100 YARDS Review

Follows two bitter rivals as they duel for stewardship of a wushu academy.

If you’re into martial arts, it would be in your best interest to check out 100 Yards. This film is full of nonstop action. There’s hand-to-hand combat and weapons of all types clashing throughout this healthy runtime. If you’re a fan of such content, you’re in for a treat. While the fight choreography is phenomenal, the overall story falls a bit short, and that’s simply because it tried to accomplish too much. The characters, however, fulfilling gave their all on screen, making it rather difficult to choose a side. It’s not a home run, but will satisfy your appetite if you’re hungry for some action.

What sets this film apart is that early on the fighting goes out of its way to show that martial arts is a serious craft. When you duel with an opponent, either side isn’t just throwing out random attacks to land on their enemy, hoping for the best. Each strike is intricate, aiming at a certain point on the body to eliminate the oncoming threat. Many martial arts films don’t provide this much detail especially early on in a film, but 100 Yards does. As Shen An (Jacky Heung) and Qi Quan (Andy On), the film’s leads, are dueling it out, one clearly overpowers the other with swift moves knocking them out in an instant. There are levels to martial arts and this film shows it.

The action doesn’t stop there. At least every ten minutes or so, more characters are fighting it out on the screen. It’s in all forms as well one on one, one on twenty, hand to hand, and long and short weapons. The fighting pops too with all of the clean crisp clear sound effects that range in all levels of volume. They are in multiple environments, and all have a nice sense of scale. It’s easy to follow the camera movements, with the shots lasting as long as they should. There is no choppy editing, but even when there are the inevitable cut scenes, the action choreography is still easy to follow. It feels as if these are real martial artists instead of just actors.

Getting to know the characters is where the films become problematic. Both of the leads are sore losers who can’t accept a loss. This makes it difficult to cheer for either Shen An or Qi Quan. You’ll have a level of respect for their hard work on trying to be the best version of themselves, and not waste God-given talent in martial arts, but if there is no honor behind your name, that becomes an issue. In this film, both parties lost in multiple combat matches but had difficulty accepting the results. What makes matters worse is what they were fighting for—a large equity stake inside the martial arts circle at the time. Given the high stakes, you would think each character would dish out 100% effort during their duel to determine who would seize control. This isn’t the case, which made half of the film not make sense and/or hold any weight. One character decides to use a style he’s never trained in before, and barely heard of. Why do this and potentially lose all your worth? To worsen matters more, you’ll have a murder pinned on you as well if you lose. This goes against logic or my comprehension.

One positive, though, is that all the characters weren’t this dense. The actual martial arts circle has a code of conduct that’s implemented throughout the film even though all may not adhere to it the way they should. During this time (the early 1920s), martial arts wasn’t as recognized as it is presently, so certain behaviors weren’t socially acceptable at the time. The elders of the martial arts circle were aware of this and tried to maintain some form of order because of it. There were consequences when the protocol was broken. This was a healthy way to create balance in the film or at least between the characters, and this made things more entertaining because stakes were made.

This film, however, is still a tease. At the end of one fight, it is assumed a winner is decided, but in the next scene, we find out one character lost just because they were holding back. Again, the film shoots itself in the foot because this same plot device happens at least two more times. How can the directors of the film expect the audience to take the fighting seriously when the characters are holding back? This frustrated me as a viewer.

Codes of conduct aren’t followed by the lead characters either. They’re taught not to fight in the streets but constantly do, and are always drawing attention to themselves. The final showdown had the entire street shut down just for some prideful contest that never really produced a winner. That’s right guys, by the end of the film, you won’t know who the winner is, who the good guy is, who the bad guy is, or who is the better fighter. This was never determined or addressed. What a waste!

As I stated earlier, the story tried to accomplish too much. This could’ve easily been kept as simple as two opposing sides fighting for control of the martial arts circle. The best fighter wins. However, someone is under the impression that there’s some secret fourth family fist short saber style, and I’m going to force my enemy to use it on me to see if it’s better than my own style. Again, what a waste of time, and an unnecessary reason to complicate things.

100 Yards has great martial arts action choreography with characters you want to root for but can’t due to their egos. Half of the story is unnecessary legwork, but if you can get past that, you’ll have a decent time.

My Rating : 6.5/10