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We all love Ngô Thanh Vân, better known in the West by her professional name, Veronica Ngô. First introduced to savvy genre film fans in the ‘00s through her kickass collaborations with Johnny Tri Nguyen in The Rebel (Dòng máu anh hung) and Clash, Ngô has continued to make inroads in the outside of her Vietnamese home market with appearances in films like The Last Jedi, The Old Guard, and The Princess. She is a confirmed ass-kicker, with fighting skills that rival any big-time action star of the last two decades. Four years ago, she starred in director Le-Van Kiet’s Furie, at this year’s SXSW she takes...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

On behalf of Vivendi Visual Entertainment and Killer Film, we have one copy of Clash, starring Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo on DVD to give away!

Trinh, a mercenary, must complete a series of organized crime jobs for her boss in order to win the release of her kidnapped daughter. She hires several mercenaries to help, including Quan, who she becomes attracted to. Trinh and Quan’s relationship becomes complicated as it becomes evident that their motivations are not the same.

Nguyen and Ngo re-team after their thrilling period piece in The Rebel. Martial arts fan only!

To enter, email us at jon@killerfilm.com with the subject “Clash”. Then answer this question correctly:

Name the Marvel film Johnny Nguyen first provided stunts for?

All correct entries will be randomly placed together to select one lucky winner. Deadline is by Thursday, the 18th. Good luck!

Welcome back to Killer Film’s New Release Tuesday for August 9th! Before we get to these releases, let us remind you by ordering through our site, you not only get the best deals around from Amazon, but this one little click will help us out at no extra cost to you! It’s what keeps us killer!

Paul

While not as funny as Shaun of the Dead from writers/stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, nor as good as Superbad from director Greg Mottola, the film hits plenty of the right notes, where if you’re not laughing, your smiling. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Buy Donny says: Buy

Your Highness

Not quite Cheech & Chong in Medieval Times, and for some that was the deal killer. Yet Danny McBride gets off plenty of great lines and Natalie Portman is stupid fine, making for a decent effort, all things considered.

We’ve been writing about Vietnamese actioner “Clash” (Aka “Bay Rong”) on this site for some time. So long, in fact, that you might notice that the box for the region one DVD that just came out bears a quote from us on the bottom left-hand corner. While “Clash” isn’t blazing any new trails or breaking any new ground, it is pretty much right up our alley. And by that I mean it is a badass crime film full of all out ass-kicking and large-scale gun battles. If that doesn’t sound like a damn fine way to spend a couple of hours, you and I certainly have different tastes, my friend. “Clash” begins in that storied crime film tradition, with Trinh (Veronica Ngo, “The Rebel”) putting together a crew of assorted outlaw types in order to pull off a job, a robbery of some sort. There are a...

Johnny Nguyen wowed many American martial arts fans in The Rebel, a period piece featuring the Vietnamese star kicking British ass. Now, with Clash coming to DVD August 9th, here’s another reason to get excited – kicking in heads!

Trinh, a mercenary, must complete a series of organized crime jobs for her boss in order to win the release of her kidnapped daughter. She hires several mercenaries to help, including Quan, who she becomes attracted to. Trinh and Quan’s relationship becomes complicated as it becomes evident that their motivations are not the same.

Following in the hallowed traditions of Flashdance, Save the Last Dance for Me, and Step Up, the new film from Stephane Gauger (The Owl and the Sparrow) and production house Chanh Phuong Films (backers of The Rebel and Clash) earns an appreciative nod for its street-level treatment of teen dance movie cliches. All the familiar elements are present: innocent small town girl in a big city, rebellious friend from the wrong side of the tracks who falls for a rich boy, a dance crew facing off against their mean-spirited rivals, evil developers threatening to take away the community center where appealing, well-behaved kids practice their dance moves. It's romance and drama and, at this point, kind of a hoary formula, but the film plays...

Indomina Releasing has just given us a new trailer for an awesome looking new badass martial arts thriller called Clash. The film comes from first time feature film director Lê Thanh Sơn, and it looks like he pulled off one hell of an entertaining movie. The film stars Johnny Trí Nguyễn, Ngô Thanh Vân, Hoàng Phúc, Hieu Hien, and Lâm Minh Thang. I'm a big fan of the martial arts film genre, and I love a girl that can kick some ass. The story follows a woman whose daughter is kidnapped, and to get her back she has go through some insane madness to retrive a stolen hard drive. The movie looks like it will be a lot of fun.

