100 YARDS - Mark Reviews Movies

100 Yards, Well Go USA

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 7, 2024

The central conflict of 100 Yards is simplicity itself. Two men vie for control of a martial arts academy. That's pretty much it, but as presented by fraternal co-directors Xu Haofeng (who wrote the screenplay) and Junfeng, the fight entails more than fists, feet, and assorted weapons. It's as much a battle of wits and wills as it is one of physical prowess.

As such, the Xu brothers' film is entertaining even when it's not focused on various types of combat. The story builds and builds toward a final showdown between its dual protagonists, each of whom has a legitimate claim to becoming the head of the school and shows something new about himself by way of how this skirmish of physical blows and mental trickery unfolds. We get a good sense of the two participants, what power means to them, and why they want it in the first place. The battle matters, in other words, as a bit more than rousing setpieces of well-choreographed fights.

The two men are Shen An (Jacky Heung), the son of the academy's first master, and Qi Quan (Andy On), the master's apprentice. The backdrop is the Chinese city of Tianjin in the 1920s, about a decade or so after martial arts academies began opening in urban areas and around the time that dance halls were gaining popularity.

Are these details, offered by some opening text, really that important? In a way, they are, because the arrival of various fighting schools in the city brings with it independent and localized forms of street-level justice and order. The dance halls seem to exist as their own isolated entities, focused on high-class clientele and propriety. Martial artists aren't allowed inside, because they're seen as lesser, so living by the rules and codes of their insulated, protected world is the only option for people like An, Quan, the greater council of the academies, and their assorted members.

It's vital, then, who is running a school, what they teach, and how their pupils behave outside of those academies. Quan is on track to take over leadership of the school from Master Shen (Guo Long), but when word of his father's imminent death reaches An, he turns up uninvited at the academy, forces his way inside against guards, and challenges Quan for what he sees as his rightful inheritance.

The two men duel, as the dying master watches, and An seems to have the upper hand. That's when Shen tells his apprentice to use a technique that his son never learned, not only because it means Shen's wish for his successor will be fulfilled, but also because it's the only way An will learn this final fighting tactic. There's a fascinating contradiction in that notion, between rigid order and compassion, and the rest of the story gradually reveals more such contradictory ways of thinking, acting, and being.

Take An, who wants to become the head of the academy but only realizes why it's important, as more than a matter of lineage and presumed obligation, until he gets away from that world. His father wanted An to have a life and career outside of the martial arts, and the son goes along with the plan, dating the illegitimate daughter (played by Bea Hayden Kuo) of a Western banker and, after his defeat to Quan, taking a job at the bank. When it turns out that said banker only sees his new employee as a sort of novelty act by pitting An against other fighters, he quits, deciding that, if the world can only see him as a fighter, he will dedicate his life to the practice.

Eventually, that means challenging Quan again, but Quan has become cynical, learning that his late master made arrangements with local hoodlums to schedule when the latter could steal from market vendors and the former would appear as the vendors' defenders. The apparent murder of a shared associate sets An and Quan against each other, and with their newfound skepticism about the traditions of the academy and the rules of society, neither man particularly cares about following either of those codes.

Obviously, much of this is just an excuse for a series of action sequences, which are many, diverse in style and the number of fighters at hand, and shot by the filmmakers in such a way that we can see combatants' entire bodies as they punch, kick, and wield swords, short blades, and staffs. The directors give us lengthy fights, too, meaning part of the strategy is as much about one man trying to wear out his opponent as it about going blow-to-blow with the other. An entire subplot here has Quan trying to discover the secret of a fighting form that his master hid from him, certain that An might be hiding his own knowledge of it.

Strategy does matter, then, in how the fights unfold and in how they're established beforehand. It's a clever bit of storytelling, adding to the schemes and stakes of the action, but really, the film's foundation is the action. The Xu brothers constantly change and evolve how these fights proceeds from one to the next, until that final, extended showdown that becomes a marathon of chaotic brawling and one-on-one precision.

The climax almost makes the entire film worthwhile, but 100 Yards also is smart and insightful in revealing these characters, what they're fighting for, and why it matters. It's a very fine piece of action filmmaking, yes, but admirably, the film offers a bit more than that.

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