For many years, there haven´t been many really good martial arts films, but this one was a really good film in my eyes. Though the film was obviously made with a very limited budget, it delivered in action-wise and had many old kung fu stars playing stunning cameos in it. I spotted Lau Kar Yan, Ngai Sing (soon to be seen in Matrix sequels) and Billy Chow, all showing their skills in different martial arts.
Plot of the film is very old school to say the least. Fan Siu Wong´s character rescues an old man and his daughters from criminals, who want revenge. I soon realized that the plot had hardly other purpose but to give excuses to having regular fight scenes between players. In fact, first few minutes are just fight scenes, without any relevance to the plot. There are many emotional scenes that seem to fit in to the mood just fine, which isn´t because the abilities of actors, but because of the overall mood and some very good music. Later I noticed that most of the music is blatantly ripped from other action films, but I didn´t care about that. The feel was there, even if the plot wasn´t.
Fights themselves are imaginative and fast. Fan Siu Wong plays the hero who never loses his faith in justice and rightfulness. First fight shows some fast mixed wushu/arnis movements and acrobatics from Wong and a guy in windsuit. In second fight Wong does some tae kwon do against four kickers (one of them being Lau Kar Yan) and wins easily. Other showcases are two excellent fights with Kim Maree Penn that show some tai chi and qi gong mixed with kickboxing. Later the two take on each other by using spears, broadswords and rope darts and it´s great, if not quite like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Rest of the fights are truly fantastic as well. First one is Billy Chow vs Wong in the forest. They run between the trees and occasionally do fast kickboxing when applied. Wong does amazing acrobatics and moves blisteringly fast. The classical music piece during the fight fits in with the mood very well too. The best fight in the movie comes when Wong comes japanese outdoor dojo and meets a japanese ninja, played by Ngai Sing. At first Sing seems like a wimp and pinches Wong everywhere, until Wong gets angry and punches Sing in the face. Sing suddenly turns into ferocious kicking machine and they soon they brutally kick the each other like animals. This fight has to be seen to be believed. The last fight is good too, Wong fights a western kickboxer and wins him by some evade moves and amazing machine gun kicks.
Death Games is pretty rare to find but is really worth it for martial arts fans everywhere, because of its excellent and varied displays of martial arts. I rarely saw any special effects used here either, so the action is quite realistic as well. A movie that is well worth a look indeed, especially if you like kung fu movies.