Here's the official synopsis for the film:

Get ready for an action extravaganza like no other in the suspenseful, heart-pounding Clash . Stars of The Rebel Johnny Tri Nguyen and Ngô...

Indomina will soon be releasing Clash on DVD here in the Us, the follow-up for Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo, who first teamed to kick ass in 2007′s The Rebel. The studio has the newest trailer for the upcoming release, and it’s all sorts of good.

Trinh, a mercenary, must complete a series of organized crime jobs for her boss in order to win the release of her kidnapped daughter. She hires several mercenaries to help, including Quan, who she becomes attracted to. Trinh and Quan’s relationship becomes complicated as it becomes evident that their motivations are not the same.

Look for it on DVD August 9th. No word on extras, if any, and fans are encouraged to check out The Rebel, which is currently on DVD from Dragon Dynasty.

And here’s the trailer, from Twitchfilm:...

Vietnamese actor, martial artist and stunt man - he was heavily featured in the first two Spider-Man films - Johnny Nguyen first matched up with Veronica Ngo for 2007's hit effort The Rebel. The pair had such obvious chemistry that they became a couple in real life and then re-teamed on the big screen for the Tribeca selected smash hit Clash. Trinh, a mercenary, must complete a series of organized crime jobs for her boss in order to win the release of her kidnapped daughter. She hires several mercenaries to help, including Quan, who she becomes attracted to. Trinh and Quan's relationship becomes complicated as it becomes evident that their motivations are not the same.Fresh off a limited theatrical run Clash will soon be...

Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo made Vietnamese action movies a legitimate genre with their 2006 offering “The Rebel” (co-starring Dustin Nguyen of “21 Jump Street” fame, natch), and they’ve followed that success up with “Clash”, a film that definitely looks like it’s going for the throat with bigger and better action set pieces. After two years, the film is finally heading to Stateside DVD from Indomina Releasing on August 9th. Check out a U.S. trailer and DVD box art for “Clash” (released as “Bay Rong” domestically) below. Trinh (Veronica Ngo) is a mercenary working for Hắc Long (Hoàng Phúc), an elusive criminal mastermind, who seeks a hard drive that controls the Vinasat.1, Vietnam’s first and only satellite. Hac has kidnapped Trinh’s daughter to get her to do his bidding and now she must give him what he wants so she can get her daughter back. Trinh assembles...

While The Rebel may not have changed Dustin Nguyen's life, it certainly changed his career. Despite a long and successful career playing support parts in Hollywood - he got his first really big boost as a regular on 21 Jump Street - Nguyen hit the undeniable Hollywood glass ceiling decades ago and had to stew in the fact that Asians simply don't become stars in Hollywood because nobody ever writes decent roles for them.Then the industry in Vietnam opened up after years of government control and the brother duo of Charlie and Johnny Nguyen - no relation - cast Dustin as the lead villain in their martial arts breakout hit The Rebel. and while Hollywood had largely ignored him for years, Vietnam sat up...

It’s been on the cards foreeeever, but does the arrival of this new colour teaser art finally for Dustin Nguyen’s (‘The Rebel’) upcoming directorial debut feature - the martial arts fantasy - Monk on Fire mean it’s finally coming together? Word out of last years Cannes film fest suggest so and as Fire is credited as being a stylised western action martial arts movie, in an alternate reality, with Motor cycle riding warriors. We say…yes please! The movies still in pre-production, and is currently targeted to open in 2012. So here’s hoping. Synopsis: So begins the story, set in a small town on the verge of change. A crime boss is buying up land and bullying its residents out of their homes and businesses. All that stands in his way is the neighborhood baker and his family, who runs a small but struggling motel in the heart of town.

