1/10
Another reason to rent Jet Li and Jackie Chan instead of unknowns.
12 August 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I've made it a habit of recent years to walk through the video store and try to find the lower budget movies that might have some of the new names of directing, acting, or producing. There has been some really cool movies coming out of Korea lately, and I thought this was one of them.

I haven't seen a movie this bad with martial arts in it since "The Vault" with Bas Rutten. Goes to show that all the martial arts ability in the world doesn't mean jack in the world of acting. If this movie was a vehicle to demonstrate the Martial Art or the abilities of the performer (Think Tony Jaa in "Ong Bak, Thai Warrior" or Bruce Lee in "Enter the Dragon") it was a really poor job. I can't think of a single reason to make a movie this bad except sheer boredom. And a desperate need to drop $30,000 dollars hard earned cash without leaving for Las Vegas. And no, that wasn't a compliment! Was there anything I can say about the good? American Chinatown's cast (with the noted exceptions of Robert Z'Dar and Liat Goodson) are all current or previous practitioners of Hwa Rang Do,(thank you, Yahoo! Search Engine!) If you can get past the terrible acting, terrible script, lack of characterization and any financial backing what-so-ever, some of the fight sequences have the usual Korean flash of outstanding kicks and joint locks that we've seen from Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. Depressingly, the stuff on their web site was more entertaining then the film. There are some quick, (and by quick I mean SHORT) fight scenes in the movie with weapons demonstrating disarms and take downs. Yep, and there is a sword duel as well in there.

First rule of making a great movie: Great script. After seeing this movie and some of the other steaming piles of garbage in Hollywood I'll even lower my standards to 'okay' script and this movie still wouldn't cut it. Before I can even harp on the acting I have to say that NO actor would have been able to save the dialog of this movie. Had Bruce Lee risen from the grave looking to do this as a film, one read through of the script would have put him right back in the grave. Yes, its THAT bad! Second Rule of making a great movie: Great Talent. That usually refers to actors, but it extends to everybody on the production crew. The movie is terribly lighted, horribly sounded, and the editing is a sheer nightmare. There are virtually no cut-aways, no multiple angles, and no effects what-so-ever. What you end up with is a single shot, single frame, 15 seconds to a minute long take of action from 1 (!) angle from which to see anything. I guess it solved that little problem most big budget movies call, 'Continuity.' (As if this movie was worried about continuity... how's that Eyepatch, Eric T. Lee? Wait, which character are you playing now...? it changes every few scenes when I fall asleep...) There's nothing I like seeing more in a low budget film than actors playing multiple roles...badly.

And the acting! ****SPOILER ALERT**** The scene with Goodson's character getting attacked by the two thugs/ blue haired (!) rapists in the alley... Yeah, I was rooting for the rapists at that point. At least THEY were convincing. Oh man, and how much tough guy posturing can one movie have? I felt like the director's main note to the actors was "If you forget a line, just mumble, smoke, and look tough." There is a lot of mumbling, smoking, and people trying to look tough in this movie.

Third Rule of making a great action movie: If it's an action movie, showcase the action! This movie's entire script (I use the term 'script' loosely) is honestly just there to string together fight scene to fight scene. So, if the production crew was at least being honest with themselves, they would of thrown every cent into multiple camera angles, decent lighting, and some added FX for the fights. Since they didn't, you have martial arts that would have the possibility of being pretty good on film if we could: A) see what they were doing when the shot isn't being blocked by someone's body, wall or shadow, B) have realistic battle wounds ****SPOILER****(Yes, Taejoon, I am talking about you... how does a slash across the belly give you a limp?! My God, Igor lurches more convincingly!) C) have some effects that really show the subtitles of what you are doing, I.E. Slow motion, quick cut aways, and for Pete's sake, multiple angles! And lastly, D) Coherency... but I can't fault them too much on that with a script that bad.

A great set of fight scenes should be able to tell you about both the characters in the movie and how their character is expressed in the way they fight. The end duel in 'Rob Roy', The Duel in "The Empire Strikes Back", even the street brawl in "They Live" can all be watched separately from the rest of the film with the sound off and people are able to tell who these characters are and what they are feeling from what we see. ****SPOILER**** With American Chinatown, you can only tell who the good guy was at the end of the movie because he is the last guy left... limping.

I give this movie one star out of respect that people tried to make a movie. What we got was American Chinatown. They may be great martial artists, but there is an art to film making too... one that takes a whole lot more respect then we see it given here. Invest in some acting lessons, talk with production on HOW to showcase the martial arts, and spend some actual money next time around and you might have something worthy of 'Straight To Video.'
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