Rebirth

The Raid was directed by a Welsh director in Indonesia and in the Indonesian language. Rebirth or Bangkok Revenge, a very poor man's Raid, is directed by a French director in Thailand and then takes the unusual step of having the actors speak (or be dubbed) in English, even those whose characters are clearly Thai or French.

This is not a very good film at all, but it is a pretty good showcase in some instances for the Muay Thai style of fighting. Again a little surprising as director Jean-Marc Mineo and lead actor Jon Foo have kung fu backgrounds. Nevertheless what we have here in some of the fight scenes are some of the best Muay Thai examples, since the Om Bak series featuring Tony Jaa. But notice I did qualify my praise by saying "some".

The rest of the movie? Well, that's where the laughing till you cry comes in. Bizarre would be an understatement, as would suggesting that the narrative takes a distinctly second place to the staging of the action scenes, some of which aren't set up particularly well anyway.

I won't even bother to outline a plot summary, as even that's pretty silly. I'll just leave you with a few observations.

Based on Rebirth you would have to believe that in Bangkok all cops are corrupt killers. Weirded - out gangs waiting to rob/kill you lie in wait around every corner. Foo's Manit just wanders in to downtown Bangkok after 20 years in country seclusion and the bad guys already seem to know who he is and he strangely seems to know where to walk to attract their attention. Characters seem to come and go with no real rhyme or reason ... that's if they're not being lined up to be killed. (I still for the life of me, can't really work out what Simon had to do with the plot.)

On a technical level, I have to mention that the lighting of many scenes leaves a lot to be desired. And Manit's New Zealand accent had me scratching my head. In fact it's treated as a script in-joke, that never gets any explanation apart from Manit's, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you".

Ultimately Bangkok Revenge is a predictable, poorly constructed and acted vengeance themed film that never really finds its own identity. To put it even more bluntly it just seems to be all about the action set pieces.

The French-Thai co-production tells a story not worth retelling. But the main character Jon Foo and his impressive martial arts are well worth seeing. The actor, martial artist and stuntman of Chinese-Irish origin, born in London in 1982, delivers one breathtaking fight scene after another. And it's very rough and laconic. Your bones will break! The tears flow!

The fights in the subway and in the gym are particularly exciting, as the somewhat emotional hero destroys several villains at once. It is this callousness that leads to some extremely nasty sayings. Like the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about someone who set out to learn fear. The hero played by Jon Foo will also feel this in the furious final fight.

Ultra cool and badass! For fans of the genre!

This is my first review so it'll be somewhat crude, but I'll say what I thought of the film.

The plot is somewhat mediocre at best; hero survived a fatal shot when he was a child, lived in seclusion, and now he's being hunted down by his parents' murderers. The reason for him being hunted down is quite unclear to me, since he clearly remembers nothing from his childhood, and I had a feeling if the villains left him alone, he'd have left them alone.

Still, moving on with the actions; I thought there were plenty of actions and the skills Jon Foo showed are quite on par with other Thai martial art films I've seen. What I liked is that they didn't "soften" his actions. Since he can't feel pain, or most normal feelings I think, he beat 'em up real good.

Acting-wise, I'd prefer if they'd all speak Thai. I don't mind reading subtitles. Having non-native speakers speak in English (not so fluently) is kind of distracting. The movie would've been better otherwise. Then again, I don't know how it would fare if you have the lead speak in broken Thai (Since I'm not sure if he's fluent in it. We only heard him asking for directions. Anyone could have).

In short, take it for what it is. A martial arts film, and it'll be enjoyable enough.

Alright, so it wasn't a triple-a production movie. Throughout the movie I loved the filmography, story, and character development. I'm all about obscure netflix foreign movies, and this was a very entertaining, excellent ending movie.

While many give it low ratings, from someone who only watches foreign movies on netflix, it was a blast to watch. Great story, while very typical, but it progressed through the movie and character developments where obviously seen, and felt. The ending was one of the best foreign movie endings iv'e seen, obviously minus the classics, but it is well deserving above a 4.5. I'd say an 8/10 is an adequate rating for this movie.

Great action scenes, the main actor obviously has tremendous martial arts skills. Reminded me of a tony jaa or donnie yen martial arts, which are great to watch

This movie kind of surprised me. As an avid fan of all things martial arts , I must say I did not walk away disappointed in this movie. here is my grading for the movie:

Acting - 4 out of 10 Writing - 3 out of 10 Plot - 3 out of 10 Atmosphere - 5 out of 10 Directing - 6 out of 10 - mostly because they allow the user to see most of the action, rather than the shaky cam obsession in America. Action - 8 out of 10

Yes, 8 out of 10. Sure, Ong Bok, The Protector, The Raid, Ip Man, etc. are way better but this movie tries its hardest to emulate those films as best it can while also distinguishing itself. I found it refreshing that the good guy actually gets hit in this movie and takes a very serious beating at time - something most martial arts movies suffer from; the "no one can touch me even though there are 20 of them" mentality. This guy gets his butt kicked but does manage to dish it out. Jon Foo is an odd one for me. He sounds Australian at times, Irish in others, and looks Asian yet American at the same time. Very odd but it works for him. However, all that aside, he has some serious moves and has great potential. Is he Tony Jaa? No, not many people are. But he is damn good and someone I look forward to keeping an eye on.

Definitely watch this movie if you are in the mood for a cheesy movie with some serious fight scenes in them. Jon Foo can dish it out - especially the fight scene on the subway.

Overall, a 6 out of 10.