Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Leofwine_draca I picked out CLASH from the shelves on the strength of it being a Vietnamese martial arts thriller – and knowing the calibre of recent Thai fare in the same genre, I was hoping it would be up to the challenge. Sadly, it turns out to be a bit of a lacklustre effort, one that's hampered by a low budget and a lack of creativity and freedom in delivering the action.As soon as the central team are holed up in a dilapidated, run-down old country house as their base of operations, I knew this would be a shot-on-the-cheap kind of movie. And so it turns out to be. Strangely, the plot seems to be virtually copied from the Frankenheimer movie RONIN, right down to the hotel stakeout, the double cross, and the reveal of one character's background at the end. Needless to say, it doesn't hold a candle to that movie.Instead, this is the kind of predictable and slightly cheesy fare that appears to have been done on the cheap. The script is poor and the performances are nothing to write home about, which leaves us with the martial arts to contend with. I can report that the fights are pretty well staged, if not reaching the same level of greatness that we saw in ONG BAK, for example. Johnny Nguyen is a great fighter, but the camera doesn't love him like it loves him in WARRIOR KING and it's all just a little bit by rote. The same goes for Ngo Thanh Van – she's arresting, but only on a B-movie level.The result is a film that's average at best, and which feels a little bit stale and past it's sell by date. Nevertheless, I plan to check out a few more Vietnamese movies to see what they're capable of delivering.

chrichtonsworld After "The Rebel" one would expect a movie starring Johnny Nguyen would at least offer the same experience action wise. Sadly somehow they found it necessary to put in focus on drama. While sometimes it does help intensify the action, in this case it doesn't help at all. It even distracts from it. Some directors have no clue what is important. Being pretentious with a story this bad is never a good idea. All this would not matter if the action sequences were up to par of those in "The Rebel". Sure there were some nice moves by the main characters but rarely were they exciting enough to be interesting. There is a joke in the movie about this being like a Hong Kong movie. While I admire their spirit and ambition in no way comes it even close to that. They wish!

kosmasp What does matter in this movie? Isn't it the action? You can throw in a nice characterisation too and you have a nice mixture of an Martial Arts movie. What more to expect? The answer to that is up to you. The action choreography is good enough. The group effect and the actors do their best to hold the tight story together.While it mixes a few things in the group dynamic (and a few foreseeable "twists" here and there), it does work as a straight story, if you do not expect too much from it. And the (brief)case should not bother you too much. Or the significance it holds (or doesn't). Even if isn't solved for you, this was meant to be that way. And while that seems a bit too much claim for a martial arts movie, it holds up

Scott Eriksson Expectations for any martial arts action film are usually the same: be entertained by lots of great fight scenes. Johnny Nguyen's martial arts expertise doesn't disappoint in Clash, but the film fortunately goes deeper than just that which places it in an elite category of martial arts action films.Thanh Van "Veronica" Ngo plays Trinh/Phoenix and creates a beautiful, brutal, yet warm and caring lead character that is the centerpiece of the film. When she fights it is masterful, and when she breaks down over those she loves it is touching. Being able to believe in her diversity of actions and emotions shows her mastery of the character.Johnny Nguyen wrote the story and has created a role for himself, Quan/Tiger, which not only has him taking a back seat to Trinh, but has created a complex character who has secrets, who has emotions beyond being angry at the bad guys, and of course who can grace the scene with his amazing fight sequences. As the dutiful right hand man of Trinh he follows orders, yet does so with a protective eye at every turn. It is obvious as the film progresses that Tiger is developing feelings for Phoenix and at the moment they are finally alone and safe from the chaotic world outside he expresses how he feels by saying, "I don't wanna call you Phoenix anymore, I want to call you by your real name." A subtle way of expressing his feelings that is easily understood by Trinh who made it clear that Rule #1 is never use your real name so you remain an anonymous person. Their moment doesn't degrade into a cheesy roll in the hay but becomes a conversation about the complexity of their lives while acknowledging the mutual feelings and finally the love scene (aka "roll in the hay"). A beautifully conceived scene.And with the great acting and the complexity of the characters, there are some brief moments of genuine humor (not bad one liners), Christopher Wong's original adrenaline rush score and of course plenty of martial arts fight scenes that don't disappoint, in particular, raiding the house and fighting the "Frenchies." And all that leads to a conclusion that is not what you would predict (thankfully) and yet lends itself perfectly to the hard truth about the complexity that will continue to be their lives beyond this one mission.If there is a downside to the film, it is the "briefcase." The item that everyone wants is never defined as to it's importance both in it's content and what it has the capability of doing in the wrong hands. From the beginning of the film the depth of the mission is unclear and the briefcase becomes just a prop with no tangible value. However, when you only expect action from a martial arts film and you get so much more with the development of the characters, who cares about the briefcase!