Rating: C-
Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, Gina Aguad, Eyal Meyer, Man Soo Yoon
This is of Chilean origin, and clearly has a Latin American backdrop. Yet the story here feels very much like it could have been ripped from a Shaw Brothers film, made in Hong Kong during the early seventies. Sure, it might be wearing a poncho. But it’s as Chinese as chow mein. The setting goes back to the fall of the Incan empire to the Spanish. The last practitioner of the martial art of Rumi Maki headed south to preserve the ancient knowledge. Since then, the fighting style has been passed down the generations. Most recently, Mujer Condor (Aguad) chose between twin brothers Guerrero (Zaror) and Gamelo (also Zaror), picking one to be the next master.
This doesn’t sit well with the other brother. We are soon deep in a murky plot which goes back and forth in time, and the only way to figure out which siblingis which, is by the spectacularly bad wigs one – or possibly both, it’s hard to be sure – wears. Meanwhile, there’s a villain, Kalari (Meyer), who may or may not be working for one of the brothers. His impressive kung-fu skills are only slightly undercut by his eye-liner, which makes Kalari look like he just finished a double shift on the returns counter at Hot Topic. This all leads towards a final battle between him and Guerrero – or possibly Gamelo, it’s hard to be sure – though it’s very much “To be continued”.
I, however, won’t be continuing this one. While the action is solid enough, the rest of the film leaves a lot to be desired. There are elements, clearly inspired by seventies chop-socky, that don’t sit well with the modern era. Maybe it would have made more sense to have set it back in the days of the Incas, though I understand why the budget didn’t stretch to that. For instance, there’s a training sequence where the hero’s legs are tied together, and he has to scoot forward on his hands and do a high-jump (top). The effects used are… not good. I suspect deliberately so. However, this makes it very hard to take the rest of the movie seriously, as it clearly wants.
If it has simply stuck to one plot, things might have worked better. Either “good twin vs. evil twin” or “battle for control of a martial arts manual”. This manages to be both, as well as elements that don’t really help, such as various bits of family stuff. I did enjoy the mountain scenery, with the Andes offering a spectacular backdrop, and in general the Hispanic elements are nicely worked in, such as the legend of the condor. [They don’t have fists, of course – but nor do snakes, eagles or any of the other animal styles of kung-fu!] However, all the positives are pushed to one side, by a story that feels like it went through multiple iterations of Google Translate, from Chinese to English and on to Spanish.