My Schoolmate The Barbarian (DVD Review) - B+
By Kage Alan

Inspired by a Japanese comic as well as the US film “Fight Club”, Stone ( Nicholas Tse) is the top fighter in his school, one of the rougher and lower class schools in the area. Whenever there is a reputation to be maintained or crushed, it’s done on the top floor of the school after hours and without any interruptions from the faculty. It’s frowned upon, but nothing is ever done about it. Anyway, after Stone is introduced in a spectacular fight sequence, the film cuts to a year later. Rich boy Edward is expelled from his top-notch school and, due to a comedy of errors, finds himself in a lower class one where the less-than-desirables want to kick his ass.

Edward can’t fight and proves it, but a friendship between himself and Stone soon finds him learning how to defend himself while tutoring Stone so the boy can pass his exams. There’s also a ditzy girl named Phoenix who goes a bit nutty every time a cute guy looks or talks to her and 7-11, the guy who carries around everything with him that anybody could possibly want, all for a price. Of course, what would a film like this be without the bad guy, Mantis who wants to take Stone’s reputation away from him? When Edward is kidnapped, however, Stone and Mantis team up for a showdown to save their schoolmate.

While one of the attractions of watching this film is definitely the fight sequences, which are truly spectacular, there’s quite a bit of fun humor, some inventive camerawork, editing and quite a bit of social commentary. Unfortunately, much of the social commentary is going to be missed unless you are familiar with the culture or listen to the audio commentary included on the DVD. This is definitely worth checking out!