
No, Art of Eight Limbs isn’t about an octopus who happens to be a portrait painter. It is the newest cheap imitation of Enter The Dragon, a picture that was released fifty-one years ago and has still not been surpassed even with the seemingly unending number of pictures since that offer its blend of international intrigue, crime, and martial arts tournaments.
In some corners of Myanmar, two Russian agents reach the camp of General Thiha (Sahajak Boonthanakit, Fistful of Vengeance, Thirteen Lives) wanting to purchase VX Nerve Gas. They display that they have the money and there is a demonstration that the gas is for real as the General’s men shoot the town’s drunkard dead in front of them. The CIA are very much aware of The General and does not raise an eyebrow when they learn of his involvement. They inform one of their Yanbu operatives Nick Buckley (Nicholas Hammond, Lord of the Flies, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles) and summon one of their analysts-turned-competitive fighters Scott Schiff (Ludi Lin, Mortal Kombat, Power Rangers).
Why Scott? Due to the fact that General Thiha also runs a martial arts academy known as the Golden Tiger academy and every year has a major tournament, which this year will also serve as a sale for the remaining nerve gas, Scott will now have to bring the gas detecting device to Cho (Vithaya Pansringarm, The Lake, Kitty the Killer), their other agent who is undercover as one of the trainers in the academy.
It is noteworthy that it was three writers, H. Daniel Gross (The Lockdown, Lady Scorpions), Ryan C. Jaeger (Kung Fu Games), and Louis Spiegler (Blue Gold: American Jeans) who delved into the much-deluded plot of Art of Eight Limbs. The greatest change, other than the use of Muay Thai instead of Jeet Kune Do, is that Scott is not expected to engage in any fighting, just deliver and then extract himself before SEAL Team Six enters the scene. But we know that’s not the way it’s going to happen.
Robert Grasmere also strikes me as an odd choice of director seeing as he has previously only directed a single film titled’ Flying Monkeys’ which is a 2012 SyFy original. This made more sense as he has experience in effects that include some of John Carpenter’s work such as The Prince of Darkness and The Core, so he understands what it takes to shoot an effect-driven film. But a martial arts film like Art of Eight Limbs is a completely different animal.
On the other hand, since Art of Eight Limbs was produced by Republic Pictures, which is a low-budget subsidiary of Paramount, there is not much action for him to bother himself. While it may retail Enter the Dragon’s major plot points like Scott sneaking around the estate in search of clues, it does not even desire to reach the same amount or level of action sequences. Our squinty hero fends off a machete-wielding guard with a rake and cannot be compared to the Nunchaku scenes of Enter the Dragon whereas Lin is enough of a convincing hero, he is no Bruce Lee or Bruce Li for that matter.
Whatever the fights are, they are simple but nicely choreographed. Seng Kawee, who has been involved in projects such as Ong Bak, Sniper 3, Rambo, and Extraction, can put together a good-looking fight. The bad thing however is that the camera cuts away too much for the duration of the film, which in turn gives us quick spurts of combat only instead of longer duration shots which would be more satisfying to the viewer. As the case most of the time is the case with all films Chunsa Thai Keboon Yuu (Scott Adkins) has a final fight with Thiha Yathedwin’s head enforcer and here Zeya who is played by Suradet Dongthaisong of the movies The Asian Connection and Buffalo Boys. But for some strange reason, this rematch ends far too quickly to get any satisfaction from it and goes for an over-the-top finish.
In all fairness, Art of Eight Limbs is professionally done from the technical side and in the world of DTV action films, I’ve had the chance to see far worse films. But with just one couple of fights in total in the length of one hundred one minute duration of the film, it is rather easy to find examples of better DTV films. If you don’t mind watching a film and not having to concentrate on the main aspects of the film, it could be the solution. Or better yet go watch Enter the Dragon again.
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