The Rebel
“Murderers? How do you call us ‘murderers’ when we're only fighting for our homeland?"
The Rebel is a 2007 Vietnamese martial arts film directed by <PERSON> which follows an agent in French-occupied Vietnam who falls in love with the daughter of a rebel.
Decided to check this one out after watching <PERSON> episode on <PERSON> The Art of Action series and seeing the absolutely awesome CGI head kick and this is actually my first ever Vietnamese film.
I actually really loved this — it’s your typical historical epic with a central romance but it also features people kicking colonialists in the face.
<PERSON> and <PERSON> are our leads and not only are they straight up gorgeous (look, my reviews can be shallow), they both also kick a lot of ass. I’ve seen <PERSON> in The Princess and every time I see her, I get more pissed that The Last Jedi wasted her.
Similarly, <PERSON> is someone I’ve seen in Cradle 2 the Grave and The Protector and though he’s awesome in those, it’s nice seeing him in a leading role and learning about that CGI head kick gives me respect for him as a visual effects artist too.
Those pair have great chemistry and again, both are aesthetically pleasing to look at so it makes the admittedly cheap look and dark cinematography forgivable.
I also enjoyed <PERSON> as our villain, he portrays him with menace but also some depth, making him compelling and his fight with <PERSON> and <PERSON> is great.
Ultimately, I really liked this — it’s definitely more a historical film than an outright martial arts film but I definitely recommend checking it out. 995