Bullet Points: Art of Eight Limbs
2024’s Art of Eight Limbs is a movie that caught my attention for two very nostalgic reasons…
- The title of the movie could easily have been the title of one of the dozens of classic Kung Fu movies I watch every year.
- The premise of the movie could have easily been the premise of any of the dozens of direct to video action movies I watched back in the 1990s.
- Gas It Up: The movie opens with the back story on four canisters of VX nerve gas that once belonged to Syria, but have now found their way to some Russian arms dealers. We then see the Russians travel to Myanmar where they will cut a deal with a representative of General Thia… Meanwhile in Langley, the CIA has picked up chatter about the VX nerve gas that had gone missing a decade earlier and they begin strategizing.
- Weekend Warrior: We then meet our hero, Scott Schiff (Ludi Lin, Mortal Kombat) , CIA data analyst by day, kickboxer on the weekend. We see Scott picking up the win at a kickboxing event, then training the next day where his trainer tells him that there are some potential big fights on the horizon, but duty calls… Scott’s boss needs him at the office ASAP. It seems like Scott is going to have to decide between his kickboxing hobby and his CIA career… but maybe not, because the CIA needs his kickboxing skills for a very important mission.
- The Mission: Not only does General Thia (Sahajak Boonthanakit, Hard Target 2) have the VX nerve gas cannisters, he’s also a martial arts enthusiast, who holds a martial arts tournament every year at his Golden Tiger school. And this year… they believe the tournament is a cover for potential VX nerve gas buyers. The President doesn’t want to send in the Navy SEALs until the CIA can produce rock solid proof that Thia does in fact have the VX nerve gas and that’s where Scott comes in. The CIA has a man on the inside of the Golden Tiger school and he is going to get Scott entered into the tournament. Scott will deliver a watch (really a device that can detect even trace amounts of chemical weapons) to the contact, they’ll get proof that Thia has the VX nerve gas and then the Navy SEALs will be there in 14 minutes.
- Plans Change: The CIA’s plan derails almost as soon as Scott arrives in Myanmar, which makes sense since had it gone through as planned the movie may not have been much longer than 14 minutes. Scott ends up at odds with some of the guards, which puts him on General Thia’s radar. This arranges Scott’s first tournament match to be against his reigning champion, Zeya. Thia’s plan is to have Scott not make it out of that match alive… well, once again plans change, which is good because it would be extremely odd to see the hero of an action movie killed halfway through.
I went into Art of Eight Limbs figuring it would be a tournament based movie, but the tournament aspect of the movie is thrown out the window after the initial Scott/Zeya match (in the tradition of Enter the Dragon, I suppose). The plot pivot opens up the movie for more action, which was a positive including some action in the jungles of Myanmar… it also meant Zeya wasn’t the main villain, which was a wise choice because Zeya did not have “the final boss” presence. Honestly, he wasn’t even all that effective as General Thia’s muscle from where I sit. Basically, Zeya sucked. If it were up to me I would have made Ron Smoorenburg, who played Savate expert and France’s representative in the tournament, Zeya’s muscle.
Ludi Lin made for a good hero, and reminded me that kickboxers can solve so many of the world’s problems. The pleasant surprise was Grave Vorananth’s Mae, who comes from outta nowhere with the ass kicking. And I have to admit, I had no idea that ORIGNAL live action Spider-Man, Nicholas Hammond, was still acting… so it was great seeing him again as the CIA’s field agent in Myanmar and an old friend of Scott’s father.
I had a good time with Art of Eight Limbs, but honestly it is getting put in my one and done file. However, I hope we get more action movies going forward that have the old school vibe that Art of Eight Limbs had.