Variance films has announced that they'll be releasing Clash (Bay Rong) in some Us theaters starting on March 11th! The violent Vietnamese action flick is the latest from the people behind the enjoyable 2007 martial arts film The Rebel (released in the Us by Dragon Dynasty). Early festival reviews of the film have been very complimentary towards the action sequences, using words like "brutal" and "intense". We can't wait to see this for ourselves. Synopsis: Trinh (Thanh Van Ngo) is a deadly mercenary held in indentured servitude by an organized crime boss, who forces her to complete a series of increasingly impossible jobs in order to win the release of her kidnapped daughter.

Reuniting much of the cast and crew of the period action movie ‘The Rebel’ and starring famed stuntman Johnny Nguyen (Spider-Man 1 and 2; Jarhead; Serenity; Collateral) alongside pop singer-turned-actress Victoria Ngo (The Rebel; Saigon Love Story), debut feature director Le Thanh Son’s relentlessly paced - Vietnamese contemporary action - thriller Clash (aka’ Bay Rong’) is heading for UK DVD next month. Ngo stars as Trinh – codename Phoenix – a beautiful young woman forced to become a mercenary thief by a powerful gangland boss and criminal mastermind known as Black Dragon (Hoang Phuc), who has ‘rescued’ her from a former life of homelessness and prostitution. Black Dragon’s leverage in the deal is Trinh’s daughter, whom he intends to hold ransom until Trinh completes a number of ‘missions’ on his behalf. Trinh’s latest assignment is to steal a laptop containing a hard drive that holds the codes used to control...

[Updating this post with today's news that Phase 4 films have pre-bought all Us rights to the film. It aint made yet but we know who'll be releasing it when it is.]

I declare my bias on this one right up front: Xyz Films - the La company that I'm a partner in - are serving as executive producers on this one and the lead producer - Hawaii International Film Festival programmer Anderson Le - is a long time friend. Do with that what you will. What I do with it is toss it all aside as irrelevant because with the talent attached to this script - which I've read and is fantastic - this is going to be a fantastic film by any measure.

Mma star Cung Le - recently seen on screen fighting Donnie Yen in Hong Kong action drama Bodyguards and Assassins - will take the lead in Journey From The Fall director Ham Tran's English language martial arts film Breaking Point. Producing are Xyz Films, Media 8 Entertainment and Vietnam-based Chanh Phuong Films. For those unfamiliar with the name,...

Indomina Releasing has acquired U.S. rights to Johnny Tri Nguyen’s actioner “Clash”, aka “Bay Rong”. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, Johnny Trí Nguyen, a former Hollywood stuntman turned Vietnamese filmmaker, gave us 2006′s “The Rebel”, which co-starred Dustin Nguyen. “The Rebel” was a pretty kickass ass kicking movie, and from what I’ve seen of it so far, “Clash” seems to be just as action-packed. “Clash is a heart-pounding, martial arts, shoot-em up film that brings Vietnamese action cinema to the front stage,” said Singh Mann. “The film exemplifies the Indomina brand, and we are excited to showcase exceptional filmmaking coming from Vietnam.” Clash follows Trinh (Ngô Thanh Vân), a mercenary, assigned to recover a stolen hard drive containing codes to Vietnam’s first satellite, the Vinasat.1. She creates an ensemble of specialists, Quan (Johnny Trí Nguyễn) and Cang (Lâm Minh Thang), to regain control of...

[Ok.  Indiaglitz is now reporting that 7aam Arivu is, "a contemporary sci-fi thriller set within the architecture of the mind."  There was scuttlebutt in India long ago that following their take on Memento with Ghajini, Murugadoss and company would take on Christopher Nolan's Inception.  Perhaps it is true after all.  It is a dreamscape medical thriller set in a circus.  With a dwarf.  Hmm.]

I've been trying to follow the progress on Ghajini director, A.R. Murugadoss' new film in production 7aam Arivu for a couple of months now.  Really, I'm only more confused.  My initial interest came through the idea I had that Johnny Tri Nguyen (The Rebel, Tom Yum Goong) was co-starring, even though I've seen not one shred of news to back this up, apart from my own report which is apparently good enough for Wikipedia.  However, trying to determine a plot is very frustrating since they have not come out with any statements.  However, here is what I'm imagining:

7aam Arivu aka Ezham Arivu aka The Seventh Sense is the latest film starring (for sure) Tamil superstar Suriya Sivakumar and Shruti Hassan (daughter of Kamal).  It is a medical thriller/circus picture that also stars Johnny Tri Nguyen as and evil, kung fu villain.   Recently added to the cast, presumably...

