This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Sorry Story
Plot Overview
Town Marshal Reese Walker (Trace Adkins)
resides in a nice house up on the hill and is investing in the
railroad (“I need those tracks”) to increase his
holdings. Coolie Jing Phang (Jon Foo) labors swinging a sledge in
the hot sun to build those tracks hoping some day to own land of his
own, and houses. His wife Miss [sic.] Li Phang (Nelli Tsay) is satisfied
with their lot in life (“I don't need much. Just you. Us.”)
They live in a tent and have a baby on the way.
Marshal Walker had promised his wife on her deathbed that he would take care of their son James (Kaiwi Lyman,) to keep him out of trouble, but trouble keeps finding him. Now he's got “yellow fever” and thinks that Miss Phang might be the cure. While his protective father is out of town, he contrives an incident to give him an excuse to lock up Jing. He then lures Li to an abandoned barn where he has his way with her, but she's not accustomed to rough sex so expires from the choking. Now Jing is out for vengeance despite a phalanx of armed guards protecting James.
Retired tracker Christopher “Chris” King (Sean Patrick Flanery) is dragooned to lead the hunt for Jing who's considered expendable for the sake of stopping the town's talk. However, Chris having lost all his family and now having “got no other place to be” makes common cause with Jing to put down James. Jing and Chris and Reese all have a death wish for their own reasons, but it's the cowboys around them who keep on dying.
Ideology
James is the epitome of the disrespectful son, referring to his father disparagingly as “Old Man” and disappointing, “What would your mother think about what you've become?” (Prov. 30:11) “There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.”
(Prov. 30:12)
“There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and
yet is not washed from their filthiness.” James's father
implores him many times to come with him to church, to pray for forgiveness,
but James wants none of it (“You're beyond saving.”)
(Prov. 30:13) “There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.” While the Marshal is trying to clean up the mess James made, James is in town shamelessly “laughin' and drinkin'.”
(Prov. 30:14) “There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.” James mouthed the words for Jing to pick up the pistol James threw down in the dirt so Deputy James would be justified shooting the chink who draws on a lawman. And he kindly mouthed the words for Miss Phang to come with him to her husband, but actually to be raped and killed. These poor were given no quarter.
Production Values
“” (2019) was directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. It was written by Sean Ryan. It stars Jon Foo, Trace Adkins, and Sean Patrick Flanery. Danny Trejo appeared briefly. Kaiwi Lyman was compelling as a miscreant lawman's son. Generally, the acting was fair to middling in the western vein. It was all in English including the coolies' pillow talk. Chinese was spoken in only two places: where Miss Phang didn't want (“Bu yao”) her husband to pick up the offered gun and where her husband queried their tent neighbors where the deputy and Jing's wife took off to—That-a-way. The former case was accompanied by a head shake and the latter by a hand wave, so we needed no translation. Country singer Trace Adkins had a sonorous voice, which made his character compelling as an authority figure—but not to his son. Foo spoke with careful diction syntactically correct English, but the cowboys' speech was rough and crude, not a good example of the King's English but what one might expect out west.
This movie is not rated; it contains rape, rough sex, carnage, the f-word, male butt nakedness, and a mention of body odor. It's a classic low budget western with many scenes shot in the dark so as not to tell. Characters are disrespected according to their group identity, but the marshal at least states that people in his town should be respected one and all. It's about 1½ hours long.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This movie is dominated by a theme of
a lawman who has repented of his evil ways and experienced a genuine
Christian conversion but is unable to influence his wicked son. He's
also unwilling to let him suffer the consequences of his deeds on
account of a promise he'd made to the kid's dying mother. Other than
that, it's a pretty standard shoot-'em-up western but with more emphasis
on hand-to-hand combat with the oriental. It's not long enough to
be boring, and some fans of the genre might like it.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat intense action. Suitability for children: Not rated, adult content. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
bibles.n7nz.org