The Crazy Dad 疯子老爸 Dir. Yue Song [2024] (China)

[Yihetuan]

Yue Song of The Bodyguard fame is back. Should be available for streaming at iQIYI outside of China later this year.

 

 

 

[Super Ninja]

Wasn't there a project he worked on before this? Something post-apocalyptic if I remember correctly, the trailer was out a few years back I think.

[Yihetuan]

1 hour ago, Super Ninja said:

Wasn't there a project he worked on before this? Something post-apocalyptic if I remember correctly, the trailer was out a few years back I think.

yes it was called Iron Monkey aka The Outlaw Thunder with Mad Max vibes.

 

[laagi]

I swear they've been using the same revenge script for every single one of those DTS releases so far 

But I'll admit it doesn't look half-bad. I might check it out actually.

[Super Ninja]

11 hours ago, Yihetuan said:

yes it was called Iron Monkey aka The Outlaw Thunder with Mad Max vibes.

 

Thought the project got canceled or shelved or something, gotta find a version with English subs if there is one and watch this asap. 

[Yihetuan]

36 minutes ago, Super Ninja said:

Thought the project got canceled or shelved or something, gotta find a version with English subs if there is one and watch this asap. 

Unfortunately I never found a version with English subs but it's definitely readily available as a webrip at the usual places.

[laagi]

4 minutes ago, Yihetuan said:

Unfortunately I never found a version with English subs but it's definitely readily available as a webrip at the usual places.

BTW isn't this a two part movie? I seem to remember something like that.

[Yihetuan]

2 minutes ago, laagi said:

BTW isn't this a two part movie? I seem to remember something like that.

yes, the second part is available on YT with English subs but unfortunately the audio is marred with terrible background noise.

 

[Yihetuan]

A nice looking 4K webrip with hardcoded English subs became available, so jumped this to the top of my watch queue. It's not completely mid but I can say I didn't enjoy this as much as The Bodyguard. I know Yue Song is a one trick pony and I went in expecting much of the same as his previous projects in terms of the action, acting and story but this felt even more contrived than usual. It did have some entertaining moments & decent fight set pieces but overall, it's a miss for me.

Yue Song plays Chen Fang, a former MMA champion who had a fall from grace after accidentally killing a fellow fighter in an unsanctioned street fight. After serving his prison term, he's now taken on menial jobs and attempting to reconnect with his daughter who was born while he was locked up. So this rather familiar redemption arc was okay in the beginning but I began to tire of it especially since the daughter was an annoying brat and the flashbacks to the 'incident' went on far too long. The only redeeming story to the first half was the 'revenge' aspect where Yue Song fights the brother of the fighter he had killed 12 years earlier.

There's the obligatory training montage before the showdown but it was so cliche with the brutal outdoor training sessions taking place under a constant rain. So the whole "Rocky" inspired training sequence with the sprints on the beach and bashing of the truck tires with a sledgehammer was to be expected but again, it went on far too long and began to become a parody of sorts.

I give credit to Yue Song for trying some interesting visuals to liven things up like the shots at the beach, hallucinatory flashbacks with the mother of his child and the switch from B&W to color during the fight scenes but it's mostly all for naught as the story really veered off the rails in the final third. The transition to all an out Boxer from Shantung scenario was very abrupt & while it works for Chang Cheh, it's less successful here and frankly, it insults the viewer's intelligence which is never a good thing.