Abduction (2019)

Posted in Reviews by - January 23, 2021
Abduction (2019)

Silly yet enjoyable martial arts fantasy with an 80s throwback feel – think Highlander, Big Trouble in Little China, that sort of thing – about an inter-dimensional race of cloak-wearing, shape-shifting, time-hopping kung fu wizards who kidnap humans for their chi. They create an immortal human army by attaching glowing green spiders to their necks, for reasons which aren’t entirely clear, other than to provide a steady stream of stunt performers for the fight scenes. They kidnap the daughter of Scott Adkins – big mistake – and the wife of Andy On – another huge error. The individual stories of both Adkins’ stuttering, amnesiac British single dad and Andy On’s cool Chinese assassin are told in bifurcated fashion, and it’s not until they meet a psychiatric nurse (Truong Ngoc Anh) that the two unite to traverse dimensions and rescue their loved ones. This gets a bit distracted in the second act trying to explain the crazy plot – something of a fool’s errand – however, on the whole, the film works because it fully embraces its own hokeyness. Scott Adkins and Andy On previously worked together on the 2002 Hong Kong film, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, and the years just while away watching them in balletic action under the sterling direction of Tim Man and a great stunt team. It’s just the sort of nutty B-movie you would expect from executive producer Roger Corman and the writer of Sharktopus (Mike MacLean), but it also has charm to boot, and Adkins fans will enjoy his against-type role.

AKA: Twilight Zodiac.

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Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

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