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Power Kids
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Magnolia Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (16th July 2010). |
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The Film
 On paper “5 Hunjai Hero” (literally translated as “5 Heart Heroes”), or “Power Kids” according to Magnolia Pictures, sounds pretty dang awesome. It’s an R-Rated action-comedy starting a bunch of kids who do nothing but beat the crap out of bad guys by kicking them in the face. They swear up a storm and the film culminates in a climax where, for 20 minutes, these kids kick some serious ass, and the plot is sort of like the first “Die Hard” (1987) (I said sort of – don’t get any ideas). There are no stunt doubles. No slick edits to hide the fact that these kids aren’t doing the fight scenes (there's no doubt that they are). The film has just good, old-fashioned, well choreographed fight scenes. There’s no possible way this sort of ultra-violent madness would ever be able to be produced in the United States and for that alone, the premise behind “Power Kids” is kind of amazing. It doesn’t sound like high-art (nor try to be), but at least, without actually seeing the movie, the concept sounds like some absurdist fun, right? Wrong. Sadly, “Power Kids” isn’t that fun. It’s just a bad movie. In the hands of first-time director Krissanapong Rachata, and written by Nonont Kontaweesook and the duo behind “The Protector” (2003), Napalee and Piyaros Thongdee, the film is an incomprehensible head scratcher, not because it’s some highfalutin art house film that’s told backwards, or in fragments, but just because it is simply a poorly made mess. The film is basically all kinds of awful; that’s the only way to describe it, and “Power Kids” is only bearable to any extent because the fight scenes are numerous and at least distracting enough to make you momentarily forget that you have no idea what this film is about… or why you should care. Just how incomprehensible is “Power Kids?” Well, for one, I’m still not one-hundred-percent sure about a single one of the numerous character relationships. And basically, I have no solid idea about anything that happens in this film, but not for lack of trying. I watched it twice and still came up fuzzy. Let me say that again: even after a repeat viewing, I still didn’t get it and the movie’s basically an hour long! Look, I could discuss the plot, because I know what happened, it’s just told in such a sloppy, disjointed and listlessly uninteresting way, that I, the audience member, still didn’t know basic elements of the plot when I was supposed to. That’s bad filmmaking. “Power Kids” is about four kids who live at a martial arts “school” with a strict teacher who beats them, but only because he actually “loves” them (or something). For about 30 minutes (which, by the way is almost half the movie) the film concerns itself with a pointless little story about the kids’ quest to buy an RC car that they can all race at the local track. Only after they get the car do we learn that it’s for Woon, the youngest child’s birthday – and I only think it was his birthday because they sort of had a party, and I think it was for him… but the scene is short, and no one ever mentions the word birthday again, before or after, so I could just be misunderstanding the intentions of buying the car. Perhaps the kids just really wanted one, and threw a party because they finally bought one? Anyway, we also learn, much later, that Woon has a heart condition… or a problem with his lungs… or something; again, up until a certain point in the story it’s not really made clear, because no one actually talks about it. The teacher has a special connection with the youngest boy; I think he may actually be related to him: maybe he is his father… uncle… perhaps just a legal guardian? Who knows, as it’s another plot element not made clear – ever. Regardless, Teacher accosts the children for not being aware of Woon’s health problems, which make him weak and unable to do many of the same things as normal children. They need to be more mindful, he says. So the kids head off to the racetrack to test their little car, but then they get into a fight with a group of equally skilled martial artists, after Woon accidentally crashes into the opposing teams car. That in itself could have been the problem that started the fight, but there was some animosity between the two groups even before the race began. Why? Is there some previous bad blood between the groups, or a prior bit of history maybe? We’ll never know, because it’s not important I guess – who cares anyway; it was a plot point only a needed so that the film could have another fight sequence! Scared because of the fight, Woon runs away. He runs and he runs, and he runs, until, oh no, the little boys heart gives out (or his lungs; were still not sure what his condition is, remember). He collapses in one of the most pathetically excited slow motion shots ever caught on film. The actor playing Woon staggers, grabs his chest, outstretches his hand, falls to his knees and then slumps to the ground. In slower than slow-mo! He’s rushed to the hospital, where a doctor tells Teacher and the other three students, now joined by a young girl, who’s apparently an old friend, that they met at the racetrack (again: guessing), that there is a replacement heart at another hospital and that it can be here in a very short time. Unfortunately, just as the doctor says this, the action cuts to that hospital which has been taken over by unnamed group of terrorists, who want to negotiate with… or kidnap… or kill… or get an autograph from, some ambassador… or president… or whatever (again; not clear). Seeing that their friend/family member will die without the transplant The Kids decide to hitch a ride to the locked down hospital, sneak in, and find the heart, all while taking out as many bad guys as possible. (Woo-hoo, 45 minutes into a 70 minute movie and we finally get to the plot! And we find out that the little boy has a heart condition!) Re-read the above and tell me that’s not the most needlessly convoluted plot for a 70 minute movie that you’ve ever laid eyes on. Keep in mind that I’ve arranged it in a far more coherent manner – and edited out all the strange scene transitions, like motorcycles jumping through the air for no point at all. I think you’ll agree that the film is a mess, but, I began wondering as I was writing this review, that perhaps that’s the point? Was the thought behind “Power Kids” that martial art films in general have pointless plots anyway – because everyone just wants to see the action, and most creators know this – so who cares about a story? Maybe the script for “Power Kids” is some sort of brilliant satire, with an intentionally vague narrative and poor construction, that only barely gets viewers from fight sequence to fight sequence, and is meant to be purposefully totally confusing to any viewer actually watching the movie for plot? Either that, or the film’s crap and I lean towards the latter. What makes “Power Kids” so offensive to my cinematic senses though isn’t its poor script, tepid direction or seemingly disgusting cinematography (see below for that last one). Not just. No, it’s that the cast is made up of the worst kind of child actors. You know, the ones who over emote on Every. Single. Take. Sure, they’re good at kicking bad guys in the face (and boy are they – as I said, if there is a reason to watch “Power Kids” it’s to experience the jaw-dropping absurdity of a pre-teen flying through the air, and striking the bad guy square on the chin with their foot) but these kids can’t actually act worth a damn. And I ask this: is it really enough that the fight scenes are decent (keep in mind, I said decent; there’s nothing overly spectacular about them), if the story that connects said sequences together and the actors acting between them, are terrible? I guess you can make the judgment yourself; the film is after all only a little more than an hour long – it won’t waste (much) of your time if you do decide to watch it – but I for one don’t think so.
