“Fist of the Condor” is the director’s fifth joint film. Ernesto Diaz Espinosa and one of the most charismatic movie fighters of our time Marco Zarrora. The sixth film, by the way, by Espinosa is planned with Scott Adkins и Marco Sarror.
PLOT
A group of martial artists from around the world are searching for a book that contains ancient secrets about how to overcome the limitations of the human body.
REVIEW
Of all five films of the tandem of Chilean peppers, "Fist of the Condor" The plot has the greatest bias in the martial arts genre. There is a secret book with a secret technique that is being hunted, and martial arts teachers, and philosophical sayings, and the training of the silent protagonist, and two twin brothers who find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict, and the final hand-to-hand duel.
Personally, I love Espinoza and Sarrour's films and am always excited when they come out. I didn’t expect much from this, because in principle you can’t expect something masterpiece from such an auteur cinema. And in general, the BI genre has pretty much exhausted itself by 2023. In addition, the trailer made it clear that the quality will be about the same "Savior" (2014). Well, that's how it turned out. If you watch two trailers in a row, it may seem that this is either the same series or two parts of the same film. And this is neither good nor bad, I’m just stating it.
And yet, there are differences between the films. "Fist of the Condor" still inferior "To the Savior" in terms of the amount of action, oddly enough, because here the main bias is made directly into the BI genre, in contrast to "Savior". However, one way or another, this is made up for by other advantages. Personally, I liked this minimalism, beautiful natural landscapes, and moderate pace of the story. But of course, the main advantage of the film is the Marco Sarror: his charisma, physical form, acting. And in general, in principle, without Marco, Espinosa’s films would have lost almost all their value. This is what it means - the power of one person.
It's not that these films would be bad without Marco, but Sarror is sort of the glue that holds all the other aspects of the films together, like an egg holding dough together. Marco is interesting to watch, and "Fist of the Condor" there are two of them! I won’t say that there is such a strong and interesting contrast between them as in "Double Strike" with Van Damme or "Twin Dragons" with Jackie Chan, but still.
The second advantage of the film is the main opponent of the hero Marco, the student of his antagonist brother. He was played Eyal Meyer - Chilean actor, martial artist, B.A., has been practicing and specializing in kalaripayattu since 2006, a traditional martial art from South India, which is considered the oldest of all martial arts (it can be seen in this film), and he is also a radio presenter, model , dancer, yogi, vocalist... in short, a Swede, a reaper, and a trumpet player. Not knowing anything about him, when watching the film, I immediately realized that he was not a simple person, and after reading the biography I was only convinced of this. In general, it turned out to be a good, colorful villain with a good performance, although the content is typical for such films.
Otherwise, there is nothing particularly memorable in the film. Everything is standard.
ACTION
For the action in "Fist of the Condor" Sarror himself answered, as in some of Espinosa’s other projects. The film didn't exactly set a new bar for choreography. I would say that this is quite a typical production for films with Marco, and these are mostly elements of taekwondo, karate and tricking with a similar tempo-rhythm and dramaturgy, well, and the “Fist of the Condor” style invented for the film. In other words, it’s all show-offs, flights and trickery, which we saw in previous films of the tandem. Therefore, it was not possible to feel the “wow” effect, since there is no particular drama and originality in the fights - everything is quite standard, as in most films with Marco and co. Scott Adkins. Yes, and the action was filmed in "Fist" not always in a manner beneficial to entertainment. IN "Savior" It seems like it was filmed more interestingly, and there were more battles and opponents. In short: you can watch it in general. I like it.
SUMMARY
Those who watched the previous works of the tandem of Espinoza and Sarror (you can read about them here) should have noticed that they are united by several constant qualities: a small budget, completely different and quite original stories, the presence of their own style, self-irony in places, good musical accompaniment and minimalistic but good hand-to-hand action. And in style, some of Espinoza’s films sometimes resemble the film language of early Robert RodriguezEg "Agent Mandrill" (2009), which looks better in overall quality than all the director's other films. He probably put the greatest effort and budget into it. For me personally "Fist of the Condor" I came in because I understand this kind of cinema and the cheapness won’t scare me. True, what I missed from the film was a little more recklessness, self-irony, tomfoolery, and dynamics. I think self-irony or humor is extremely necessary for such films.
"Fist" Far from being a masterpiece and definitely not the best film of the Chilean peppers, it can only be recommended to fans of the tandem of Espinosa and Zarora, and indeed of the BI genre in general. The film doesn’t look easy to watch, and in some places some may become a bit bored from the abundance of genre clichés and the unhurried rhythm of the narrative, but it depends. A film like this needs its own mood. Despite all the quibbles, I liked the film.
4/5
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Tags: The Fist of the Condor, Marko Zaror, Ernesto Diaz Espinosa, Eyal Meyer
Tags: The Fist of the Condor, Marko Zaror, Ernesto Diaz Espinosa, Eyal Meyer
There are not enough stars in the sky, but the film is not bad!
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You can watch it once
The film is not bad, but the recent "City Hungter" is better in terms of action.