REVIEW: ‘Coweb’ (2009)

Veteran Hong Kong stunt actor and choreographer Xiong Xin-xin, best known for playing “Clubfoot” in Tsui Hark’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA film series makes his directing debut in this modern-day martial arts actioner starring new female wushu sensation Jiang Lu-xia and Japanese-American martial arts star Kane Kosugi. COWEB is a modest fight film designed as a showcase for Jiang’s substantial screen fighting talents yet the film suffers from a silly plot, poor direction and too much unnecessary use of wirework. While far from being a great martial arts movie, COWEB does reveal Jiang to be an exceptional screen fighter while Xiong manages to orchestrate an impressive late match-up between Jiang and Kosugi.

Seeing action choreographers turn to directing is almost always a bittersweet affair. On the one hand, you know they will use the opportunity to indulge in copious amounts of typically entertaining fighting action to meet the demands of genre fans but on the other hand, they rarely possess the ability to effectively manage a script or the actors outside of the action. Sadly, Xiong falls into this category which means we end up with a lousy action movie elevated by several decent fight sequences. Yet even in the fighting action, Xiong has a tendency to lapse into excessive wire use, pointless exchanges lacking any dramatic punch and a surprising amount of outright sloppy sparring that sometimes looks more like non-contact demos than an actual fight.

The poorly structured underground fighting plot is very routine, save for a minor twist thrown in, and could be unfavorably compared to Hector Echavarria’s awful DTV actioner DEATH WARRIOR. Jiang plays a no-nonsense martial arts instructor who is recruited by a childhood friend, played by Sam Lee, to work as a bodyguard for a wealthy couple. When her employer is attacked and kidnapped, Jiang discovers that the culprit is using him as bait to lure her into a series of underground fights at specific locations where surveillance cameras have been set up. In hopes of securing his release she begins fighting various opponents in matches that are being watched on TV and bet on by VIPs scattered around the globe. Having managed to best everyone, she demands to take on the strongest opponent which turns out to be Kosugi’s characher. As Jiang nears the end of her ordeal, she discovers that she cannot trust anyone and must fight on alone for her honor.

COWEB is filled with gargantuan plot holes and stretches not even worth discussing. It’s enough to say that the plot’s only purpose is to get Jiang into a series of fights and it could have been done with a lot less pointless talking, running around and staring at cell phone text messages. In the middle part of the film, Xiong seems to lose control of the narrative as Jiang and Lee wander around trying to figure out what to do in between skirmishes. Half of these non-fighting scenes could have been cut and nothing would have been lost. Jiang and Lee have no chemistry and all the actors in the film appear to be on their own in terms of trying to find their characters. There isn’t enough substance in direction or scripting to support anything other than mindless action. What Xiong should have done was cut all these uninteresting dramatic scenes out and use the action sequences to tell his story. But unfortunately, he falls into the trap of largely stopping the advancement of plot and character development during fights.

The fights themselves are plentiful and elaborately staged in a good variety of real-world locations ranging from a commercial kitchen to scaffolding outside of a building. Jiang, a wushu-trained fighter who first came to fame in China through a series of internet viral videos, has a fantastic range of movement and most importantly, she has learned to telegraph power despite being a woman of slight stature. This is what makes a small female taking on countless men believable, at least in the context of an action movie. She is intense, fast and effectively gives the illusion that she’s delivering real hurt to her opponents. That’s Xiong’s greatest contribution to this movie and it’s going to serve Jiang well as she moves on to other projects.

There are seven main fights in the film, all featuring Jiang. The first takes place in a restaurant with multiple opponents and ends with a single opponent in an extended skirmish in the kitchen. This fight establishes several things. First, Xiong’s choreography for this film is fast, high-impact and intricate yet broad with stuntmen performing a lot of wide kicks and punches. It’s very reminiscent of late-1980s choreography in Hong Kong’s girls-with-guns genre, which could be a good thing except that it’s more of the same with little improvement. The fight also highlights Xiong’s willingness to use Caucasian stuntmen as main opponents, notably German stuntmen Mike Möller and Eskindir Tesfay, who were both featured in THE CHALLENGE, and Hong Kong Stuntman Association member Andy Taylor who was last seen as a fighter in British indie actioners LEFT FOR DEAD AND TEN DEAD MEN. Although choreographed differently, this sequence reminded me of Jimmy Wang Yu’s kitchen battle with a Caucasian stuntman in THE MAN FROM HONG KONG.

Next, Jiang takes on a female opponent in a nightclub. I’ll give Xiong credit for creative staging. The fight takes place in a shallow pool that opens up in the floor and Jiang is duped into walking into a locked room above the pool that opens up and drops her in. From a logic standpoint, the amount of planning and effort that goes into getting Jiang into this pool is ridiculous. They could have just asked at the point of a gun. The foot or so of water in the pool provides a nice visual touch as it gets kicked up with the opponents’ movements. Korean action films have been using this visual gimmick for dramatic effect in recent years.

The next fight is Xiong’s first big mistake in terms of fight choreography. Jiang takes on a male opponent with bleached hair in a warehouse. Here, we see our first excessive use of wirework with Jiang’s opponent performing a lot of unreal moves. We also start to see a lot of cog-like sparring with the two opponents delivering perfectly synchronized alternating wide kicks that never connect. By Hong Kong standards, it looks amateur and below Xiong’s abilities.

The scaffolding fight follows with excessive wirework that at least is justified. Obviously, this is a potentially dangerous sequence involving parkour elements and I couldn’t see Xiong pulling it off any other way without using doubles and endangering his stuntmen. It’s actually one of the best sequences in the film but plotwise makes no sense at all.

Next up is the film’s most baffling scene. Jiang somehow manages to get lured into a fight with two b-boys. It’s the kind of sequence that would have fit perfectly in a ’80s-era Jackie Chan action comedy but when played serious in this film it’s just goofy. Once again, we see a lot of wide kicking that looks awful. At this point I really began to wonder what was going on in Xiong’s head. The choreography is complicated yet so poorly conceived and executed. What a waste.

Finally, after squandering precious time on boring dramatic filler we get to the big finish as Jiang learns the whereabouts of the villains’ headquarters where she hopes to find and free her employer. It’s an interesting location that looks like a modern convention center. There are two fights here. First Jiang takes on a small army of suited thugs with nunchaku and then challenges Kosugi in a final match that turns out to be the best fight in the movie and something we should have seen a lot more of earlier. Xiong seems to be aware that he has a good thing going here and extends this match to just over ten minutes with only a short break in the middle. I could best describe this as just a very solid duel with no gimmicks. Jiang and Kosugi are both skilled screen fighters, well prepared for this fight and well matched. Compared with many of the film’s lesser battles, these two opponents rarely miss each other. We get a lot of impact, diversity in moves, a fast and steady tempo, and a clean and satisfying finish.

To summarize, COWEB has about 20 minutes of quality action spread across three of seven fights with excellent physical performances from Jiang Lu-xia and Kane Kosugi, both deserving of more starring roles in better productions. Beyond this, Xiong’s directing debut is a disappointment with nothing else to offer except mediocrity. My verdict is that Xiong needs to leave film directing to someone else and stick to collaborative fight choreography. Better yet, I’d like to see him get back to fighting in front of the screen while he’s still young enough to do it. He has a brief cameo in this film but sadly it was a non-fighting role.