Big Bad III Review: In PRISONER OF WAR, Another Viable Martial Arts Best From The ‘Debt Collector’ Duo
Good things usually happen when good actors are paired with good directors. Scott Adkins’s career is mostly exemplary of this as he’s had the benefit of collaborating with plenty of talented filmmakers over the years, namely Isaac Florentine and Jesse V. Johnson, the latter with whom he’s shared several performances on screen with actor and oft-director Louis Mandylor.
To this, we now get Prisoner Of War (formerly titled Death March) which reunites Adkins with his fellow Debt Collectors screen cohort, Mandylor, who here gets to wear his director’s hat this time around. Prisoner Of War also hails from Odyssey Motion Pictures, and from Well Go USA Entertainment, who’ve gladly taken the wheel as a production outfit on a number of titles, including Johnson’s Triple Threat, Alexander J. Farrell’s The Beast Within, and Kensuke Sonomura’s Ghost Killer to name a few.
Storied by Adkins and written by Marc Clebanoff, the film kicks off in 1950 with an intro that sees former Wing Commander James Wright (Adkins) confronting a dojo for answers. The core story then flashes back eight years earlier in the Philippines during World War II wherein Wright is caught and captured by the Japanese, and then taken to a death camp where other soldiers of the Allied Forces are being held. Imbued with fighting skills he’s amassed from different countries and having already killed a handful of Japanese soldiers, what ensues is a daily battle of wits and wills as Wright is challenged by Colonel Ito (Peter Shinkoda), who intends on stripping Wright of his honor before the Allied Forces close in.
Pick your poison when it comes to your favorite throwback P.O.W. actioner to compare to. Adkins and Shinkoda’s performances likened instantly to that of Braddock an Yin in Lance Hool’s Missing In Action 2: The Beginning, with Ito frequently coercing Wright into his office to pick his brain, or possibly size him up before promising to kill him the next day. That bit of dialogue earns a chuckle or two when Wright throws it back in Ito’s face after already squaring off with a handful of Ito’s men, and speaks the massive caliber shared between both actors.
When Wright isn’t putting Ito’s men down in the ring, he’s busy on hard labor with the rest of his fellow POWs, including Sgt. Villenueva (Michael Copon), The Beard (Michael Rene Walton), and Captain Collins (Cowboy Cerrone), albeit biding their time to scheme their way through Ito’s stringent security with any luck of finding a way out. One of the only other allies Wright manages to connect with is Theresa (Gabbi Garcia), a resident nurse whose life is also on the line pending Ito’s punitive nature.
Much of the film’s first half is ado with Adkins in some of his best screenfighting form as it pertains to his rivalry with Ito and his men; A quick look early on will spot a cameo by actor Shane Kosugi (brother to fellow screen legend Kane Kosugi and director of his own upcoming actioner, Seek) who gets to square up a little bit with Adkins within the film’s first half. Second to Ito is the Captain Endo, played by Masanori Mimoto whose addition to the cast guarantees formidable fan service for anyone who’s stayed on top of Japanese action since Sonomura’s coming out party with 2019’s Hydra. Where things start to intensify is the slow brew well into the second half, with Ito realizing that the Allied Forces are inching closer and his camp’s days are numbered.
The more exorbitant areas of the film lean towards the action, hands down, with sequences by Alvin Hsing and stunt coordinator Stephen Renney. Adkins is a one-man army all the way through, imbued with multiple facets and styles of training that Ito seemingly never thought was tenable for someone like Wright, clearly a white guy. Fellow action actor Xin Wuku, who folks might recognize from the hit series “Warrior,” gets a notable one-on-one in the line-up of soldiers Wright has to fight for most of the film. Cerrone, Copon, and even Garcia get a few blows in during the lead-up to the big climatic finale where Wright and Ito cross swords amid a hail of attacks from the Allies.
The back end of Prisoner Of War deals mainly with the film’s opener, hinging more on the film’s martial arts aesthetics. With a finishing blow that nods ardently to Wilson Yip’s Ip Man, it’s a fitting recapitulation to an action film from a star, and a director, who not only know their shit, but have set themselves on a clear trajectory to make films that fleshes out their best.
Prisoner Of War will enjoy its screening on Friday for the third-annual Big Bad Film Fest. The movie opens in theaters and on digital beginning September 19 from Well Go USA.
