Woman Martial Arts Fighter in an Early 90s Movie as a Tour Guide in the Woods
DOA: Expressionless or Alive | |
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Directed by | Corey Yuen |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | J. F. Lawton |
Based on | Dead or Alive by Tecmo |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography |
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Edited by |
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Music by | Junkie XL |
Production |
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Distributed by | Constantin Film (Germany) United International Pictures (United Kingdom) Dimension Films (United States) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 87 minutes[i] |
Countries |
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Language | English language |
Budget | $30 one thousand thousand[three] |
Box office | $7.vii million[3] |
DOA: Dead or Alive is a 2006 martial arts action film based on the Tecmo/Team Ninja fighting video game franchise Dead or Alive. Information technology is directed by Corey Yuen and written by J. F. Lawton and Adam and Seth Gross.
In the moving-picture show, fighters are invited to Expressionless or Alive, an invitational martial arts contest. The 4 female fighters begin as rivals, but work together to uncover the cloak-and-dagger that the organizer of the tournament is trying to hibernate. It features an ensemble cast and has various appearances from characters of the franchise, led by Kasumi (Devon Aoki), Christie Allen (Holly Valance) and Tina Armstrong (Jaime Pressly).
Principal photography took place from May to July 2005 in Bangkok, Guilin, Hengdian, and Hong Kong. It is an international co-production between Frg, United States and the United Kingdom.
DOA: Dead or Alive was commencement released on September 7, 2006, in Australia. Information technology was later released in the United Kingdom on September fifteen by United International Pictures, and in Frg on October xix, 2006, by Constantin Pic. The picture received generally negative reviews from critics and was a financial failure, grossing only $7.7 meg worldwide confronting a $30 million budget, making it a box-office flop. Due to the film's poor functioning, the United States release was delayed and the film was eventually given a express release on June xv, 2007, by The Weinstein Company under Dimension Films.
Plot [edit]
A grouping of martial arts and gainsay masters are invited to a fighting contest, "Expressionless or Alive", on an isolated island within an advanced complex, with the ultimate prize of $10 meg. Amongst the competitors are Kasumi, a shinobi ninja-princess looking for her brother Hayate (who was competing in the last tournament), Tina, a professional wrestler setting out to prove she has more than potential (complicated by her father Bass being i of the contenders), Christie, a master thief and assassin, her treacherous partner Maximillian 'Max' Marsh, and Hayabusa, a friend of Kasumi and Hayate who follows Kasumi to keep her condom, using the invitation to DOA for this. A last competitor is Helena Douglas, daughter of the tournament's tardily founder. When they make it, they are monitored past the island'due south supervisor, Dr. Victor Donovan, who, aided past egghead Weatherby, is gathering data (using injected nano-sensors) from the fights for some mysterious project. To add to the situation, an assassinator from Kasumi'due south colony, named Ayane, has followed Kasumi to kill her and wipe abroad the disgrace the princess has caused to the clan.
The contest plays out, with multiple contestants fighting and existence defeated (including Gen Fu, Bayman, Leon, and Zack), until only Kasumi, Christie, Hayabusa and Tina are left, with Helena being defeated by Christie. During the course of the film, Max and Christie class a program to steal the fortune stowed away within a hidden vault. During her fight, Christie sees that the fundamental to finding and unlocking the vault is a tattoo on the back of Helena's neck. Meanwhile, Kasumi begins to suspect Donovan of lying about her brother existence killed in the previous tournament, and Hayabusa, infiltrating the main facility to detect the truth, is captured. She is more than than once confronted and well-nigh killed by Ayane, who Kasumi tries to convince that Hayate is live (since information technology is eventually articulate that Ayane loves Hayate). Also, Weatherby begins to fall for Helena, and in the end tells her about what he knows of the mystery projection, and that before Helena's male parent could close the project downwards, he died (indicating that he was murdered).
