LOVE HURTS
US, 2025, 83 minutes, Colour.
Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Daniel Wu, Cam Gigandet, Marshawn Lynch, Andre Eriksen, Rhys Darby, Sean Astin.
Directed by Jonathan Eusebio.
While there are some rather secondary themes of love, this is a film where the title Hurts is much more important!
This is a very brief action show, one of thousands in the history of cinema. However, it is a show of the 21st-century, very significantly promoting a range of characters with different ethnic backgrounds in the United States. And, there is a lot of violence, stylised in its way, some of it very serious, especially in the deaths of character who certainly didn’t deserve it and had some audience sympathy, but also in the elaborate martial arts choreography.
Ke Huy Quan certainly has a Jackie Chan look about him, physically, and then in the extensive fights and martial arts manifestations.
In fact, the director of has a long list of credits as stunt coordinator, martial arts and fight coordinator. And, two of the stars have something of a similar background, especially the central character played by Ke Huy Quan. (And, the main fighters, the two brothers Marvin and Knuckles, and the hitman, The Raven – a hugely imposing physical presence by Mustafa Shakir – are all in their mid-late 50s!).
The Raven and Ashley, Ivan’s real estate agency assistant (Lio Tipton) provide quite some humour with poetry, violence, and romance. And there is Rhys Darby as the Kiwi accountant.
Familiar themes, Russians in the US, money deals, betrayals, thugs, tracking down those who betrayed them…
However, the film is a star vehicle for Ke Huy Quan who had appeared in the number of films in the 1980s but had not prospered in the film or television industry as an actor. Then, he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. And here he is teamed, not always romantically credible in the scenario, with Oscar winner Ariana DeBose, for West Side Story.
While Marvin had been a hitman for his brother, Knuckles, he has moved away, disillusioned, helping their associate, Rose, to disappear. Now, everybody seems to be after him even though he is now a respectable, award-winning, real estate agent (and many sequences illustrating this).
He has a rival in the estate agency business and a very sympathetic boss played by Sean Astin – but it was not necessary in the scheme of things that they should each die so brutally.
Happy ending, declarations of love – the audience might hope for this but may not be persuaded.
