Review: Fight Against Evil 2

Fight Against Evil 2 is an action film directed by Qin Pengfei and stars Xie Miao in lead.

The film follows Officer Li Hongqi, a martial artist police officer, who discovers an organized crime ring after a series of blind dates goes awry.

Now, Mo Tse/Xie Miao, I am personally familiar with via Eye for an Eye after I went and done my research on the Chinese direct to streaming film market, and Fight Against Evil (mainly 2) had popped up a multitude of times, and honestly it didn't disappoint.

If I were to liken FAE2 to another film I've seen, it would be The Roundup 2, due to the multitude of similarities I found myself drawing between both.

From the one man army supercop, to the intense bone-breaking room destroying action, to the humorous banter between officers, to the fact they're both sequels to a first film I've never seen, by all means this film was just The Roundup with a tinier guy to me.

One thing I would like to point out is that, while yes the cinematography is somewhat above average for a close quarters action film, there are some really odd choices used.

Now, I'm not gonna bash the shaky camera as it's pointless but I have to question, why the slow motion? I'm not talking that they used slow motion in the fight scenes itself, no they just use it out of nowhere like when a character is walking and it goes all slow-mo and stuff.

I do like the rather unique choices they make, like when Officer Li makes his appearance they put him on a background of like a job application but they never do this again throughout the entire film, even when introducing the villain, which I find rather odd. There was also a sequence near the end of the film where they say the fates of each character like they do with crime documentaries, which was pretty cool in my opinion.

A rather surprisingly good part of the film for me was the banter between officers, now thankfully it's not the awful Joss Whedon quip-filled dialogue, but when Officer Li is conversing with his coworkers the dialogue feels and flows really naturally and was honestly kinda funny at times, not laugh laugh kinda funny but it got a chuckle or two out of me.

I think personally, the story is one of the weaker aspects of this film, as outside of the blind date thing it is no more than your typical superhero good guy vs bad guy film, there's really only a single memorable character outside of Officer Li himself and that would be the villain, who I enjoyed hating on a lot. Maybe it's due to me not seeing the first film beforehand but I didn't find myself attached to any of the side characters.

But while the cinematography, acting, and story are all rather average, the action is what turned both The Roundup and FAE2 from an average crime film to an incredible action film.

It's sweaty, violent, bone-breaking action that just makes you go "DANG HE CAN DO THAT???" each fight without fail.

Like each hit looks like it hurts badly, dudes are getting whacked in the legs and head with stuff constantly, hell, the final fight had me questioning if they just straight up killed the guy in the fight.

I don't know how they do it, I just don't know. It looks like it hurt even for the actors, I'm sure getting suplex'd into a URINAL can't be fun for you man. Seriously, I know that bathroom fight was disgusting.

People are getting slammed through doors, stuff is thrown on them, they're getting their ass beat nonstop and Officer Li is just annihilating these dudes left and right. But he takes considerably more damage than Don Lee does in The Roundup, which I did enjoy for a change as it's nice seeing even the most unstoppable powerhouses lose from time to time.

And another thing, I do like how close quarters all the action is, as it brings both a tight feel to it as they barely get to be more than a foot away from eachother, but it brings out a ton more opportunities for the action to get much more dramatic, i.e getting slammed through a bathroom door for no reason other than they could. Seriously, these guys have near superhuman endurance, no way are these guys normal thugs while getting up after the third suplex of the fight.

And as a bonus, it has a blooper reel while credits roll which I didn't watch all of, but I really enjoy it's inclusion as it's not something you see often nowadays.

So while a generic crime film, I would rank this high up with other high octane action films I've seen as without the action I'm sure I would've hated Fight Against Evil 2 and it made me really want to see Mo Tse and Don Lee star in a film together Hobbs & Shaw style. 

I recommend it if you liked Mo Tse in his other films or films that rely on it's action as the film's biggest strength.

That's all for now, Love and Peace!