Brawl
(2012 aka Fighting
Fish/Lionsgate
DVD)
Picture: B Sound: B
Extras: C Film: B+
Mike
(Jawed El Berni) is an ex-boxer looking to start over his life in
Thailand, but after getting robbed he is taken in by Yo (Jirantanin
Pitaporntrakul). Desperate for money, Yo show him the the
underground world of illegal fighting. They train and work together
to help make ends meet, but when they get fished into the high stakes
game the Fighting
Fish,
it is fight or die in Jukaluck Ismalone's Brawl
(2012).
Mike is also on the run
from his past, after losing everything he is taken under the wing of
Yo, a highly skilled Muay Thai fighter. Yo secretly fights in
underground illegal fighting ring to get money for his wife's much
needed surgery. He and Mike trains in fighting and together they
become the un-stoppable duo, but only in the minors leagues. Mike
wants to earn more money faster and behind Yo's back he join the the
major leagues, the Fighting Fish, but what he doesn't know is that
once you join the Fighting Fish there is no out, anyone who loses
ends up with a bullet in the head. This was your typical fighter
movie (at least a cycle in Taiwan by now), a lone fighter with some
tragic past, having nothing but his fighting skills he is force to
use them to earn a living, but when his friends or family are
threatened he must fight to save them, it becomes something personal.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound are as good
as they are going to get. Extras include behind the scenes, trailer
and digital UV.
- Ricky Chiang
