Hunt the Wicked (2024) iQIYI - Andy On VS Tse Miu

[laagi]

Jesus, is there ever a week without a new direct-to-streaming actioner starring either Andy On or Tse Miu If they keep this up they might as well drop dead by the end of the year.

Anyway, who are we to complain right? Looking at the trailer there might be some fun to be had with this one! Might also be of interest to my FU brothers @Yihetuan & @Drunken Monk .

 

Edited February 14 by laagi

[Drunken Monk]

This one’s definitely been on my radar. Look forward to watching it.

[laagi]

15 hours ago, Drunken Monk said:

This one’s definitely been on my radar. Look forward to watching it.

Curious to hear your thoughts on it. I know you're way more forgiving than I am And I mean that as a compliment!

[Drunken Monk]

Per @laagi’s post above, I was pretty forgiving of this one.

Hunt the Wicked is over the top silliness from start to finish. The characters are larger than life, the plot is rudimentary but serviceable and the action is loads of fun, if flawed.

If you’re a fan of straight-to-steaming Chinese films, you’ll enjoy this one. It has that “polished but not quite polished enough” feel to it. Half cop thriller, half graphic novel type ludicrousness. And I mean that in a good way.

My biggest beef with this film is the gun play. Even when guns don’t have suppressors, the sound design makes them near silent. No recoil and infinite bullets too. Every shoutout feels like a paintball game rather than a life or death situation. It’s all very inconsequential. But it’s also kind of fun because it’s just an aimless barrage of bullets. Like I said, daft.

The film truly excels during its hand to hand and weapons stuff (which there isn’t enough of). An early fight sees Tse Miu wielding a sledgehammer on a chain and it’s pretty fucking awesome. The choreography and camera work is all pretty slick. But like I said, there’s not enough of it. That could also just be the action fan in me craving more. When Tse Miu dual wields cattle prods, I got giddy. But it lasts all of ten seconds.

Ultimately, this won’t be your action film of the year. Shit, it may not be your action film of the week but you should have a degree of fun with it. Just try to be forgiving.

[Super Ninja]

Hunt the Wicked rocks! It's a bit stretched and the action overshadows the rest of the movie, but that action is bombastic and it kicks ass so when the finale kicks in you might find yourself forgiving and largely forgetting the somewhat boring middle act. Flaws like this are gonna keep this Huo Sui-qiang movie from being a more serious contender for one of this year's best action films, although it might be safe to say it'll be one of the best modern web actioners of 2024. There's gun fu, sushi knife on a string, RPG, electric tridents and more, and the Xie Miao vs. Andy On, while not your dream-come-true fight, does deliver, especially when Xie Miao starts swinging the already mentioned sledgehammer on a chain like it's rope dart! 

Xie Miao and Andy On must be two of the busiest actors on the web scene right now, along with Fan Siu-wong, and it's good to see them share the screen time together. Fans of Fight Against Evil might enjoy seeing Xie in another badass cop role. As for Huo Sui-qiang, I'd definitely rate HTW higher than The Comeback which might be more original but is not as fun, while Blind War might be a better movie overall, but Huo took it to the next level with the action here. 

Be sure to avoid the censored, badly subbed YT versions, it can make a huge difference. And if you find yourself lacking appreciation for HTW, try watching the 1/10 crap called Ace Bodyguard (2021) and then see how you feel about this film. It took a while, but the Chinese web scene started producing some quality content and I, for one, don't just watch these films when I need my quick action fix and have nothing better to watch. For that I have Mission: Cross.

[D1 Ma]

Didn't like the action at all. Very generic and lacking any impact. Yes, there's a lot of it, but it's mediocre at best. The only saving grace is one fight between Andy and the Mainland actor. It was OK

Trailer looks better than the actual movie