Since I had been concentrating all my time on watching the horror films at the festival, I decided to switch it up a little and watch the martial arts film deemed to be the most expensive movie Vietnam has ever made called ‘The Rebel.’ The film takes place in the 1920’s when the French government occupied Vietnam. Le Van Cuong (played by the handsome and talented Johnny Nguyen) is an agent working for the French and grows a conscience one day when he kills a young teenage assassin. After that incident, he is confronted with another moral dilemma when he is supposed to torture a captured daughter of a rebel leader for information on where he is. It is then Le Van Cuong realizes to stop being a traitor to his country anymore and save the girl. Action, mayhem, romance, and me drooling over Johnny Nguyen ensues.
THE GOOD
Two words. Johnny Nguyen.(a.k.a. “The man actually behind the Spider-Man costume in the ‘Spider Man’ series) For me, this film could have been complete garbage, and I still would have came out of the theatre with a huge grin on my face, and eagerly anticipating when I was going to go on IMDB and look for any other films featuring this incredibly sexy and super talented man. He is the writer/producer/choreographer and star of this film, and he you can definitely see the passion he conveys on screen, for this is his dream project.
Another actor in this movie that deserves a shout out is Dustin Nguyen who plays Sy, the strong and seemingly invincible antagonist of the film. He played the role so cold and so viciously, but was able to also provide a little humor to Sy as well. Everytime he was onscreen, he stole the show, and his fighting skills are VERY impressive.
The fighting sequences were jam packed in this film, and most people were cheering when there was a great move displayed on screen. The ending however featured the best fighting sequences and blew my mind and were also quite impressive.
THE BAD
Throw in plenty of spinning cyclone moves for the men, and hypnotising smoldering looks from Johnny Nguyen for the women, and the audience is distracted from realizing that they’re in fact watching a mediocre film.
Except for the ending, the fight sequences in the movie were not very extraordinary and were not at all as mind-blowing as I thought they would be.
Additionally, the romance sub-plot in this film was quite laughable, because the two leads lacked any real chemistry whatsoever. (This is especially apparent in their dull and lackluster love scene together)
Although the most negative point for me in this film was the fact it expected its audience to be historical scholars. Most of the audience (myself included) did not know why the French were invading Vietnam, and because the film does not inform us why, it made many scenes very confusing and incomprehensible at times. A simple explanation during the opening credits would have easily fixed this problem.
OVERALL
‘The Rebel’ may not be breaking new ground when it comes to martial arts films, but it was filled with a lot of passion and hard work, and it looked great. (It would have even looked better if we were lucky enough to see it on the 35 mm print that was unfortunately stuck at customs at the time.) Although, it wasn’t absent of major flaws, it still was far more superior than recent mainstream martial arts films. Looking foward to the next Johnny Nguyen picture! ;) I give this film a rating of 6.5 out 10
