‘Blasting’
Seven years after a jewelry store robbery gone wrong, Gui (Lei Zhong), one of the thieves, has emerged from hiding to demand money from his former partner (Luo Da Hua). A bomb squad officer (Bai Hai Tao), who’s still haunted by that day, wants to put both men in jail, but a fourth vengeful party is pulling the strings to force these adversaries into a death match.
The Chinese writer and director Wang Xiao Long’s “Blasting” isn’t an action film predicated on rapid shootouts or brutal hand-to-hand combat. Rather, homemade bombs assembled by Lan Xin Yan (Qui Jie), whose brother died in the robbery, escalates the tension. The abbreviated 84-minute running time of “Blasting” is packed yet precise.
‘Escape’
At night, the North Korean sergeant Im Kyu-nam (Lee Je-hoon) crawls through an air vent, burrows under a fence and surveys a minefield. This is a test run for Im, who plans to defect the next day. His desertion is squashed, however, when his fellow soldier Gam Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin) tries to tag along. Im’s sadistic childhood friend Ri Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan) saves him from court-martial, but at a steep price that pushes Im to once again flee and Ri to pursue him.
The cat-and-mouse game between Im and Ri in the director Lee Jong-pil’s “Escape” unlocks latent queer tensions — it’s clear they were more than friends — and inspires each to navigate a military state known for spying on its own. Koo as Ri is a notable highlight, murdering anyone who stands in his way with the cool dexterity of a concert pianist.
‘Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance’
The director Bingjia Yang’s “Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance” is the rare example of a sequel fully surpassing its predecessor. In this film the blind bounty hunter Cheng Xiazi (Miao Xie) befriends Zhang Xiaoyu (Enyou Yang), a rebellious orphan who hires Cheng to avenge her friend’s murder by the conniving Chinese government official Li Jiuland (Huang Tao). Cheng doesn’t initially agree to seek violence, instead teaching Zhang how to ride a horse, hunt and fight. Their heartwarming relationship, not unlike “My Father is a Hero,” a film where Miao played the young son of Jet Li, adds memorable emotion.
“Blind Vengeance” is also brimming with style. Whenever Cheng decides to unsheathe his sword the action slows to the speed of molasses, the detailed sound design rises in volume and a flurry of clanging blades envelops the frame. A wonderful double exposure bathed in red adds menace to Li, and the utilization of black and white scenes further pushes the aesthetic border in this impeccably rendered action movie.
‘Hunt the Wicked’
The keen detective Huang Mingjin (Miao Xie) and an underworld mastermind, Wei Yun-zhou (Andy On), are enemies in a larger drug war in China. They engage in the kind of elaborate fights that sees Wei using a retractable wire to throw a dagger from his wrist and Huang swinging a sledgehammer attached to a chain. But eventually in the director Huo Suiqiang’s “Hunt the Wicked” the two realize they’re on the same side. For different reasons, Huang and Wei are after Song Pa (Andrew Lin), who’s the mayor of Wusuli City and the head of a drug syndicate.
As Huang, Miao isn’t a blind swordsman like in “Eye for an Eye 2: Blind Vengeance,” but he is no less dogged and honorable. He’s also just as physically impressive, his nimble body moving in unison with a woozy camera. A climactic raid carried out by Huang and Wei in a flooded sewer is a jumping, careening and immersive sequence so well-choreographed, by the end, the camera pulls back to satisfactorily take in the carnage.
‘Rifle Club’
An aesthetically adventurous take on the lovers-on-the-run frame, the Indian director Aashiq Abu’s “Rifle Club” sees a dancer named Nadiya (Navani Devanand) and her partner Ali (Ramzan Muhammed) flee when Ali kicks a lascivious Bishu (Parimal Shais) through a window. Pursued by Bishu’s grieving gangster father, Dayanand (Anurag Kashyap), the couple go to Ali’s cousin Shajahan (Vineeth Kumar), an actor, for help. Thankfully for them, as preparation for his upcoming role, Shajahan is training with a venerated rifle club willing to protect them.
The film features an evocative color palette of reds, greens and almost neon blues that recall Hype Williams’s “Belly,” particularly with the inclusion of a thumping soundtrack. This club’s all-hands defense — a barrage of headshots by way of double-barrel shotguns — is akin to “Smokin’ Aces.” And when Dayanand bloodily declares “I’m a tiger with an Uzi,” well, it’s a party.