On the final day of the tournament, wondering where Hayabusa is, Kasumi, Christie and Tina look for him and notice a cloak-and-dagger entrance to the principal complex, where they discover Hayabusa unconscious. They are then gassed and captured. Meanwhile, Helena resolves to stop the mystery project, and has to fight the armed staff of the island, sent to kill her and Weatherby by Donovan. They are followed inside by Max, who finds his style to the vault, and is then knocked out past Bayman, who is working for Donovan. Within the main complex, Donovan shows the four semifinalists the project he has been developing; an advanced form of neural interface that allows him and others to use the fighters' combined skills to become the ultimate fighter. After 'downloading' the data into the device (shaped like a pair of sunglasses), he then shows that he kept Hayate alive and in pinnacle condition to test the technology. He challenges Hayate to fight and win, if the others are to survive. Hayate accepts and is defeated, then thrown through a wall to die. Hayate is saved past Ayane, and the two of them evidently have each other.
With the successful demonstration, Donovan prepares to sell the technology effectually the world, and begins "downloading" information technology to the watching buyers. Weatherby stops the circulate and alerts the CIA, which provokes Donovan to caput for them. Helena keeps Donovan back while Weatherby frees the others, but both are defeated and Donovan activates a cocky-destruct sequence which volition obliterate the base. Kasumi, Helena, Christie, Tina, Ayane, and Hayate launch a combined attack on Donovan, while Hayabusa and Weatherby find Max and escape with him, despite Max's urge to become back for the coin. During the battle with the fighters, Donovan'southward 'spectacles' are knocked off and he is hands paralyzed past Hayate and Kasumi. The fighters then all escape equally the base explodes and Donovan is consumed by the flames, making their escape by a hijacked pirates' boat.
In the terminal scene, Helena, Ayane, Christie, Tina, and Kasumi are shown together again preparing to fight an army of ninja in Kasumi'southward palace.
Cast [edit]
- Jaime Pressly as Tina Armstrong, a professional person wrestler
- Holly Valance as Christie, a thief and assassin
- Sarah Carter as Helena Douglas, the daughter of DOATEC's founder
- Eric Roberts every bit Victor Donovan, the tournament organizer who has gained control of DOATEC afterward the death of Helena's begetter
- Natassia Malthe as Ayane, a ninja assassinator whose mission is to seek out and kill Kasumi
- Matthew Marsden as Maximillian Marsh, a thief and Christie's partner
- Kevin Nash as Bass Armstrong, a professional wrestler and Tina'due south overprotective begetter
- Brian J. White as Zack, an eccentric DJ
- Steve Howey as Weatherby, the head scientist of DOATEC
- Kane Kosugi as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja from Kasumi'southward clan and a true-blue friend to her and Hayate
- Collin Chou as Hayate, a ninja and Kasumi's blood brother who disappeared during the last tournament
- Devon Aoki as Kasumi, a shinobi ninja-princess looking for her missing brother
Additionally, Silvio Simac play Leon, an Italian mercenary, while Derek Boyer announced as Bayman, a Russian soldier. Chad McCord plays the detective who tries to abort Christie in Hong Kong, Martin Crewes plays Tina's butler and Robin Shou appear as the pirate'southward chief. Several characters from the game series appear in pocket-sized roles played past stuntmen, include: Song Lin as Brad Wong, Fang Liu as Gen Fu, Hung Lin as Hitomi and Ying Wang as Leifang.
