The storyline in "Shadow Master" was a dumpster fire of a script. The narrative was sluggish, all over the place, and actually made very little sense. And in terms of "Shadow Master" providing adequate entertaining, as a movie is supposed to, then writer and director Pearry Reginald Teo simply dropped the ball.
The pacing of the narrative was sluggish and slow, and that made sitting through "Shadow Master" a bit of a struggle. The movie could definitely have benefitted from a more upscaled narrative with more action, or at least a better constructed script and storyline.
As for placing "Shadow Master" in a genre, then it was a bit all over the place. There were elements of horror in it, of course elements of action given the martial arts, elements of supernatural to it. So it was a bit of a strange mix.
I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and the acting performances were mediocre. Yeah, you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian theater here. Not that I was expecting an action movie titled "Shadow Master" to be a cinematic masterpiece.
The martial art sequences in the movie are good, and leading actor D. Y. Sao (playing An Voaen) definitely has fighting skills. I will say that his martial arts helped carry the movie quite a long way. There is just something that works about that Thai martial arts style where they use their elbows and knees for striking.
The wardrobe and costumes in the movie was just hands-down horrible. It looked abysmal, especially since there was no consistency or sense to it. The garments people wore were just all over the place, from cheap masks bought off of Wish, to mesh shirts bought at an adult store, to burlap garments that made no sense that anyone would be wearing.
Writer and director Pearry Reginald Teo set out to accomplish something with "Shadow Master", that much was certain. But the end result was a rather messy heap of an inconsistent storyline that just leaves you baffled and trying to figure out what you actually just sat through.
"Shadow Master" is not a movie that I would recommend you waste 90 minutes on watching, especially not if you enjoy a movie with a compelling and interesting storyline.
My rating of "Shadow Master" comes to land on a very generous three out of ten stars.
