THE SMOKE MASTER Review: A Bold, Comedic Experiment In Fighting As ‘High’ Art
Eight years of development and cultural edification, instilled enough to produce an independent kung fu feature that transcends the boundaries of comedy for a market not usually keen on controversy, now brings us to the forefront of the latest directing effort by debut film duo Augusto Soares and Andre Sigwalt with stoner martial arts romp, The Smoke Master. For this, we are invited to watch as an age-old vendetta begins to take shape for Daniel, (Thiago Stechinni) and his younger brother, Gabriel (Daniel Rocha) – prospective students of their surrogate father, Abel (Cleber Colombo) who is a Bagua Zhang master. The two routinely train together with other students at their local park where they are soon accosted by two thugs, and the harrassment only escalates further, until one day they brutally attack a classmate. The incident resulted in a near-fatal confrontation with the gang’s muscle bound leader, Caine (Tristan Aronovich), […]