Product [edit]
Primary photography commenced on May 4, 2005, and concluded on July 19, 2005. Filming locations include Bangkok, Guilin, Hengdian, and Hong Kong. The production budget was estimated to be $30 one thousand thousand.[iii] The film was the first Western production shot largely in Communist china's Hengdian Earth Studios, where Hero and House of Flying Daggers had shot.[4] [5]
Sarah Carter had worked with Natassia Malthe five times earlier and with Holly Valance iii times.[5] The actors trained together for 3 months before going to China, and trained for some other month in Mainland china. Preparation included wu shu and kung fu, also as wire training. The heat and humidity made the fight scenes particularly challenging. Another claiming was translation, on set people were speaking English, Cantonese, Standard mandarin, and the regional dialect of whatever area they were shooting in at the fourth dimension.[5] Pressly had some previous experience with martial arts, training with her own trainer for nine years, and she had a recurring role in the Mortal Kombat television series.[6] Valance had trained in muay thai since her teens, and found information technology made information technology more hard to larn kung-fu as there were a lot of things she had to relearn.[half-dozen]
Pressly praised the tireless work of director Corey Yuen and the crew, proverb the crew worked two units, 17 hours a day, getting fours hours of sleep, and getting back up and doing it once more.[5] [half dozen]
Release [edit]
The picture was released first in a number of markets during September 2006 including the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Philippines. The British Lath of Film Nomenclature (BBFC) rated it 15, Irish gaelic Picture show Censor'southward Part (IFCO) 15A, Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) (OFLC) M (unrestricted, unlike the MA-15+ rating), all Canadian provinces gave it a PG except for Quebec which gave it a One thousand with warning, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) PG-13. The film was released in North America on June xv, 2007, without press screenings.[7] The Weinstein Visitor delayed the Us release of the motion-picture show by about a year.[8]
Box office [edit]
In non-North American markets, the film brought in over $7 million at the international box function, with virtually $1 million in both the UK and Australia. In the U.s.a., the film fabricated $260,713 in its opening weekend.[3] It was released into 505 theaters,[9] and spent 21 days in theaters, endmost on July v with a domestic gross of $480,813 (nigh half-dozen.4% of the worldwide gross at the time). The film grossed $7.7 1000000 worldwide.[3]
Critical response [edit]
Reviews were generally negative. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an blessing rating of 33% based on 46 reviews, with an boilerplate rating of 4.vii/ten. The site's critics consensus reads, "With a ridiculous plot and comical interim, checking one'due south brain at the door is required before watching DOA: Dead or Alive."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100 based on eight critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[13]
Joe Leydon of Variety called it a "whirring blur of hot babes and cool fights" but complained the film is insubstantial and non enough even to appeal to genre fans with lowered expectations, suggesting information technology belongs in the video store and on late night television set. He described the film every bit "a caffeinated mash-upwards" of Enter the Dragon, Mortal Kombat, Charlie's Angels and a few other films, simply did praise Yuen for his show-stopping glasses and compared an outdoor sword fight saying it "looks like a collaboration between Gene Kelly and Bruce Lee".[4] Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News gave the picture show ane out of v stars, calling it "laughably silly". He said the action was curiously bloodless, and the choreography not that skillful.[8] Josh Rosenblatt of the Austin Chronicle panned the film, saying "the most glaring problem with DOA: not that it goes too far but that it doesn't arrive enough" and called the film: "A piece of garbage and the best statement for reading books since the first pop-up appeared."[xiv]
L.A. Weekly gave the film a favorable review comparing information technology to Charlie's Angels and praising the director for providing "one of the year'southward purest entertainments" and "pretty much nonstop fighting, mostly in very little habiliment, with the flair you expect from a main choreographer like Yuen. It's crawly."[xv] Entertainment Weekly's Gregory Kirschling gave it a form "B" and wrote: "If yous merely ever see one bad movie well-nigh warrior chicks who meet on a tropical isle for a fight contest, arrive DOA: Expressionless or Live."[16] Michael Ferraro from Motion-picture show Threat credited the film with the unusual achievement of following the plot of the game serial it is based on, even including a volleyball sequence, although he is critical there is not all that much plot. He described the acting and dialog as awful, and is bored by the action and fighting but calls the result hilarious, and suggested it equally the kind of motion picture you might sentinel with a grouping of drunken friends, adding your ain commentary rails.[17] Kim Newman of The Times gave the film a positive review: "This is the best picture yet adjusted from a computer game — it doesn't even try to add together depth and only delivers what the fans wait (enough of ninja babes) with equally few trimmings every bit possible."[18] In 2011 in the volume "Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s" Newman wrote: "If I had to pick a game-based 'guilty pleasure', it would exist DOA: Expressionless or Alive".[19]
Of the performances, some critics were positive most Pressly,[7] [10] [11] [20] and negative about Aoki.[10] [20]
Dwelling media [edit]
A DVD of DOA: Expressionless or Live was released on September xi, 2007. In the first calendar week, 68,578 units were sold in the United States, earning $i,370,874 and a #12 ranking on the week'south DVD sales.[3] The DVD went on gross over $1.8 meg in United states of america sales revenue.[21]
References [edit]
- ^ "DOA - DEAD OR ALIVE (15)". British Board of Moving picture Classification. August 23, 2006. Retrieved Apr 24, 2015.
