The Dark Soul (2018)

Director: Bey Logan

Writer: Bey Logan (Screenplay)

Starring: Kevin Brewerton, Meng Lo, Bianca Stam, Ryan Logan, Wu Ging, Ma Jing-Kwan, Lang-Xing Ye

Plot: A mysterious American, Chandler, appears in an Asian city, searching for a missing person. A police commander assigns a local contact, Dickson Lee, to shadow this stranger. The mismatched couple must navigate the dangerous world of an international organ smuggling syndicate. Chandler and Lee have to rely on all their courage and strength to solve a deadly mystery, and finally deliver the criminals to justice.

Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Entertaining Mystery Thriller

Story: The Dark Soul starts when Chandler (Brewerton) arrives in an Asian city in search of somebody, his first connection sends him to a snooker hall, where he meets Dickson Lee (Ye) who helps him locate the missing person, giving him the lay of the land.

As the two men make an unlikely partnership, they start to turn the heads of the people in the city, as people do seem to know where the missing person is, but some heads being turned are the criminal type that want Chandler gone.

Thoughts on The Dark Soul

Characters – Chandler is an American that has traveled to Asia, he is searching for somebody, he has clues that he can’t explain and a new skill set for fighting, he never had before going on his mission of searching. He does have to learn quick about certain cultural mistakes he makes and does look out of place in many of the locations because of this. Dickson Lee is the local that teams up with Chandler to show him around, he does have an investment in what the two are looking for too, the character is also designed to get the odd one-liner in the film. Diana Zhou is one of the doctors that gets investigated by Chandler, one with her own clinic and operation going on.

Performances – Kevin Brewerton fills the physical presence role well through the film, he handles the action best, just like you would expect a lead in an action movie. Lang-Zing Ye does give the film a more relaxed tone at time which is needed. Bianca Stam brings one of the suspects to life with her controlling actions.

Story – The story here follows an American going in search for a missing person in Asia, he has clues which he can’t explain which leads him to find a local to help him uncover the truth. The story can be broken down to a investigation story, which is interesting to see where each clue does lead Chandler, seeing both sides of the law being the clues also adds to the story, we get certain character traits which feel fresher than we are used to seeing in this style of film. The story does however lack any real obstacles for Chandler to overcome, with any that are placed being simple enough fights to get through. Overall the story does feel like it could have been one that any of the genre action stars could have stepped into, without making anything overly complicated.

Thriller – The film does try to keep us on the edge, with each clue offering up a new mystery it keeps us wanting to know just where the answers are going to lay.

Settings – The film is set in a generic Asia city, we don’t get to know the name of the city, with none of the locations ending up feeling important to the overall story.