LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Prisoner of War, which screened Friday at the Big Bad Film Fest in Glendale, Calif., reunites the stars of the Debt Collector films, Scott Adkins and Louis Mandylor. In this movie, Mandylor directs Adkins in an impressive vehicle tailored to his martial arts skills.
The story begins in 1950 Tokyo, where Royal Air Force Wing Commander James Wright (Adkins) arrives at the Ito Dojo looking for Lt. Col. Ito. It is a great way to open the film, with Adkins taking on an entire dojo of fighters like Bruce Lee and Mr. Miyagi did in their days.
The flashback to World War II gets right to the action as well. Wright crashes in the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines and brutally takes out some Japanese soldiers in the jungle before he is ultimately captured.
Ito (Peter Shinkoda) leads the prisoner of war camp in Bataan and orders Wright to be executed. Wright overpowers Ito's men, leading Ito to put Wright in a deathmatch fight to make an example of him. Wright also wins this fight, however.
The plots of martial arts movies need only adequately establish a premise that revolves around several escalating fights. Prisoner of War's script, by Mark Clebanoff from a story by Adkins, adds a bit of justifiable subtext.
