Director: Areel Abu Bakar
Year: 2021
Country: Malaysia
Alternate Titles: Geran
Genre: Kung-Fu
Plot:
Growing up in a poor section of the country, several siblings are growing tired of the reckless attitude of their younger brother continually participating in illegal fighting and gambling. After incurring the wrath of a local crime lord during an illegal street racing incident where he’s scammed out of his car, he flees back to his family where he brings them into his struggle with the rest of his goons. Realizing they’ve upped their intensity in trying to screw the rest of the villagers out of their land, including him and his family, the group bands together to stop the criminals from running rampant in the village and restore their ancestral heritage.
Review:
This was a fairly enjoyable genre effort. One of the stronger elements present here is the expected hard-hitting action and martial arts scenes that prominent throughout the film. Given the proficiency of the performers involved here, it’s no surprise to see the fights have an intensity to that that comes from a close-quarter shooting style that enhances the idea of the performers being exceptionally skilled at this particular style. That brings the fights in the underground competitions or the various street fights they have to get into to protect themselves from the thugs coming after them which result in some fast, frantic fight scenes leading up to the spectacular final half. This is where the film really lets loose with its action and manages to include some spectacular brawls and hand-to-hand fighting that offer some exhilarating moments throughout as most of the family is allowed the chance to shine and showcase their skillset. As well, with the film’s heavy focus on family and the respect for heritage that’s woven strongly into the mindset of the characters for their motivations, the excuse for fighting is much more than just the group fighting someone they disagree with or who screwed them over. This adds a nice bit of depth to the story and makes this one much more fun than expected.
There are some issues to be had with the film. The biggest problem is that this one seems to think that the behavior of the son to be involved in so many illicit activities is supposed to endear us to him when it’s the exact opposite. The fact that this one spends so much time trying to est up his antics with the car racing, gambling, and stealing that he partakes in as some sort of potential redemption arc to get the rest of the family involved is supposed to be sympathy-inducing comes off the wrong way as he’s somebody they would be better off ignoring and letting him get out of the situation on his own even without the viewpoint of the family that’s so heavily centered throughout here. It does create somewhat of an overlong running time where it takes a while to get going with all this early stuff going on that could’ve been shortened and still gotten the main effect across just as well. Likewise, a few minor elements do emerge here that showcase the low-budget origins of the film, namely a rather weird shaking camera effect that appears during some of the car-racing scenes that supposedly act as a way of enhancing the speed of the cars but comes off silly instead. Thankfully, none of these are major enough to distract overall from the fun of the rest of the film.
Overview: ***.5/5
A quality action film where it counts featuring some impressive martial arts sequences and enough of a storyline surrounding it to make for a fun time, the fact that the few flaws are noticeable but not detrimental manages to hold this one up overall. Give this a look if you’re a fan of these Asian action films or looking for something new in that style to check out, while only those that don’t enjoy this kind of film should heed caution.
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