Bodyguard: A New Beginning

Introduction

 

Leung (Vincent Sze) is a trusted bodyguard to Hong Kong Triad boss Wong (Richard Ng), serving him for the last 12 years and proving a very capable protector with unrivalled loyalty to his boss.  The arrival of US gangster Kai (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) looks to test that loyalty and the continued reign of Wong as undisputed boss of the Triads. 

Kai is looking to break into the Hong Kong territory by making direct connection to the suppliers of the drugs distributed by the Triads, but finds his proposal rejected out of hand by Wong who sees Kai for the threat that he is.  Kai takes this rejection quite badly and decides it's time to look at usurping the wise old man. 



Meanwhile Wong is also looking to the future and what will happen when he finally steps aside.  His son Yuen (Carl Ng) is an impetuous sod and Wong doesn't trust him enough to do the right thing, something proved beyond doubt when Yuen starts to deal directly with Kai behind his father's back and looking to replace him with Kai's help. 

Fearing a turf war and danger to his family, Wong decides to despatch his trusted lieutenant to the UK to find and protect Chloe (Stephanie Langton), the daughter of a woman to whom Wong owes his life.  Leung dreams of retiring from the Triad life to Hawaii but knows that attempting to drop out would be extremely dangerous, although Wong gives him hope that if he can pull off this mission successfully he will help him attain his goal. 

Unfortunately things go badly wrong virtually from the start when Yuen betrays the existence of Chloe to Kai, who despatches an army of kick-boxing thugs after the duo… 

Sound 

The soundtrack is 5.1 Surround but seems rather muted compared to the soundtracks for both the trailer and disc menu.  Not sure why this should be particularly but I found I had to really raise the volume on the main feature. 

Extras 

Behind The Scenes documentary - interviews with cast and crew about working on this low-budget independent film. 

Trailer 



Photo Gallery - still not sure why these feature as a DVD extra, can't really see what they bring to the format. 

Cast & Crew Biographies - text-based extra but some real thought has gone into this as it covers a larger than usual number of the cast and crew. 

Production Notes - again, text-based but not much here for this one. 

Overall 

It needs to be noted right here that Bodyguard is an independent film, not some Studio blockbuster with a huge budget.  It should also be noted that this has quite an illustrious cast, particularly with the inclusion of Richard Ng and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) who are both legends in their respective fields.  On such a small budget, Mark Strange and the rest of his producer buddies have worked miracles. 

Sadly, it's not quite enough. 



The story is not original by any means but that never stopped a film being made, the problem is though that the script really isn't up to much.  For a start, the main hero in Leung is virtually silent throughout whilst Stephanie Langton's character is an over the top shouter and over actor of the highest order.  The two just don't gel and the chemistry between the two is a little awkward. 

The performances from most of the rest of the cast is also rather clichéd and overacted, case in point being Tagawa's character who is so psychotic that he not only batters a waiter over the head with a wine bottle for no reason, he also follows up by pouring hot tea over him as well.   Oddly for a film about organised crime, there is also a distinct lack of guns with everyone preferring to just kick people in the head rather than shoot them.  In fact, the only gun I can remember seeing was in Kai's hand during the film's climax. The fighting is well done but lacks the gloss of more mainstream films without being visceral, this kind of leaves the fighting a little flat for my liking. 



As you can imagine with a film about Triads and with a lot of martial arts action, there are numerous shots of people standing around in formation looking mean and moody before breaking out into fights.  And too many wear sunglasses as well.   There's also some bizarre chase scenes in London where it appears that the duo on the run are being chased by around thirty people, and they still get away virtually unscathed until back in Hong Kong Leung is beaten to a pulp by only two people on a deserted rooftop, although they're dead hard and are nice enough not to throw him off when lying is a pool of his own blood. 

Bizarrely as well, Carl Ng, son of Richard Ng and playing the son of his character, emerges as the unlikely star of this film, which I would imagine is not how the makers envisaged this.  His is not a likeable character (but then, which ones here are?), but his path to redemption gives him a slightly more interesting path to tread. 

It's not a bad film at all for those who are interested in this genre, but won't appeal to those who are after a little more substance…