- ^ "DOA Expressionless or Alive". British Film Establish. London. Archived from the original on Baronial ii, 2012. Retrieved November x, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f "DOA: Expressionless or Alive". The Numbers.
- ^ a b Joe Leydon (June 15, 2007). "DOA: Expressionless or Alive". Variety.
- ^ a b c d "[SDCC PREVIEW] THE LADIES OF 'D.O.A.: DEAD OR ALIVE' Sarah Carter, Holly Valance and Jaime Pressly share their experiences filming abroad and why they're happy to exist domicile once more". Wizard #179, July 28. Wizard Entertainment. July 21, 2006. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c "[SDCC PREVIEW] THE LADIES OF 'D.O.A.: DEAD OR Alive' Sarah Carter, Holly Valance and Jaime Pressly share their experiences filming abroad and why they're happy to be dwelling again". Wizard #179, July 28. Sorcerer Entertainment. July 21, 2006. Archived from the original on Dec 4, 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
- ^ a b c Tom Russo (June 16, 2007). "In 'DOA,' the inspiration and excitement are MIA". The Boston Earth. Archived from the original on Apr 26, 2017.
- ^ a b June 16, 2007, Jack Mathews New York Daily News They're armed & frivolous
- ^ Joshua Rich (June 18, 2007). "Fantastic 4 debuts at No. ane". Entertainment Weekly.
a pathetic $232,000 in 505 theaters — a ridiculously poor $459 average.
- ^ a b c Stax (June 20, 2007). "DOA: Dead or Alive". IGN.
- ^ a b Scott Chitwood (September 16, 2007). "DOA: Expressionless or Live". ComingSoon.net.
- ^ "D.O.A.: Dead or Live (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved Oct half dozen, 2021.
- ^ "DOA: Dead or Alive Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved March xix, 2019.
- ^ Josh Rosenblatt (June 22, 2007). "Picture Review: DOA: Expressionless or Alive". www.austinchronicle.com.
- ^ Luke Y. Thompson (June 13, 2007). "Film Reviews: Fantastic Four, Fido, Amu". Fifty.A. Weekly. Archived from the original on April 25, 2017. Retrieved August xiv, 2019.
- ^ Gregory Kirschling (June 29, 2007). "DOA: Dead or Alive". Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ Michael Ferraro (June 23, 2007). "DOA: Dead or Alive". Moving picture Threat. Archived from the original on Oct 19, 2012.
- ^ Kim Newman (September xvi, 2006). "DOA: Expressionless or Alive". The Times. Archived from the original on Baronial xvi, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
delivers what the fans expect
- ^ Kim Newman (May 10, 2011). Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s (2d ed.). Bloomsbury. p. 579. ISBN978-1408805039 . Retrieved Baronial 15, 2019.
If I had to choice a game-based 'guilty pleasure', it would exist DOA: Expressionless or Alive (2006).
- ^ a b J. Doyle Wallis (September xi, 2007). "D.O.A. Expressionless or Alive". DVD Talk.
- ^ "DOA: Dead or Live (2007) - Fiscal Information". The Numbers . Retrieved Nov six, 2020.
External links [edit]
- DOA: Expressionless or Alive at IMDb
- DOA: Dead or Live at Box Office Mojo
- DOA: Dead or Alive at LoveHKFilm.com
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOA:_Dead_or_Alive
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