Paul Magne Haakonsen I must say that Vietnam is actually making a good jab at the martial arts movie market, and "Clash" ("Bay Rong") is an enjoyable action/martial arts movie.The story is about a group of people who have to steal a laptop from a group of French people. But there is a traitor in the ranks and the laptop becomes an object that several groups of people come to chase after.The movie wasn't really a character-driven story, obviously, it was without a doubt driven by the sheer action and in-you-face martial arts. And that worked out well enough, so you shouldn't expect to see a lot of award-winning acting here though."Clash" had some nicely choreographed martial arts and it was well executed. I must say that Johnny Nguyen (playing Quan) is truly a rising Vietnamese martial arts start and I assume we will see much more of him in the future. I have seen him in 3 movies that I can remember, and have been impressed so far. But Veronica Ngo (playing Trinh) also did some nice martial arts in "Clash".I thoroughly enjoyed the story, the action and the martial arts in the movie. There were a couple of laughable moments though, such as where they were hiding behind a couch to protect themselves from the fires shot from an AK47, or using a wooden table for protection. That just wasn't very well thought through. But in overall, then the movie proved to be rather enjoyable. If you like martial arts movies with lots of action and adrenaline, then you should definitely sit down to watch "Clash". Especially the final showdown was enjoyable, lots of gunfire, kicking and throwing punches here.I had never heard about this movie prior to buying it from Amazon, and it was bought simply because it was a Vietnamese action movie and I wanted to see how well the Vietnamese would pull this off. And I must say that I am impressed.

chrichtonsworld After "The Rebel" one would expect a movie starring Johnny Nguyen would at least offer the same experience action wise. Sadly somehow they found it necessary to put in focus on drama. While sometimes it does help intensify the action, in this case it doesn't help at all. It even distracts from it. Some directors have no clue what is important. Being pretentious with a story this bad is never a good idea. All this would not matter if the action sequences were up to par of those in "The Rebel". Sure there were some nice moves by the main characters but rarely were they exciting enough to be interesting. There is a joke in the movie about this being like a Hong Kong movie. While I admire their spirit and ambition in no way comes it even close to that. They wish!

Robert Taylor For those of you who like action dramas - this movie will feel a lot like Ronin (Robert DeNiro 1998). The roles and plot are very similar (that is my spoiler). Watching with (english) subtitles can be distracting at times, but you still get the feel and emotion from the actors.Johnny Nguyen plays his character with his usual reserve, but it fits very well with the story and his role. He is still very charismatic and as always his display of martial arts is impressive. After the Rebel he was put on my personal list of actors to watch for.Thanh Van Ngo does a great job of conveying emotion through-out the film and comes across as tough as well - which you would think would be difficult given her lithe figure and pretty face, but this is a talented woman - I hope to see more of her work in the future.This movie (and the Rebel) shows us that Vietnamese action movies are hard hitting and a nice change from the Chinese Kung-Fu movies which while are artistic and sometimes beautiful to watch, can be over-dramatic and unbelievable. Also (espescially with Johnny Nguyen and Thanh Van Ngo) They seem to take us back to a day when movies where more acting, less special effects. I recommend this movie to those who like good action dramas.Side note: With the similarity between this and the movie Ronin, It makes me think that international films could be a great place for directors to re-create past works, correct previous mistakes or allow stories to take different directions all-together while maintaining the plot, story line or intent of the film. - Cases in point; Matrix II & III, Jaws II, III, IV, Star Wars, Rambo, etc. If I had the chance to re-make some of those movies (II & III-not the originals) I feel I might have gone a different direction with the story line. We have seen this too many times - A movie that is so ground breaking and fantastic, that tons of money are thrown into sequels without proper preparation. Hey - movie industry - just because someone got lucky with a blockbuster, it doesn't mean that they should be given a green light and become solely responsible for the follow-ups. - Perhaps I am being naive to think that these sequels could have been better - Maybe the originals set such high standards that nothing could follow them up successfully, but then again - These international movie companies could given us a second chance at greatness!For those of you who loved the sequels - I apologize for any insults you may have percevied - These are strictly my opions and not meant to detract from you enjoyment of those movies.

kosmasp What does matter in this movie? Isn't it the action? You can throw in a nice characterisation too and you have a nice mixture of an Martial Arts movie. What more to expect? The answer to that is up to you. The action choreography is good enough. The group effect and the actors do their best to hold the tight story together.While it mixes a few things in the group dynamic (and a few foreseeable "twists" here and there), it does work as a straight story, if you do not expect too much from it. And the (brief)case should not bother you too much. Or the significance it holds (or doesn't). Even if isn't solved for you, this was meant to be that way. And while that seems a bit too much claim for a martial arts movie, it holds up