[Our thanks to Josh Hurtado for this review from the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, now underway.] 

I have a problem with Johnny Tri Nguyen. In the last few years, Nguyen has gone from martial arts second banana in Cradle 2 the Grave to leading man with his recent feature, Vietnamese action flick, The Rebel. The problem is that in the mean time he keeps getting stuck in those secondary villain roles, most recently in Tom Yum Goong and Power Kids. Those films are both very entertaining if a bit messy, however, it really hasn't given him much of an opportunity to spread his acting wings. Clash gives him a good start in that direction, and that is only one of several reasons it is worth watching.

The newest of the recent small crop of Vietnamese flicks making noise is Bay Rong (Clash), which features Nguyen in the lead role as Tiger. Returning to his side for Clash is his co-star from The Rebel, Thanh Van (Veronica) Ngo as Phoenix,...

This is the second film review in the coverage of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival. To be honest with you, this is the worst film I've seen at the Fantasia Film Festival in all time. This means that if you've seen The Rebel, another Vietnamese martial arts film made by more or less the same people behind this film, don't raise your expectations. Besides, American actor/stuntman Johnny Nguyen (The Rebel) still doesn't know how to write a script.

Trinh (Veronica Ngo), a mercenary, has to carry seven missions at the request of Black Dragon (Hoang Phuc Nguyen), her boss. As a matter of fact, he promised her that Trinh will get her daughter back provided that the seventh mission is successfully fulfilled. She assembles a team with four other mercenaries. Their mission is to steal a very important laptop from a group of Frenchmen. However, things get rather complicated for the team.

Fantasia has a proud tradition of showcasing the best and strangest of Asian cinema and 2010 will be no different!

The Asian film selection brought forth by Fantasia 2010 will allow spectators to experience a variety of Asian cultures, all while enjoying a wide range of cinematic genres that will inspire every possible emotion. From musicals to thrillers to war films and horror flicks, Asian filmmakers often use genre cinema as means of painting a portrait of their nation, highlighting certain social preoccupations, or examining historical events that have impacted that corner of the globe. This reality is strongly represented in the Asian film selection at this year's Fantasia Film Festival.

In order to paint an accurate picture of the national cinemas presented in our program, attention will also be given to certain key works that have helped shape the contemporary cinematic landscape of these countries. Therefore, Fantasia will offer an excellent selection of classic films,...

Well, here's a combination I wouldn't have predicted.

Director Stephane Gauger had a big hit on the arthouse circuit with his indie drama The Owl and the Sparrow and is now teaming with production house Chanh Phuong Films - the backers of Vietnamese action hits The Rebel and Clash - for Vietnamese hip hop dance film Saigon Electric. In production now and aiming for December release, here's how Gauger describes the project:

In my wish of telling universal stories with a global outlook and a distinctly Vietnamese point of view, the seeds of "Saigon Electric" were planted. Continuing the themes of my first narrative feature "Owl and the Sparrow", my hope is to create a visceral landscape of the hustle and bustle in modernized Vietnam. More than half of Vietnam's current population is under the age of eighteen, born after the American War. As the doors of the West have...

And the winner for film I most want to see is Gô Shibata's Doman Senman which I hear is incredibly weird. This is the same guy who did the serial killer with cerebral palsy flick Late Bloomer (Osoi Hito).

Other notable films include Merantau, the world premier of Alien vs Ninja, Mutant Girls Squad and Hitoshi Matsumoto's Symbol which I'm also dying to see.

The festival runs from June 25th to July 8th, and you can hit the Nyaff website right here.

Full lineup after the break.

Official Opening Night Film

IP Man 2 (Hong Kong, 2010, North American Premiere) - Sammo Hung and Donnie

Yen throw down in this lavish martial arts flick that blew the Hong Kong box

office wide open and beat Iron Man 2 like a redheaded stepchild.

***The movie's star and action choreographer, Sammo Hung, will be present.

Centerpiece Presentation

Confessions (Japan, 2010, International Premiere) -...

