The Rebel (2007)

Fresh and Exciting

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I'm a huge fan of martial arts movies and I'm trained on it a bit myself, so I know good genuine action when I see it. While this movie may not be a Hollywood blockbuster it surely holds its own which cannot be matched by most other action movies. Johnny Nguyen is at his best in this movie. Incredible display of martial arts from him which looks even more convincing than Tony Jaa on screen. They made sure the opponents also have good amount of fighting skill which makes it a real treat to watch the fight sequences. The girl also shows what she can do and wow, can she fight or what.This is a must watch for martial arts fans out there.

to be honest, when i saw this film, i was so eager and surprising because i didn't believe that they could do a great job like this. After seeing the movie, i decided to come back to see it again, again, again and again (total...13 times) but i felt that i was still exciting, and came to see it till the day the movie theater change other movies hehehe. i love this film so much because i am a action genre fan. I love the script, i was moved and surprised when i heard the script, so awesome, intelligent, authentic, this movie has done the job that other movies before could do, good script. maybe no need to say about the action, marvelous. the action scenes were so realistic, heavy and tough. i admired Ngo Thanh Vân very much, she did great job though she had little martial arts background. nice actor. overall, this is the best film i have ever seen. 2 thumbs up!

The most expensive Vietnamese film ever (it cost USD3 million to make - probably the lunch budget of Stallone's Rambo) is a rousing action/romance expertly directed by the Vietnamese/American filmmaker Charlie Nguyen. The old-fashioned story is about the 1922 rebellion against French colonialists and follows a familiar but pleasing path. However, if you are a martial arts fan, the film will be of particular interest for its excellent action scenes featuring little known Vietnamese martial art, Vo Thuat. Originally based on Northern Chinese Wushu (Chinese were the first superpower to invade this luckless land), Vietnamese martial arts system has developed incorporating the elements from the fighting styles of neigbouring countries. For many centuries it was the main form of defense for these people because their invaders (Chinese, French, Japanese) stripped them of all weapons. Both leads Johnnie Nguyen and the gorgeous actor/singer/model Vo Thanh Thuy are accomplished practitioners of the style and their prowess is obvious in the film. Dustin Nguyen (no relation, every second person is called Nguyen in Vietnam) makes a worthy villain with his own expertise in various Asian styles.A must for martial arts fans. It will also be enjoyed by those who like a rousing action/romance.

I'm totally impressed and surprised. To be honest I hadn't seen any good Vietnamese action movie at all in my entire life until I watched this one. The story gets more and more interesting as it goes toward the end. The martial art is awesome, gravity realistic unlike those Hong Kong suedo martial art movies where you can always feel the "invisible" wire on the actor's back. The actors in this movie are so beautiful and sexy; especially Ngo Thanh Van, she got the best look ever. Hopefully more movies like this will come out. I wanna learn more about Vietnamese history.When this movie is on DVD?