Reviewed - The Underdog Knight. China, 2008

                                                                                   

THE UNDERDOG KNIGHT.

Aka – Ying Han , China 2008 , English subtitles

The Underdog Knight. A young man, Lao San lives in modern day China and is a very

Patriotic member of the PLA  ( Peoples Liberation Army ) Navy. A Chief in the submarine service. Lao San simply loves the Navy, the Navy life, the sea, serving with comrades and doing his duty.  He trains hard in all disciplines ,especially the martial arts

Which is a borderline obsession with our young hero. “ A sailor’s body should be tough as a submarine, his punches should be like torpedoes to the enemy ! “  He has a girl friend, he admires and respects his Commander, and all is right in Lao San’s world……until the training accident. The accident leaves Lao San physically OK, but his mental capacity is much diminished. The result is that he is rather permanently stuck in the mental state of a very Gung-Ho PLA submarine chief. He now has mainly one thing on his mind, his mission in life- to hurt bad guys, to protect fellow citizens and right and wrongs he finds, whether they are real or imagined.  This turns out to be a good thing, unless , of course, Lao San thinks that you are an evil doing bad guy- in which case, you are asking for a beat down.

Lao San has a hard time staying employed and causes uncomfortable moments with his girl friend, Mom, and most everyone else. It really causes discomfort to the bad guys, to whom he deals out bone crushing street justice. He keeps score of his battles and is enjoying being undefeated out on the mean streets of Bejing.

                                                                       

                                                                      

Comic relief,  the joy of the underdog winning over great odds, absolutely fantastic fight scenes and martial arts action all make for a great action movie.  The movie is, of course, big in China and the East, but gets very little play in the West. This is a movie with subtitles for all of us who are not fluent in Chinese and I realize that subtitles are a big turn off for some. Small inconvenience for great entertainment, IMHO.

Lao San is a character that is far from perfect, yet almost in a child-like way, resulting in a very watchable protagonist  who takes great pleasure from the simple things in life- kicking ass, taking names, breaking the teeth of  the bad guys and doing his best to be a good citizen.

                                                                  

The movie takes a sinister turn when real bona fide bad guys show up in town one day intent on stealing a priceless piece of antiquity,  an 800 year old spear belonging to a famous Chinese general from the distant yet heroic past.  Our young protagonist stumbles into the middle of this, and the fight is on. The local police give Lao San a hard time but realize that he is a very simple minded good guy and end up having a grudging respect and liking toward this innocent, child like , two fisted, two footed dealer of street justice.

Starring – Ye Liu as Lao San  , Anthony Wang as one of the real bad guys, and Yong Yu as the police captain. Most of us in the west will have never seen these people, but they are all big stars  of Chinese cinema.

Rating – 9 of 10, would have been a 10 if it was in English. Tremendous action, Good over Evil  and the simple joys of seeing justice done all add up to a great way to spend an hour and half.

Recommended highly !

You tube trailer :

                                                              
And here is a big thank you to Amazon for posting this review.
  you can buy the movie there  :

http://www.amazon.com/THE-UNDERDOG-KNIGHT-Anthony-Subtitled/dp/B004JGOKF2/ref=cm_cr-mr-title