John Liu and many other men are forced into slavery. He fights back but does not have his "Shadowless Kick" technique yet. The beatings continue.
Beatings have no entertainment value.
The story is about escape. Many great movies have been made with this simple story line. It is a formulaic story line and any deviation from the story line results in complete failure. This movie was made with no knowledge of the formula for the escape story. For example, there has to be two failed escape attempts first and these attempts make it worse for all the prisoners. Also, this is a "black and white" plot in that the bad guys are totally bad. In this movie the character of the doctor makes no sense at all. I could go on but why bother?
I know there is a big cultural thing about kneeling and submission that does not translate well from East to West but even allowing for that this movie still fails as a story.
John does not raise a leg in a kick until about the 50 minute mark. The only part of this movie that has any entertainment value begins a few minutes after that when he starts the leg training.
This movie is only for hard core fans of the genre and really starts at about the 50 minute mark. As such a fan I can add after watching it once I doubt I will ever watch it again.
