Rating: B
Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, José Luís Mósca, Loreto Aravena, Mauricio Diocares
This is clearly a martial arts film, and was not made within several thousand miles of Spain or Italy. Yet there’s something about this which has the feel of a spaghetti Western. Maybe not quite a top-tier one from Leone. But a very solid effort, perhaps by Sergio Corbucci. It has the same hero who really isn’t heroic, but is seeking redemption for some tragedy in his past, for which he feels responsible – not without justification. We don’t find out the specifics here until almost the end. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. While it does give our (anti)hero an air of mystery, you’re not particularly given cause to root for him.
Instead, he’s just the Redeemer (Zaror), a vigilante with religious tendencies, some impressive tattoos, and a fondness for Russian Roulette. He helps the needy, just not in a “soup and a sandwich” way. His latest project involves Agustin (Diocares), a fisherman who found a bag of drug money, and is now in fear for his life, along with friend Antonia (Aravena). The Redeemer fends off the gang in no uncertain terms. However, there’s a bigger problem, in the shape of notorious hitman, the Scorpion (Mósca), who has some unfinished business with the Redeemer. This dates back to a point where… they were in similar lines of work, shall we say. Consequently, both are now out for revenge on the other: Scorpion thought he’d taken care of that business previously.
Despite an obviously low-budget, Espinoza shoots things with style, beginning with a confrontation on desert dunes. We then get the first action sequence, with the Redeemer taking on a bunch of neo-Nazis, and this also sets the tone, the editing being kept light, and with some innovative violence [My favorite moment in that department, comes later, in a fight on the beach where hooks are not used for their intended purpose] I will say, the middle of the movie is largely irrelevant. Saving Agustin involves the Redeemer going up against a slew of minions belonging to American drug dealer Bradock (Noah Segan). He is annoyed by how everyone except him seems to have a cool nickname.
But this is just filling time and, to be honest, I found the Agustin subplot somewhat irritating. Inevitably, we end up where, in hindsight, it was always going to end up: the Redeemer versus Scorpion (top). It’s a fine fight, though I was also annoyed by the… extremely… slow… way… Antonia crawls over towards the discarded gun. Admittedly, she has been shot in the leg, as an incentive from Scorpion for Agustin to play Russian Roulette himself. But she still moves like a sloth coming to the end of a long shift at the DMV. It doesn’t matter much because the core of the movie is strong enough. You have an interesting sorta-hero, an impressive villain, and enough fisticuffs to move Chile up a number of spots in the FAFO country rankings.