This Vietnamese action thriller is centred on young mother, and former gangster, Hai Phuong, she uses her martial arts skills to work as a debt collector in a rural area. Her job and single status leads to her daughter, Mai, being picked on. One day Mai is snatched by gangsters and although Hai gives chase she can't keep up. She learns that they were heading to Saigon so heads there herself. Once there she sets about trying to find Mai; her sense of urgency is increased when she learns that the police are investigating gangsters who are kidnapping children for their organs. Her journey through the Saigon underworld will lead her into several dangerous situations before she can finally confront the kidnappers.
When I started watching this I didn't really know what to expect; I had never seen a Vietnamese film before. If this is anything to go by I might need to seek out some more. The story is nice and simple. The opening scenes serve to introduce Hai and her daughter and after the kidnap the action rarely lets up for long. There are numerous fight scenes where Hai uses local martial art Vovinam to take on various ne'er-do-wells. These fight scenes are exciting and well-choreographed; they are also fairly bone-crunching as our heroine gets battered and bruised. Surprisingly she doesn't always win and is lucky to survive occasionally. The cast is solid; Veronica Ngo really impresses as Hai, I imagine we'll be seeing more of her in future films; Cát Vy is likeable and not overly precocious as Mai and Phan Thanh Nhiên is good as Captain Luong, the officer leading the hunt for the traffickers. The settings are impressive with the early rural scenes contrasting nicely with the bustle of Saigon. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of martial arts looking for something from somewhere new.
These comments are based on watching the film in Vietnamese with English subtitles.
