CHINANGO is the third starring vehicle for Chilean karate superstar Marko Zaror, and so far the only one of those he made in Mexico and through a Mexican production company (Producciones Lobo). Like the film he starred in before it, MIRAGEMAN, it had apparently next to no budget and by most standards looks like film school project, but unlike MIRAGEMAN, it doesn't make much particular use of its independent status and comes off as the rough draft of a better movie. No remake has ever been produced, but since just about everything Zaror has been in afterwards has been a lot better, I'm glad that he made this one, if only to get it out of his system.
The story: A martial artist searches for a mystical medallion left to him by his grandfather, entering into a dangerous contest with an underworld boss (Hugo Stiglitz).
Apparently, this film was shot on 16mm film and without a single permit, meaning that the cast was most likely running around Mexico City and filming snippets in private apartments and back streets with a hand-held camera while trying not to get caught. It certainly gives that impression: the camera-work can get *really* shaky at times, and the occasional jumps between shots makes it feel like the filmmakers didn't have all the time they wanted to shoot. With that said, the production still seems relatively tight: with the exception of some embarrassing pre-rendered CGI inserts, the movie rarely gives the impression of having undertaken something too large and aesthetically looks good enough given its limited resources.
Disappointingly, the major shortcoming here is that the story quickly gets very boring whenever Marko's not fighting. Some of the characters border on interesting, like the lead villain, but in the end, there's very little by way of acting that can make you forget the unsteady camera and the awkward dialogue. Of course, there are a couple strange features that make you look up and take notice - like the traditional Chinese orchestration over the Mexican landscape, or the scene wherein naked Marko needs to flee his apartment - but in the end, I found myself hoping for a movie that went more over-the-top to make up for the blandness of its production (e.g. CONTOUR).
Marko Zaror's fight scenes are a highlight in any movie he makes, and this is no exception. In the course of seven fights, he shows off not only his acrobatic kickboxing skills but also his apparent talent for stuntwork. He even has a pretty good head opponent in muay thai practitioner Francisco Calvo, and gets into a mildly Jackie Chan-inspired brawl wherein his opponent attacks him with a broom and he fights back with a wooden stool. Sadly, none of these encounters is a five-star affair, or even a four-star one. While Marko's had better fights in general (see UNDISPUTED III if you haven't), these ones are slowed by endless insertions of shots from other scenes - like in the latter aforementioned fight, wherein the movie keeps cutting away to a comedy brawl between an enforcer and a cabbie, or in the former, wherein it cuts away to an awkward fight between two women. Also, the DVD cover features what appears to be a capoeira practitioner, but there's none of that in the movie.
If you're a nut for Marko and just want to complete your collection of his films, buy away, but don't do so thinking you're going to get that great of a feature. CHINANGO shows the potential of no-budget cinema as a conduit for martial arts adventures, but it's going to take more practice before this one can compete away from its niche audience.
