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I haven't seen many Vietnamese films, but The Rebel was certainly a surprise. The trailer didn't do much for me, but I was able to see this at the VCFilmFestival in Little Tokyo, and was impressed. Just about everything involved in this film was well done and kept things entertaining and exciting.

The film tells the story of Vietnam, circa 1922. The French have occupied the land and to combat a rebellion against the French occupation, they enlisted several Vietnamese agents whose job it is to sniff out members of the resistance, and above all, catch their leader. The agent leading this pursuit is Van Cuong, whose questioning of his own actions eventually lead him to help the rebel leader's daughter, Vo Than Thuy.

The film is action heavy, and the action scenes are not only masterfully filmed, but authentic. There are no wires or cg, just raw, powerful martial arts that is well choreographed. These only add to the story and acting, which tell of an interesting part of history that is rarely explored in films. It's nice to see a Vietnamese film get some of the spotlight. Even though the film isn't entirely original, it is highly entertaining. The story itself is something we've seen before, where a man on the wrong side of justice eventually must defend the right side. However, the way it is portrayed makes it enduring and the characters are very interesting. Overall, I have only positive things to say about this film. But go and see it for yourself if you can find it. It's a good, slick, entertaining movie that should suit any fan of martial arts or dramatic films.

I'm Italian and I saw this movie in the original language with subtitles in English. the acting could be better, but it's not so bad, the main characters are well acted. One of the best part of the movie is the fighting: the martial art used is Vovinam, a Vietnamese arts, obviously. The fighting scene are full of realism and action, very good I think. The conversations are pretty good, nothing to say. Another good point is the beautiful landscapes of the Vietnamese country. i think it's a good movie, great and realistic fight. the plot is simple but well made, with suspense, romance, action...i hope it'll arrive in Italy or at least in Europe :)

I'm totally impressed and surprised. To be honest I hadn't seen any good Vietnamese action movie at all in my entire life until I watched this one. The story gets more and more interesting as it goes toward the end. The martial art is awesome, gravity realistic unlike those Hong Kong suedo martial art movies where you can always feel the "invisible" wire on the actor's back. The actors in this movie are so beautiful and sexy; especially Ngo Thanh Van, she got the best look ever. Hopefully more movies like this will come out. I wanna learn more about Vietnamese history.

When this movie is on DVD?

I'm half Vietnamese and a fan of Johnny Nguyen. I was looking for a really good Vietnamese movie and I found out about "The Rebel". I was blown away. Johnny Nguyen gave an excellent performance in this movie, as well as Ngo Thanh Van, and showed his true abilities as both an actor and a martial artist. Between fast paced action sequences (which specialize in the Vietnamese martial art of "Vovinam") and the powerful emotional scenes depicting the struggles of Vietnam during the French Colonial rule, this movie definitely delivers a punch.

(Fun Fact: Johnny Nguyen, Dustin Nguyen, and Ngo Thanh Van all dubbed their own voices in English on the 2-Disc DVD.)

to be honest, when i saw this film, i was so eager and surprising because i didn't believe that they could do a great job like this. After seeing the movie, i decided to come back to see it again, again, again and again (total...13 times) but i felt that i was still exciting, and came to see it till the day the movie theater change other movies hehehe. i love this film so much because i am a action genre fan. I love the script, i was moved and surprised when i heard the script, so awesome, intelligent, authentic, this movie has done the job that other movies before could do, good script. maybe no need to say about the action, marvelous. the action scenes were so realistic, heavy and tough. i admired Ngo Thanh Vân very much, she did great job though she had little martial arts background. nice actor. overall, this is the best film i have ever seen. 2 thumbs up!