It's hard to believe it's been almost 20 years since director Prachya Pinkaew released Ong Bak to the world in 2003, heralding what was seen at the time as a new era of action with Thailand at the helm. Of course, leading man Tony Jaa was an equal, if not more, part of Ong Bak's success, with Pinkaew returning to the director's chair for Jaa's subsequent vehicles, Tom Yum Goong in 2005, and after a falling out, its unfortunate sequel Tom Yum Goong 2. in 2013. The sequel is worth mentioning as it represented the final nail in the coffin for audience excitement when it came to Thai action production, and with it, the Once common discussions, such as what kind of crazy action Thailand would produce next, also boiled down to nothing.
I mention this, as 2022's Shadow Master seems to hark back to the mid to late 2000s era, seemingly oblivious to the fact that no one cares about brutal elbows to the head or flying knees to the torso. It becomes apparent why when, in the opening seconds, the credit "Prachya Pinkaew Presents..." rolls across the screen, taking advantage of the name recognition of him in an executive producer role for all it's worth. But in all fairness, who can blame him? For those who got tired of seeing Tony Jaa running after buddha heads or lost elephants (twice!) and started asking what it would be like to see him do something a little different, Shadow Master looks and feels like he could have been that movie. . Perhaps ironically, the film itself is not actually a Thai product.
Director: Pearry Reginald Teo
Writer: Pearry Reginald Teo
Stars: D.Y. Sao, Layton Matthews, Brian Le
Instead, it's an American DTV action flick, and the sophomore lead role for Cambodian-born, California-raised D.Y. Sao. Like The Rebel's Johnny Tri Nguyen and Accident Man 2's Sarah Chang, Sao has represented the US National Wushu Team and has some serious moves thanks to his training in multiple disciplines, including bokator from his native Cambodia. (which was highlighted in 2017's Jailbreak), kickboxing, and kung-fu. After spending several years as an extra or headlining short films, Sao appears to have found his partner in crime in Singaporean writer-director Pearry Teo.
Mainly known for low-budget horror films like 2013's Dracula: The Dark Prince and 2019's The Assent, Teo's work within the genre isn't exactly praised, so in 2021 he decided to try directing a piece of the DTV action. . The result was Fast Vengeance, which paired D.Y. Sao with rapper DMX in a story of brothers seeking revenge. Discounting the fact that as soon as DMX finished working with Teo, he passed away, there's no escaping Fast Vengeance bordering on the unwatchable. That's right, in 2022, Teo attempts to combine both horror and action in the form of Shadow Master, this time with Sao front and center as a brooding drifter who takes a job as a night watchman at a hospital.
Hospital residents are terrified of mysterious figures appearing in the night and taking their children, and Sao takes it upon himself to find out why and put an end to the situation. What follows is a pure pulp story, as a plot involving the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, a death god, and a boy with leg braces all converge on what I think has something to do with bring about the end of time. Frankly, the entire narrative is a mess, mixing themes from Christianity, the Taoist festival of hungry ghosts, and even the Monkey King in a way that they never seem to connect with each other. Fortunately, things eventually get interesting in the second half, but before that, we meet a protagonist in the form of Sao who doesn't possess any of the qualities of a protagonist.
Sao's reluctant night watchman is clearly supposed to be a brooding anti-hero, and like many talented martial artists who take on a brooding lead role, he's clearly too over the top for someone who isn't a trained actor. So instead he just wears a blank expression and delivers lines like "fighting only causes pain" and "can God forgive the devil?" in a low-pitched monotone hum. Combined with a nearly nonexistent pacing filled with tension-free silences and oddly paced pauses, Shadow Master's opening third is a labored watch, saved only by a sprinkling of flashbacks showing Sao in action.