Desperado

The trailers of Desperado promised a bombastic action flick from China, but the final impression is only barely satisfying. The protagonist is a former hitman who, after being released from prison works as a clown in disguise and takes care of a little girl (I didn’t the sentimental element with the child, which detracts from the seriousness and at times unintentionally falls into a light drama instead of a gritty and dark action film, the contrast just never worked for me). Danny Chan, who starred in Ip Man, certainly has some fighting skills, and Xing Yu is also good, it's just that the action itself didn't blow my mind away. Visually and choreographically it's decent, but I missed the hardness of a proper punch, and the R-rating could have been exploited better too. So, in the end I'll scrape to a better average. My expectations were much higher. 6/10. (02/25/2024)