I declare my bias on this one right up front: Xyz Films - the La company that I'm a partner in - are serving as executive producers on this one and the lead producer - Hawaii International Film Festival programmer Anderson Le - is a long time friend. Do with that what you will. What I do with it is toss it all aside as irrelevant because with the talent attached to this script - which I've read and is fantastic - this is going to be a fantastic film by any measure.

Mma star Cung Le - recently seen on screen fighting Donnie Yen in Hong Kong action drama Bodyguards and Assassins - will take the lead in Journey From The Fall director Ham Tran's English language martial arts film Breaking Point. Producing are Xyz Films, Media 8 Entertainment and Vietnam-based Chanh Phuong Films. For those unfamiliar with the name,...

I'm certainly no expert in the realm of Vietnamese action cinema. I know there was one such flick a few years back called The Rebel that earned some accolades and a stateside DVD release, plus I do recall an odd one from last Fantastic Fest called The Legend is Alive, but beyond that? Nada. Over the course of my festival travels I've enjoyed crazy action films from Japan, China, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines ... but not a whole lot from Vietnam.

So I'm officially one-for-one in the Vietnamese action flick department, thanks to the Tribeca Film Festival's selection of Le Thanh Son's Clash (aka Bay Rong) as part of their "Cinemania" slate. It's a broad, colorful, mostly snappy action flick that delivers the basic goods at a very brisk clip -- and doesn't waste a lot of brain cells while doling out the violence. As with virtually all of the Asian action films I enjoy,...

Yes boys and girls we're just a few days out from the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival here in New York City, which I will be attending all by my lonesome. If there are any New York readers who happen to attend a film and would like to contribute to the coverage, than drop me a line at: benumstead@gmail.com

On the evening of Wednesday, April 21st, things kick off with the world premiere of... uh... Shrek Forever After. Yeah, Ok... while that may not be totally twitch inducing, the fest has some eclectic offerings from April 22nd - May 2nd, that I'm sure will float yer boats.

From established fest successes making one last hurrah before release, like Neil Jordan's latest fairy tale twist, Ondine, and J Blakeson's Isle of Man set thriller The Disappearance Of Alice Creed, to premieres like longtime Shane Meadows' collaborator Paul Fraser's debut,...

If you don’t know the names Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo, get thee to a videostore and rent a little ditty from Vietnam called “The Rebel”. The film is basically Vietnam’s call to arms in the “kill every stuntmen we can get our hands on” type of actioner that the Thais have been cornering the market on now that the Chinese have moved on to bigger and (in most cases, not so much) better things like expensive historical epics and all that jazz. The latest from Nguyen and Ngo is “The Clash” (aka “Bay Rong”), which looks like another balls-to-the-walls actioner if the trailer is any indication. Word is, the film has already scored some impressive box office in Vietnamese theaters when it opened last year, so hopefully that will translate into a faster arrival in the States via DVD. Their last film, “The Rebel” took years to...

So.  You are a Vietnamese-American martial arts star frustrated with the lack of opportunity in America.  What do you do? If you're Johnny Nguyen, you head back to Vietnam and build up the local industry there.  And, with your first such attempt already having set records as the top Vietnamese box office hit of all time, how do you follow it up?  You do it again.  The Clash (Bay Rong) reunites Nguyen with his The Rebel costar Veronica Ngo in a high energy martial arts crime thriller.  Opening in Vietnam just before Christmas, the film has torn up the local box office - leaving big budget Hollywood fare in its wake - and is showing no sign of slowing down.  Good time for a new, longer trailer!

Film festivals are often a conumdrum for me because I sometimes wonder how they get started and, more to the point, who picks the films that get shown at them. My problem is that the films selected for many of the festivals don’t usually seem all that appealing (at least to me) and are often a collection of “art for art’s sake” films overwhelmed by their own sense of self-importance.

Fortunately, I don’t have this problem with the Fantastic Fest in Austin, which runs from September 24th to October 1st. The films selected for this festival represent an eclectic mix of genres and filmmakers and what I consider to be some of the most interesting, innovative and creative films being produced today. Sure, they’re not all potential Hollywood blockbusters, nor are they for everyone, but they are all pretty much guaranteed to be interesting, entertaining and in their own way,...

