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A couple posts ago I had fun at “WAR”s expense. It looked like a “put big star A with big star B and a fight scene at the end and we make $$$” type of film. I have to admit after watching it last night it was actually pretty darn good… as a Hong Kong action movie.

Let me explain. There was only one fight scene between Jet Li and Jason Statham. It wasn’t very good, and it happened in the last five minutes of the movie. I think I’ll watch “The One” again just to see a good fight sequence between these two. Most fight scenes were reminiscent of the Crazy 88’s fight scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1, where many goons died in horribly bloody ways. Actually, with all the broken limbs, it had a bit of classic Steven Seagal in there too. When it all got too over-the-top, I actually started laughing.

The fight scene to watch for is a sword battle that Jet Li has in the climax of the film (NOT with Jason Statham!). Freakin’ beautiful.

There was a whole lot of talking in this movie.  As it turns out, that’s because there was a very deep, involved plot. Every action of Jet Li’s character, “Rogue”, has an obvious meaning. If you watch carefully, you’ll find that they all have a deeper significance as well. There are suspected plot holes, character outline flaws and storyline twists that eventually work out to be red herrings in advance of a great finish to the story.

There’s no “OMG Ah HA!” moment, but definitely an “oooOOOOOooooh! Now I get it!” and everything falls into place. In fact, looking back on the film, it really doesn’t feel like a Hollywood film at all. It is in almost every way a Hong Kong film. If you watch Infernal Affairs (precursor to Scorsese’s Oscar winning The Departed), or any other grey-market DVD you can get your hands on you’ll see where WAR gets its influence.

(Again, I only agree with buying bootleg DVDs of movies that simply aren’t available for distribution in Canada. Distribution in Canada of imported movies is a very small business and the people working in that branch of the industry tend to be nice guys and will buy you beer if you let them.)

The similarities between WAR and generic HK action flicks are many: Cool twist ending, Triads, Yakuza, dishonour = decapitation, motorcycles, and Jet Li as a hired assassin.  I wanted to giggle every time he said “I have no master”.  It’s like his version of “I’ll be back”.

In conclusion, if you like HK action movies, go see WAR. Aside from the illogical scenes of Chinese ex-pats speaking English to each other with great difficulty, it will look exactly like a HK movie (right down to the Filmed In Vancouver credits).

If you’re not really familiar with the genre, then it probably won’t be the kind of movie you’ll enjoy unless you like creative and very, very bloody battles involving simultaneous use of swords and gunplay…

…in which case you should probably see a psychiatrist.