“No Way Out” (2019)
The recent MORTAL KOMBAT movie was a…mixed bag at best. But some of its best attributes were relegated to smaller moments and side parts. For example—Max Huang, who played Kung Lao, showed off adept abilities and form in his martial art skills, even if his character was severely hampered by a weak character arc and poor dialogue. Still, talent has a way of shining through and Huang’s proficiency in badassery was evident on screen. This impressive display led to further investigation and finding NO WAY OUT, a short film that Huang stars in, produced, co-wrote, and directed in 2020.
While a bit long at 17 minutes for an “Afternoon Delights” entry, the short never feels its length due to the propulsive nature of the story and dazzling spectacle of fight choreography on display. It’s a pretty simply premise that mixes up elements from films by John Woo, Luc Besson, Gareth Edwards, with a nice amount of ‘90s DTV action cheese and bombast. The plot, written by Huang and Muhammet Aksoy, reads:
An ex criminal (Max Huang) gets hired by the police to work undercover inside a drug cartel, but when he saves a little girl, he blows his cover.
The short film is one of those labors of love amongst a small group of friends with multiple people filling multiple roles on the project—actors and stunt men also operating cameras and helping with continuity and the like. Chinese-born German actor Huang’s skills were already clear to folks who had caught him in various productions, but I was further impressed when I learned he had been a part of Jackie Chan’s Stunt Team. It’s a renowned group of hardworking stunt performers that not only shine in their own right but know how to make the hero or “star” sell their own kicks even better (and, being Hong Kong stunt men, means that they basically take most of those kicks and hits for real).
In addition to being a multi-hyphenate threat with NO WAY OUT, Huang is also a singer and songwriter, which really just makes my piddly list of skills seem increasingly pathetic. NO WAY OUT is thrilling in its raw, inventive use of combat as well as getting across emotional stakes as efficiently as possible. It certainly is raw from a filmmaking perspective, but there are still nice touches of artistry in its visuals and the kinetic action captured on screen. Can’t wait to see more from this very talented performer as he blazes a path of innovative action across our screens.