin being more favourable, so the legendary ‘108 kicks’ is only passed on to Lin resulting in Li departing in anger. While waiting for his recruiter, Lin happens upon an attempted attack on wealthy businessman, Jia-Shan Li. Coincidently Wu-Lin’s victim happens to be hiring a bodyguard to protect his daughter Fei Fei (Li Yue Fei) at Jiang Li’s bodyguard company. Wu-Lin is picked from all the other skilled individuals because of his simple nature. Li is not all he appears to be, Li works for a shady organisation that is attempting to kidnap Fei Fei to get back at her father. Romance blossoms between Lin and Fei Fei and Lin is expected to uphold his principles and protect the woman that he has sworn to protect from his evil martial arts brother. A collision in ideals assured resulting in a final thrown down between the 2 brothers.

Super Bodyguard simplistic plotting relies heavily on clichés and coincidences, acting as a thin thread in stringing together action set pieces. The film shares much similarity with Cory Yuen’s 1994 film Bodyguard from Beijing (which itself borrows its framework with Mick Jackson’s 1992 film, The Bodyguard) resulting in much familiarity but never quite compelling. There’s an unsurprising twist towards the end but its weak approach makes it barely register any emotional weight. Attempts at humour is also a bit hit and miss, though not entirely obtrusive, at times it can feel unnatural as our talents do not look comfortable with the onscreen foolery. The dramatic moments don’t hit the right notes due to the poor characterisation and plot development, romance flourishes in such a speed that it feels forced. The film is also plagued with poor writing; clichéd lines such as my ‘heart is on the right side’ or ‘one creates his own destiny’ are obvious ploys to make the audience elicit some kind of emotion. Much is reminiscent of old school Hong Kong filmmaking where all manner of random elements are thrown in and abrupt tonal shifts. A lot of zoom in’s and zoom out’s punctuate the film, familiar to those who grew up with 70’s and 80’s HK flicks. The musical score deserves a positive mention as it hits all the right marks to heighted the visual moment. Especially during the more intense moments or moments of triumph the score really shines. My biggest complaint is the bad editing choices laced throughout the film, editing would occasionally jump from one moment to another abruptly and it can be distracting at times, though thankfully it does not disrupt the fight scenes too heavily. The film also lacks any logical thinking, for example a mid film chase sequence where Wu-Lin is giving an onfoot chase with kidnappers who are driving in a van. Lin scales various vertical obstacles but is able to keep pace with moving van and also ends up in front of the vehicle.

Acting is serviceable with Yue Song making a likable lead, more so than his recent contemporaries such as Tiger Chan. Shi Yanneng is fine as the bad ass protagonist but suffers when he is required to emote pain and guilt, never managing to hit the right note. Not helping matters is his underwritten character, which is an archetype villain. Unfortunately Li Yufei gives a terrible performance; she fails to give the range that is required from her. Moments that she is supposed to emote anger or panic are just not convincing. Not helping matters is the rushed romance and the lack of chemistry between the leads. Michael Chan Wai Man and Collin Chou make welcome appearances but sadly underutilized.

Things aside the action is the high point with each blow and hit landing on each exponent with devastating effects. The use of close ups, play back and power powder all emphasises the power on the display. There is a certain satisfaction seeing actual power on display with some very fluid fighting ability in an age of digital imagery and pop star screen fighters. What suffers is the lack of long intricate choreography and more of a highlight of some of the best moments with focus on creating the most painful looking hit. These are very same problem that plagued the more recent outings from the Thai cinema, with each set piece feeling more like a showreel. There’s no denying Yue’s martial arts ability but there is nothing to make him stand out among other on screen martial artists. Though credit has to be given to him for suffering the same pains that he puts his stunt team through. Shi Yanneng is a brilliant martial artist and is a great choice of exponent for Yue. Shi’s kicking abilities is sadly not put to good use, which was sadly only ever really fully utilised in Kung Fu Hustle. Shi’s fighting style is the iron hands so the focus of his abilities is hand techniques in which he demonstrates with ease and fluidity that only a true martial artist is able to convey. Yue and Shi face off against each other twice and there first encounter is short and is a brilliant teaser for there final showdown but sadly there grand finale fail to build upon what has come before and ends as soon as things get going. Also bogging it down is some quick edits and framing issues though these problems don’t feature frequently. There is also some odd choices in choreography where some of the moves would not look out of place in a Stephen Chow film or Looney Tunes episode; Yue’s technique is stepping on peoples feet and during one epic battle (1 man vs 100 henchmen), a lot of thugs surrounds Yue and he runs in a circle at a 45 degree angle stepping on everyone’s foot. It sounds odd and looks odd for a live action film to employ. Collin Chou who has a minor cameo is sadly not used to great affect, those looking for him to let loose will be greatly disappointed. For a project touting itself as the real deal there are a lot of wirework involved though it does not diminish from the skills and martial arts on display.

Serving as director, writer, producer and choreographer (with input in choreography from Shi Yanneng) Yue’s directional effort deserves praise for trying to resurrect the dying Chinese martial arts genre.