BANGKOK NINJAS: SONS OF THE WIND is a messy, plot-goes-all-over-the-place type action film designed to show off the talents of a group of Parkour practitioners who spend the entire running time showing off their skills in jumping across, up, and down buildings without causing serious injury. And there are no ninjas in it.
For an obviously low budget production, this has a surprisingly intentional feel; it's a French film set partly in London and mostly in Bangkok. A group of Parkour enthusiasts head to Thailand to set up their own school for the young and underprivileged, but this soon gets forgotten in favour of helping a brother and sister to tackle Yakuza and Triad gangs.
The storyline is slim in the extreme and merely serves to link a series of Parkour scenes which are a little disappointing if I'm honest. The opening sequence is lively, but subsequent shots are badly directed, with the director over-editing them to remove genuine spectacle from the shots. In one scene, a guy jumps out of a high window, we see him sailing through the air, only for the camera to cut and shoot another angle as he lands. It makes the whole thing feel false, even if the stunt was done for real.
The acting is very limited, which you'd expect from a film of this type, although there's a small role for old-timer Burt Kwouk as a gangster chief. There are plenty of plot twists which are a little annoying rather than intriguing, along with a supposed large-scale climax which feels completely pointless and tame. However, there are a few fight scenes scattered throughout the running time which are pretty good; a shame there weren't more to distract us from the problems elsewhere.
For an obviously low budget production, this has a surprisingly intentional feel; it's a French film set partly in London and mostly in Bangkok. A group of Parkour enthusiasts head to Thailand to set up their own school for the young and underprivileged, but this soon gets forgotten in favour of helping a brother and sister to tackle Yakuza and Triad gangs.
The storyline is slim in the extreme and merely serves to link a series of Parkour scenes which are a little disappointing if I'm honest. The opening sequence is lively, but subsequent shots are badly directed, with the director over-editing them to remove genuine spectacle from the shots. In one scene, a guy jumps out of a high window, we see him sailing through the air, only for the camera to cut and shoot another angle as he lands. It makes the whole thing feel false, even if the stunt was done for real.
The acting is very limited, which you'd expect from a film of this type, although there's a small role for old-timer Burt Kwouk as a gangster chief. There are plenty of plot twists which are a little annoying rather than intriguing, along with a supposed large-scale climax which feels completely pointless and tame. However, there are a few fight scenes scattered throughout the running time which are pretty good; a shame there weren't more to distract us from the problems elsewhere.