That's right, the first 32 titles have been announced for Austin's Fantastic Fest and the opening film will be the latest from Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) which stars Jemaine Clement (Eagle vs Shark)! I think I'm going this year!

Also playing will be the likes of...

Nicholas Refn's Bronson (review)

Pieter Van Hees Dirty Mind (review)

Esther Gronenborn's Kaifeck Murder (review coming shortly)

Lawrence Gough's Salvage (review)

Cory McAbee's Stingray Sam (review)

Full list of features and shorts after the break.

42nd Street Forever Volume 5: The Alamo Drafthouse Edition

The hugely popular Synapse trailer compilation series 42nd Street Forever is featuring the Alamo Film Archive for it's fifth volume. Here's your chance to check out a sneak preview screening of the actual 35mm trailers which are featured in the DVD compilation

Breathless

(dir. Yang Ik-june, 2009, South Korea)

Breathless is a foul-mouthed drama that delivers an unlikely mix of pathos,...

It is time boys and girls, the first wave lineup for Fantastic Fest 2009 has been announced, and we are bringing it to you right… now:

Also, Do Not forget to go buy your damn tickets!

Features:

42nd Street Forever Volume 5: The Alamo Drafthouse Edition. The hugely popular Synapse trailer compilation series 42nd Street Forever is featuring the Alamo Film Archive for it’s fifth volume. Here’s your chance to check out a sneak preview screening of the actual 35mm trailers which are featured in the DVD compilation.

Breathless

(dir. Yang Ik-june,

2009, South Korea)

Breathless is a foul-mouthed drama that delivers an unlikely mix of pathos, brutality and humor. First-time director Yang Ik-June plays an angry thug named who gets involved in a dysfunctional relationship with a high-school girl. It eventually becomes apparent that the pair are linked in ways that neither of them realize.

Bronson

(dir. Nicholas Winding Refn,...

[Updated with a stack of new production stills. Tasty.]

Fantastic news here for fans of Vietnamese martial arts film The Rebel:

No, Dustin Nguyen’s Monk On Fire is still not quite up and running - though it’s still in the works - but this has got to count as very nearly as complete a reunion as that one will be. Le Thanh Son - the assistant director on The Rebel - will be making his directorial debut with The Clash, a now-in-production martial arts-action film that reunites The Rebel leads Johnny Nguyen and Veronica Ngo on the big screen.

The Clash (Bay Rong) is the latest project featuring the leading man and leading lady from The Rebel, the news that the two had become a couple after playing romantic leads in The Rebel probably helped the films exposure, and it went onto become one of the biggest hits in Vietnamese cinema history. Their new project could...

We wrote earlier about Vietnamese martial-art drama The Legend Is Alive - a new martial arts oriented drama from the director of art-house hit The White Silk Dress that stars The Rebel‘s Dustin Nguyen as a mentally disabled martial arts master drawn into a fight with a gang of human trafficers. Nguyen, always reliable, was our first attraction to the film but we were soon swept in by the compelling block of trailers - all of which you’ll find below the break. And apparently we weren’t the only ones who took notice as the film has just won five Golden Kites Awards, taking home the hardware for Best Actor (Dustin Nguyen), Best Director (Luu Huynh), Best Cinematography, Best Score and - in a tie - Best Picture. Our congratulations to all involved and a reminder to Twitch readers to keep an eye on Vietnam ... the industry there...

Ever since the arrival of Vietnamese action flick The Rebel we’ve been anxiously awaiting whatever came next for the group of talent behind that film. And while all have projects on the go it looks as though The Rebel villain - and, yes, former co-star on 21 Jump Street and VIP, though it looks as though his days of playing the token Asian are now well and truly over - Dustin Nguyen is first out of the gate.

Nguyen is still preparing his directorial debut Monk On Fire but while waiting for everything to be good to go on that he has also been acting in some other productions, most notably Vietnamese action-drama The Legend Is Alive, from acclaimed arthouse director Luu Huynh (The White Silk Dress). English information is hard to come by on this but it is a beautifully shot piece of work that looks to neatly balance...

