San Francisco. The not-too-distant future. A cargo ship returns from Hong Kong with a mysterious passenger named Toby Wong. He has escaped from the underground Leung Corporation in search of freedom in the West.

Toby, however, falls into the clutches of the cold-blooded Vic Madison gang. After escaping Madison’s gang, he takes drunken Malik Browndy hostage and travels to Los Angeles. On the road, they become buddies, and Toby even teaches Malik martial arts. One day Malik discovers that Toby has a biomodule implanted, giving him strength and speed.

This was done by Mr. Lau, the head of the Leung Corporation, who wants the fugitive back by all means. The fugitive couple is also pursued by Vic Madison’s gang and Mr. Lau’s new victim with a more advanced biomodule…

4k movies reviews
One of Mark’s best films. You may not see a particularly clever plot here… but if you are a fan of martial arts films (action films, in general), you will not be left indifferent. The staging of all the scenes is amazing.

Why is the movie one of the best Dakaskos? Very simple. First, a very successful combination of elements of a comedy (not silly, but very good, even with elements of black humor), action and something else obscure (maybe… melodrama? There is something sad here, not a bad script. Secondly, the cast completely lived up to expectations. That is, everyone performed their roles excellently.

Despite a rather large amount of blood and ‘lethal violence’ (as they put it in ‘The Destroyer’), you can even laugh heartily here (although, in this case, I advise you to find an old translation from the company ‘Union’, which released this film in 1997 in Russia. There is only one translator, but after the 90s I can say the following: before, the translation was almost like the original, i.e., for example, all the uncensored language which adds color to the movie was present in its original form).

All the fights look impressive. Great shooting, I must say. Even Van Damme would envy that.

Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison are a great duo. They were great in ‘Drive’. Why haven’t they acted together anywhere else?

I especially want to highlight two of the gangsters you meet throughout the film: Vic Madison and his partner, Savage. Despite their negative roles, this couple doesn’t leave you feeling angry or hating them. On the contrary, even. What was very sad was that they had to ‘play the box’ after all… And it’s a pity, they were good men. Especially the humorous Vic… And they didn’t kill anybody, by the way (at least in that time period of Toby Wong’s life that’s shown in the movie).

Brittany Murphy, played by the young motel keeper, is perfectly cast as the slightly ‘crazy girl’. A real beastie. And another highlight of the film.

I mean, what am I saying? I mean, here’s an action movie that’s not ordinary. I mean, not just an action movie, but an action movie… that has its own style, let’s say.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (78.8 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English, English SDH.