Striking Rescue - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Striking Rescue



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Ahhh, Tony Jaa. In my early 20s he was THE rising action star of the new century, bringing his blend of TKD and Muay Thai to the silver screen in such hits as Ong Bak, The Protector and his attempts at making Ong Bak 2 and 3. He was an absolute BEAST of a martial artist, who brought Thai mythological culture along with their unique style of martial arts to action lovers everywhere. To this day I still think The Protector and Ong Bak are legendary films of that genre, and regularly show them off to action movie fans if they have never heard of him. Then the defalcation hit the rotary oscillator right around the time of Ong Bak 3. Tony was under a lot of stress trying to make his epic 2 part film sequel to Ong Bak, only to suffer a very public mental breakdown, as well as a bit of a spiritual awakening that had him retreat from filming for two months. Then, when filming was actually complete, he basically pulled a Dave Chappell, and left his super stardom behind to reflect and recenter himself. But when he came back to making movies, the world had sort of moved on. Sure, he’s had some success being added to other franchises, but Tony never reached the Jackie Chan heights that he did during his early years. But lately, Jaa has been steadily working over in China, pulling in hits such as the Detective Chinatown series, and even played in the sequel to Sha Po Lang (Kill Zone) a few years back. Now he’s back once more in a Chinese film, playing a Thailand native, living in Thailand, in a film that is half mandarin and half English. And of course beating the snot out of bad guys the entire time (kinda the whole reason we’re here).

Here Jaa is playing Bai An, an ex security specialist whose family is murdered by Chinese drug drug dealers in Jiati, Thailand. It seems that his wife was working for a high profile Chinese Businessman, and seemingly had evidence on his involvement in the drug trade, only for her and their child to be murdered in front of him. Now he’s out on patrol, looking for said businessman, and looking to enact his revenge. Stalking the daughter of said businessman, Tingting (Chen Duo-Yi), Bai An stumbles onto someone else looking to kidnap her. Turns out her father has more enemies than previously thought, and now Bai An and Tingting are trying to stay alive from Her father’s security forces, a rogue drug dealer looking extort the family, and possibly Bai An himself who still wants to punish daddy dearest for his wife’s murder.

The story itself is simple and straight forward. It’s a classic Taken style revenge thriller, with Tony Jaa helming it against Chinese gangsters in an all out battle to the death. The film is high octane, and brings me back to the good old days when Hong Kong cinema ruled supreme in the action community. There’s broken English spoken between the Thai and Chinese actors (most likely because neither new their native languages and had to use English to communicate during filming), as well as Mandarin for when it’s two Chinese actors working together (there’s an English Dub, but it wasn’t that great). Action is rough and brutal, with plenty of high kicks, people being thrown through walls, and probably the best fight scenes I’ve seen Tony Jaa pull off since Sha Po Lang 2. That being said, there are SOME downsides. As someone who grew up during the 2nd wave martial arts phase of the 80s and 90s, I have NO problem dealing with cheesy dialog and a mixture of Chinese and English dialog. That stuff was part and parcel for the glory days of Hong Kong cinema. BUUUUT, the action sequences aren’t as stunning as I would have preferred. Tony Jaa performs quite well despite almost being 50 years old, and while his fight scenes are well done with a lot of power, it just doesn’t have that “magic” that the early 2000s work showcased. Those incredible stunts and brutal neck breaking attacks are muted with a much more “showcasing the basics” style of fighting. Punches, kicks, flips, and even falls are well done. They’re just sort of basic if you’ve watched many martial arts films.

That being said, I really do love that we’re seeing more films like Striking Rescue from both Jaa and China in general. Tony Jaa has slowly been building up his popularity over in China and Thailand over the last few years, and it’s nice to see him as a headliner once more. Also, seeing a Chinese film that isn’t overly jingoistic and political is a nice change of pace. I honestly could have been fooled into thinking this wasn’t a modern Mainland Chinese release except for the last 5 minutes of the film (won’t spoil it, but it’s definitely gives that “hoo-rah, yay for the police!” type vibe). The action is well done, with the only real complaint being the over use of CGI for bullet impacts instead of squibs (that is one thing I really wish we would go back to. Practical effects for bullet wounds and stunts).




Rating:

Unrated by the MPAA




Video:

The 2.35:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray from Well Go USA is….dare I say it?...striking (yes, I’ll be here all evening, tip your waiter). Shot digitally it looks quite good, with plenty of visual clarity, and a wide variety of locations with their own texture and feel. Outside in the Thai landscape things are green and luscious looking, while inside the hotel and the fight with hatchet wielding villainess things look rather gray and browned. General detail levels are good, though I did notice the typical banding in a few spots (Well Go USA is getting better at this with their encodes I’ve noticed), and some black crush that obscures shadow detail. Overall, this is a nice looking disc..









Audio:

While the back lists the two track options as Mandarin or English DTS-HD MA lossless, the Mandarin track is really a mix of English and Mandarin. As I stated up in the body of the review, the use of broken English between the Chinese and the Thai actors was most likely due to the fact that the actors couldn’t communicate in their native tongues, and thus needed a bridging language. When the Chinese actors are talking among themselves it’s Mandarin, but as soon as Jaa needs to talk to a Chinese actors they’re forced to use heavily accented English.

That aside, the tracks are both quite nice, with me giving the Mandarin/English hybrid mix the edge (sort of nostalgic to 1990s Hong Kong films with American actors and Chinese actors). Vocal clarity is well done, and the LFE channel certainly adds a ton of weight with all the fisticuffs. Surround channels come through nice and clear, with plenty of ambient action to fill things out quite nicely.











Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:

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At the end of the day, I had a good time with Striking Rescue. It’s really fun to see Jaa headline a film once more, and he still moves VERY well for being nearly 50 (I’ve been doing martial arts since I was 16, and I definitely have slowed down, and I’m only 43!). The action is fun, the dialog cheesy as all get out, but overall a fun Thai/China collaboration. The Blu-ray from Well Go USA looks and sounds great, but we have the typical anemic extras that should shock no one. Fun watch for sure if you’re a marital arts cinemaphile


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tony Jaa, Chen Guo-Yi, Junjia Hong, Michael Mao, Bo Peng, Xing Yu
Directed by: Siyu Cheng
Written by: Guo Haiwen
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Mandarin DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English, French
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 107 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: May 13th, 2025

Recommendation: Entertaining Watch