‘100 Yards’
Few films this year are as elegantly shot as Haofeng Xu and Junfeng Xu’s poetically violent martial arts street epic “100 Yards.” The Chinese film, set in 1920s Tianjin, begins with the sudden death of a martial arts master who leaves his academy to his ruthless apprentice, Qi Quan (Andy On), rather than his son, Shen An (Jacky Heung). A jilted An and a territorial Quan engage in a duel that escalates into a fight to the death for control of the academy and for the loyalty of the school’s gang of martial students.
Though Heung and On are both balletic, arresting actors, each brandishing steely stares for an unquestionable sense of cool, it’s the camera in this film that is the true star. These filmmakers use elaborate tracks and incredible pullbacks and push-ins — beginning with wide shots that ease into close-ups and vice versa — to give the incredible swordplay scenes an abundance of high-flying wonder.
‘Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End’
Postapocalyptic films usually offer a fascinating twist to the action genre, tangling survivor’s guilt with survival instincts. The director Carles Torrens’s heart-pounding flick “Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End” implicitly understands how to form that knot in Manel (Francisco Ortiz), a widowed lawyer in Spain who is stranded with his cat as a deadly virus turns people into flesh-eating zombies. Haunted by his wife’s death, Manel clings to family during the pandemic, attempting to travel with his cat to his sister’s quarantine home on the Canary Islands.
Manel isn’t your typical last man standing. He’s an all-too trusting idiot. His misplaced faith in humanity puts him in sticky situations, like becoming the prisoner of pirates and evading a horde of zombies at a hospital. His run-ins with villains are gory and explosive, leading to a magnificent final set-piece where, armed with only an ax, he fights off a torrent of zombies.
‘Hijack 1971’
Inspired by a true story, “Hijack 1971,” from the director Kim Sung-Han, is a harrowing story of personal bravery. Tae-in (Ha Jung-woo) was once a top-flight fighter pilot in South Korea. But when he refuses to shoot down a hijacked passenger plane, allowing its travelers to be captured by North Korea, he is discharged from service. A year later, Tae-in is now a commercial airline pilot. Armed with homemade explosive devices, a young hijacker named Yong-dae (Yeo Jin-goo) takes control of Tae-in’s plane with the intent of flying to North Korea.
Kim effortlessly leverages the aircraft’s claustrophobic frame and the fearful passengers for palpable tension. When fighter jets show up, Kim further ratchets up the excitement, calculating gravity-defying dogfights. And then there’s Ha and Yeo, two deeply felt actors bringing humanism to a film about ostracization — Tae-in is ridiculed for his past inaction and Yong-dae is a victim of abuse — landing each character’s heartache with ease.
‘The Moon’
The young astronaut Hwang Sun-woo (Doh Kyung-soo) is part of a three-man crew traveling on South Korea’s first lunar mission when a devastating solar storm kills his crewmates and damages his spaceship. Hwang could abandon his expedition. Instead, he decides to land on the moon. Unfortunately for Hwang, a massive meteor shower strands him there. Kim Jae-guk (Sul Kyung-gu), the space agency’s disgraced former flight director, returns to work to rescue Hwang.
Akin to “Gravity” and “The Martian,” the director Kim Yong-hwa’s “The Moon” is an exhilarating survivalist film about redemption. Kim wants to be forgiven for his past, and fights against the incredulity of his former colleagues to guide Hwang back home past meteors that require a high-speed rover to dodge. Kim also devises an escape from the moon that’s so improbable, it must be seen to be believed.
‘Onmyoji Zero’
A former orphan, Seimei Abe (Kento Yamazaki) is now a talented apprentice at a school that trains fighters to shield the city of Heian-kyō from spells and curses. Unlike his fellow students, Abe doesn’t care about advancement; he just wants to find the man who killed his parents. That desire surprisingly intertwines with the sudden murder of another student. During the school’s investigation, Abe is framed, a princess is kidnapped, and Abe’s close friend (Shota Sometani) is thrust into danger.
“Onmyoji Zero,” from the writer and director Shimako Sato, is a mystical adventure that bends reality by composing fantastical fight sequences taking place in dream worlds. Within these multidimensional set pieces, elemental dragons composed of water and fire fight each other, and Abe tricks foes with spells and escapes from bewitching nightmares to confront the real culprit in a flashy grudge match.
The post Five Action Movies to Stream Now appeared first on New York Times.
