Fight Against Evil (2021) & Fight Against Evil 2 (2023)

[laagi]

Remember Xie Miao? Chances are you probably don't. I took me a minute as well to recognize him.

If you've watched Jet Li's 'My Father is a Hero' or 'New Legend of Shaolin' you'll certainly remember the child actor playing his son. Well that's none other than Xie Miao.

Despite taking a break for almost a decade after his successful years as a child actor. He's recently had a bit of a resurgence in direct-to-streaming content in China. Earning him the right to even take the leading role.

I haven't watched part one of this supposed series and truth be told was super hesitant to give part two a chance. However, all things considered I'm glad I did! Now don't get me wrong this isn't the most amazing martial arts movie I've watched recently. But for what it's worth a well crafted and overall entertaining piece of the aforementioned.

That's mainly due to two reasons in particular or let's say three. A bare bone story about prostitution, violence, suicide and brotherhood. Some of which not for the faint of heart especially violence against women. Secondly our charismatic leading man and lastly the action which especially in the second half is a joy to watch. Although the editing could've done with some improvement.

Now that you have the basic gist of things let me just put it this way. Fight Against Evil 2 is pretty much a carbon copy of a Donnie Yen (including our leading man) movie we've seen before. Hell I'd go as far as saying it blatantly copies some of his action one to one. Is that an entirely bad thing? Honestly not really. It made me smile more than anything else.

But anyone remotely familiar with Yen's work from the 2000's will notice this right off the bat! That's not to say there's some really great stuff in here as well. I especially enjoyed the use of objects and surroundings. One of my favorite fights of the entire movie is a one on one in a bathroom stall. Which sees our hero beating the shit (pun intended) out of a thug.

Set aside a weak first half and a blatant attempt to portray the chinese police as knight in shining armor. There's enough fun to be had here, that I'm confident to give it a recommendation. Last but not least stick around til' the end for some nice BTS.

 

 

 

[Drunken Monk]

I've been trying to find both of these films without signing up for iQiyi. It seems they pop up in numerous places and then get taken down right away. I'm hoping Well Gu USA puts these two out like they did with Eye for an Eye but it doesn't seem like they will. Shame. Hopefully, some sheisty so and so will get them up on YouTube at some point.

[laagi]

1 hour ago, Drunken Monk said:

I've been trying to find both of these films without signing up for iQiyi. It seems they pop up in numerous places and then get taken down right away. I'm hoping Well Gu USA puts these two out like they did with Eye for an Eye but it doesn't seem like they will. Shame. Hopefully, some sheisty so and so will get them up on YouTube at some point.

Drop me a PM and I'll hook you up And yes I'm surprised as you are that no one has picked these up yet. Especially considering some of the chinese streaming shite is getting EVEN a physical release!?

BTW, to make matters worse I've noticed that iQiyi offers some truly horrendous english subtitles with a lot of their releases unfortunately.

Edited December 12, 2023 by laagi

[Yihetuan]

I've only seen the first one, Fight against Evil but it was pretty decent from an action standpoint. I have North-East Police Story but haven't got around to watching it yet. I understand it's a prequel to the first film. The BTS in the first one was cool. So it's cool they kept the BTS concept for the prequel. A lot of these Chinese DTV films for the streaming market are not very good but once in awhile you do find some decent ones and even some gems.

[laagi]

18 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

I have North-East Police Story

That's the alternate title they use for both part I and II of 'Fight Against Evil'. It's pretty confusing tbh  And yes you're absolutely right sometimes you do find decent dare I say good to great output on chinese streaming sites.

 

[Drunken Monk]

I've just finished watching Fight Against Evil 2 and I'm impressed! This is a really solid cop thriller that's well paced and presents a genuinely interesting world - namely, the seedy underworld of a partiuclar bunch of criminals. The lead villain is fantastic. Really menacing and sleazy.

There isn't a ton of action in this one but when it hits, it hits hard. Powerful strikes and awesome throws. Not to mention the odd boot here and there. It's all captured really well and even pulls off some shaky cam eally well. Tsu Miu still has it and I hope we get some more action from him in the years to come. Preferably with a director that likes to show off his skillset.  There's a car-based fight that's absolutely incredibe and doesn't even have Tse Miu in it!

I really, really enjoyed this.