Fist Power (2000)
Cheuk is a mainland security officer who's thrown into a race against the clock when he discovers a man is holding an entire school hostage in exchange for his adopted son, so it's up to Cheuk to use his formidable martial arts skills to retrieve the boy and bring him back before the man decides to kill everyone.
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Reviews
Highly Overrated But Still Good
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Fist Power is a fairly fast paced and action packed film vehicle for martial artist actor Vincent Zhao. However watchable, the movie is with not without flaws. The direction and editing is not the greatest and really sells the fighting talents of our hero short. The support cast(mostly utilized for comic relief) Sam Lee and good looks and love interest for Vincent Zhao, the very pretty Gigi Lai also appears. The legendary Cheng Pei Pei from Come Drink With Me and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also makes a memorable, but brief appearance as Vincent Zhao's mom. The plot is driven and grounded by sympathetic antagonist Anthony Wong who is an ex British Marine that is trying to get back his son from the boy's biological father by holding up an elementary school. Anthony Wong's performance is about the only thing about this film that is excellent. But Fist Power is pretty decent for sure. While not a classic by any means, this should entertain most action fans for an hour and a half. I have not seen too many films with Vincent Zhao, but he is utilized much better in Yuen Woo Ping's True Legend. However, compared to a lot of stuff out there Fist Power is not bad at all.
A mildly entertaining Hong Kong actioner, neither good enough to be particularly memorable nor bad enough to be a worthless watch. This drama-cum-thriller (with only a few elements of comedy – mostly from annoying reporter Gi Gi Lai) takes a while to get going, but then on from the initial set-up we are treated to almost non-stop action and chase sequences. In a film in which the action is so pivotal to the entertainment value, it's a shame the choreography is on the poor side. Lots and lots of quick editing and jump cuts mean that we're never quite sure if what we're seeing is authentic, and the cameraman definitely needed to sit back at some points and just let the fight play out in one take. The pacy, lightning-speed of the battles is just too much to take, and reduces a lot of the fun value from them.The name martial artist here is Chiu Man Cheuk (THE BLACK SHEEP AFFAIR), who served to fill Jet Li's shoes when the latter went off to America to make movies. He's a likable guy, but I personally would have preferred to see more of his moves and style in a movie which only really sees him fight really well and gracefully in one or two moments (the highlight being the showdown with stuntman Jude Poyer). As for his subtle method of acting, I'll reserve judgment until I've seen a few more of his movies. There are definitely some crazy scenes here, such as the battles with the group of cyclists, and a short car chase breaks up the run-of-the-mill stuff about halfway through. The race-against-the-clock style plot is not nearly exploited to the full.All of the drama in the story comes from Anthony Wong, playing an AWOL soldier desperate to get his son back from the evil biological father. Wong adds tons of charisma and power to the film, so his performance here alone earns the proceedings an extra star. You feel that without him, there really wouldn't be much in the way of suspense surrounding the school siege, but Wong brings depth and gravity to what is essentially a two-dimensional character.
Man Cheuk Chiu is an excellent martial artist! Only in this movie he doesn't get to show it! The movie is fast paced and full of action! But somehow it is just average! The great cast can't hide the fact that this movie is bad! If you are not used to HK action flicks this movie could impress you! For the fan it is very disappointing! Man Cheuk Chiu was great in "The Blade"! There he really got to display his skills! In "Fist Power" it could have been anybody! Since the martial arts were not that special! If you can use these skilled fighters why not let them show what they can do! We want to be impressed and entertained! "Fist Power" fails in that department! It was a mystery to me what Anthony Wong was doing! It seems to me that he was used to attract viewers! Avoid this movie and go see "The Blade" (a fantastic martial arts movie with Man Cheuk Chiu)!
Chiu Man Cheuk is sent out to rescue Anthony Wong's son from an illegitimate father before Wong himself,who is holding a school hostage,kills a bunch of people.Plenty of humour and crazy fight scenes,but the movie is relatively non-violent.This is not a perfect film,but it still manages to be entertaining.It's simply one long chase sequence with fighting interspersed.The bad guys manage to show up at every turn without any explanation.However I enjoyed it and you should too,if you're a fan of Hong Kong cinema!