Yue Song

(On TV, January 2021) Movie subgenres come and go, but there are a few that I really miss, and one of them is the classic over-the-top Hong Kong martial arts movies of 1985–1995 (ish), in which the plot was only a clothesline on which to string a series of terrific action sequences, not always taking themselves seriously. I’ll be the first to admit that Super Bodyguard isn’t anywhere near the best of those movies, but it scratches, even momentarily, the itch I had to see another one of them. One of the reasons why it’s not a classic begins with the strange mixture of Very Serious Material interleaved with far more comical content. At times, such as in a particularly demented chase sequence, it’s not too clear whether the film offers a comic take on the genre, or one that simply does not care about continuity or plausibility. Some sequences are very funny (intentionally so); others, deadly serious. The protagonist (played by writer-director Yue Song, quite good) is the heir of a mystical order who accepts a bodyguard assignment to protect a young woman, escapes death in supernatural fashion numerous times through the film and every time he does, we sense the film’s credibility evaporate by half. Still, there’s a grandeur to the martial arts fights that I hadn’t seen in quite some time—a refusal to adhere to reality, and to go back to the over-the-top nature that made a generation of Honk Kong martial arts action movies legendary. It could have been better, but I’m holding Super Bodyguard as a promising calling card for Yue Song, who’s got the potential to create something terrific if he can capitalize on his strengths and patch over some of his weaknesses. Super Bodyguard certain feels like a throwback to the movies I liked in the genre, and even if it’s derivative, it’s more than I can say about many other martial arts films I’ve seen in recent years.