The Empty Hands (2017) NYAFF 2018

When her father, a martial arts master dies unexpectedly, a young woman thinks she will be on easy street once she sells the dojo. However her father only left her 49% of the property. The other 51% went to an ex-student who went to prison. He wants to restart the dojo and make a go of it. This forces the woman to go back to and deal with the life that she had run away from years before.

Surprisingly good drama is not what you expect. The martial arts are subservient to the drama not the other way around with the result we have some of the deepest characters you’ll find in a “martial arts film. It is also no wonder that Stephy Tang has won awards for her performance in the film.

I’m going to be honest the fact that the film is more drama than martial arts film kind of threw me. My expectations going in kept me fighting with the film for about a third of the running time. Then somewhere along the way I just went with it and the film improved greatly.

This is one of the hidden and expected gems of this years NYAFF.

Recommended.

For tickets and more information go here.