Imagine Spider-Man murdering a young boy. The Rebel isn't a revisionist superhero movie, but it does star Johnny Nguyen, who was the masked stunt double for Spider-Man and Green Goblin in two of Sam Raimi's web-spinning adventures. Here Nguyen plays Cuong, an enforcer for the French exploiters in 1920s Vietnam. Anti-colonial protests have been gaining force and exerting pressure upon the ruling French, and Cuong is expected to help put them down. Caught up in his violent duties, Cuong kills a boy almost without realizing what he's done. He feels instant, piercing regret, as though the guilt for all his sins has come crashing down upon him. His remorse becomes a galvanizing force that pushes him to stop shedding the blood of his own people.

To begin, he tries to help a young rebel escape torture and certain death. The beautiful Thuy (Veronica Ngo, Aka Ngo Thanh Van) is...

If for no other reason, The Rebel should be applauded for how tightly the fight scenes are integrated into the story. Superbly choreographed and executed, the eye-defying twists, turns, kicks, and punches are delivered with brutal force and deadly intent. The characters are literally fighting for their lives, and we can almost believe that they are reenactments of true events.

On second thought, belief would have to be stretched beyond credulity to think that any of the fight scenes could really have happened. But within the universe that has been created for the film, the action sequences feel authentic. Sure, the performers are glamorized and the choreography comes across very much as an extended showcase for them, but what a showcase!

What enables the film to transcend the appearance of a show reel? Clearly this was a passion project for everyone involved, but rather than be satisfied with churning out...

HONOLULU -- With The Rebel, Vietnamese-American writer-director Charlie Nguyen readily combines period drama and martial-arts combat, staging a robust actioner nicely shaded with romantic subplotting. Vietnam's most expensive production ever with a reported $3 million budget, The Rebel broke boxoffice records following its domestic debut earlier this year and soon after DVD rights sold to the Weinstein Co. for North America and five other English-language territories. An award-winning festival run is garnering favorable word of mouth that should boost the film to reasonable boxoffice returns in theatrical release with support from ethnic audiences and martial-arts fans.

In 1920s colonial Saigon, handsome, suave Cuong (Johnny Tri Nguyen) serves as an undercover agent for the French occupation, investigating and eliminating anti-government rebels set on toppling the regime. In a rousing opening action sequence, a well-coordinated guerilla operation assassinates a French official, incidentally giving Cuong's unit the opportunity to nab Thuy (Ngo Thanh Van), the beautiful daughter of a most-wanted insurgent leader holed up in a jungle hideout.

Cuong's divided loyalties become apparent when his partner Sy (Dustin Tri Nguyen) brutally tortures Thuy, attempting to extract the location of the guerillas' secret base. After thwarting her desperate suicide attempt, Cuong is so moved by Thuy's allegiance to the rebel cause that he helps her escape and the two are soon on the run from Sy and his ruthless intelligence squad.

Nguyen stages a series of exhilarating set pieces that propel the pair's journey, including a daring escape from a forced-labor camp and a tense showdown at the rebels' village. Along the way, Cuong and Thuy discover their similar family histories and shared attraction, but dutifully put their nationalist loyalties first.

Nguyen fluidly choreographs the film's interplay of action and drama, capably supported by cinematographer Dominic Pereira's dynamic visuals. Fine performances and galvanizing martial arts action throughout -- with all the lead actors displaying impressive fighting skills -- augment the briskly paced plot. Period settings and details, along with lush jungle exteriors, enhance the film's agreeably authentic production values.

THE REBEL

A Chan Phuong Phim production in association with Cinema Pictures

Credits:

Director: Charlie Nguyen

Screenwriters: Charlie Nguyen, Johnny Tri Nguyen, Dominic Pereira

Producers: Jimmy Pham Nghiem, Charlie Nguyen, Johnny Tri Nguyen

Executive producers: Tawny Truc Nguyen, Nguyen Chanh Tin

Director of photography: Dominic Pereira

Production designer: La Quy Tung

Music: Christopher Wong

Editors: Charlie Nguyen, Ham Tran

Cast:

Cuong: Johnny Tri Nguyen

Thuy: Ngo Thanh Van

Sy: Dustin Tri Nguyen

Running time -- 103 minutes

No MPAA rating...