Video
The film opens with a rather promising, if incredibly stylized, prologue that has excessive, but well rendered grain, excellent contrast, and a mix of nicely saturated colors and sepia-tinted footage. That lasts only about a minute and thirty seconds, and the rest of the film, by comparison is unattractive and, at times, looks downright terrible. To be short: the 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encode has its share of problems, the least of which is that at times the film doesn’t look like HD at all. For most of the film, colors are horribly dull, blacks never inky (more grey and milky), detail only ever so slightly better-than-DVD, which almost every Blu-ray is, so that’s not really praise. It’s almost as if the first minute of “Power Kids” came from a different source, like a color corrected Digital Intermediate, while everything post-title card came straight from a poorly telecined scan of the raw, untouched 16mm negative. Well, perhaps it’s not that severe – but it’s close. Certain scenes (or even a few frames of certain scenes) sprinkled throughout the film do reach the levels of acceptability that the opening minute does: colors return to their slight green-tinted vibrancy and blacks are far more respectable, deep even, but this is about as far from being a stellar transfer as you can get. The terrible color and contrast issues aside, the film is still dreadfully soft, sometimes barely looking like high definition at all. In fact, during the RC car race, it so blocky, blown-out and awful looking that I feel justified in throwing out the word “upconvert” without a care. Worse yet, the image is occasionally awash with compression artifacts – especially anytime the camera starts moving chaotically. There’s a minor bit of gate weave present, especially around the 20 to 22 minute mark and again pretty severely at the 30, 40 and 45 minute marks too. I’d love to say that at least the print is in fine shape but even that isn’t consistently true; I noticed some specks and dirt scratches. Not many mind you, but I’d expect a film produced in 2009 to have a clean source, and “Power Kids” doesn’t. Perhaps none of this is Magnolia’s fault and the issues lie within the master that was given to them by the Asian distributor (that’s probably at least partly true), or even the original camera negative. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter: the film looks like total crap.
Audio
“Power Kids” defaults to a hapless, ultimately poor English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 dub mixed at 48kHz/24-bit. It’s surprisingly thin, weak and lacking in most every aspect – plus the dubbing is pure torture. I recommend instead the original Thai track, also offered in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, it’s better, if still flawed. The tracks are obviously sourced from two entirely different mixes, but there is a pretty drastic disparity beyond the language of the dialogue. The English dub is frail, lacking deep bass and is not nearly as active in the surrounds when compared to the original Thai. While it’s still less than exceptional, the Thai mix has richer low-end, greater fidelity and wider dynamic range with more active surround channels. Optional English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish subtitles are also included.
Extras
Magnolia Home Entertainment has included two brief featurettes, both encoded in 1.33:1 full-frame 480i standard definition, neither of which are exactly worth your time. The usual assortment of bonus trailers is also included; Bookmarks or BD-LIVE connectivity are curiously not. “The Making of Power Kids” (SD, 8 minutes 41 seconds) is a quick EPK featurette that talks up the film without offering too much insight. There are plenty of film clips and fluff. Subtitled in English. “Behind-the-Scenes Footage” (SD, 4 minutes 38 seconds) is another featurette, that’s sort of an aimless mish-mash of B-roll, which lacks a cohesive narrative or any sort of context. It is sort of neat to see the kids rehearsing the fight choreography, but it’s not that cool. Again, this is subtitled in English. "Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment" are a collection of bonus trailers (HD) for: - “The Warlords” runs 2 minutes 7 seconds. - “District 13: Ultimatum” runs 2 minutes 3 seconds. - “Red Cliff” runs 2 minutes 10 seconds. - "HDNet" promo. 1 minute 1 second, in 1080i.
Overall
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