Kiltro (2006)

the leading man is my tpye

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I'm always one for a good martial arts flick, so when I saw the DVD box for KILTRO I was excited. "The best...since Ong Bak" it proclaimed, underneath a picture of a muscle guy in some weird mask pulling off a typical kung fu move. The blurb has five shots of a weapon-wielding hero tackling a street gang, warning of strong bloody violence and looking absolutely fab. So I bought it, took it home and...Found out that the box was a lie. The action shots on the back – ALL of them – come from one single, five-minute fight sequence at the film's climax. This isn't an action film as all, more of a romance. There are virtually NO fight scenes in the film aside from that one big set-piece, and even that one isn't too good, with obvious wire work and some pretty awful CGI blood effects. Instead, we get some sappy story about an idiot member of a street gang and his stalker obsession with a pretty Korean girl. Soon enough there's a bad guy killing some people, and this idiot guy must go and train and then fight him, blah blah blah...the kind of story that's been done to death.The novelty here is that this is a Chilean film – and for me, like many others I suspect, my first Chilean movie. Sadly, this lacks none of the expressiveness or style in the similarly South American CITY OF GOD: instead, it's content to rip-off Hollywood with an inappropriate spaghetti western soundtrack, cardboard sets, and a whole dearth of imagination and interest. The characters are boring, the actors bad, and the storyline sucks. Why we're supposed to care about any of this, I don't know.The biggest disappointment lies with the hero, Marko Zaror. Now, Zaror isn't much of an actor: his facial expressions are often amusing rather than believable, and his street thug character offers the viewer no sympathy whatsoever. But, to be honest, that's par for the course for an action flick. The crime is that Zaror is a great fighter in his few brief moments of action, so why on earth didn't the director utilise that talent more, rather than focus on his acting? ONG BAK this isn't: that film was perfect in recognising Tony Jaa as a fine martial artist, throwing him into the midst of fight or chase scenes all the while, but KILTRO goes the opposite way and is just dull as a result. Dull as dishwater in fact. Let's hope that Zaror finds himself a director who recognises this big guy's appeal and casts him in more appropriate roles.

This review started innocently enough, noticed the film on a "best" list from a martial arts fan. A rarity, a South American martial arts film? Hard to find but I did. And wished I did not. Imagine the subtle stylings of the original blaxploitation Shaft, the casting and understated direction of a Sonny Chiba film, and the sound track by Ennio Moricone. OMG what junk. In the first segment of the film the oversized Chiba-esque lead spends his time pursuing his favourite hobby -- which is beating the &*&+%% out of any guy who goes near his schoolgirl crush (she looks late 20s so I guess she was held back?). Not a great film so far, but at least it is sweet. Then a villain who looks like he escaped from an early Bruce Lee film, always dressed in a uniform and never breaks a sweat, shows up and starts killing and/or maiming any of the extras foolish enough to stray onto the set. To deal with the bad guy, our hero is advised by a dwarf (literally, from the script) to go into the desert and seek training from a master. I am going to stop the review here because by this point either their martial arts consultant quit or they never had one in the first place. In either case, the fights from this point on have no pretence of reality or connection to the laws of Physics and more closely resemble what happens when Road Runner meets Coyote. Ugh.

Hmm, so, having played up the stereotypes of Latino amour: passion, obsession and blood-searing rage, this one basically makes a bit of a hash of the script, with some Serrano Family-like boy-talk, lots of jumps and kicks, a bit of hit-and-miss humour and a stunning leading lady whom I personally had trouble taking my eyes off of!The story is simple yet bizarre in its flash-backs and editing and where Zamir - the "hero" - can either be interpreted as a stalker or loved-up boy without a clue as of how to express himself (just as the beautiful Kim can be called either the ingénue unsure how to prompt Zamir, or a total bitch and tease), it all equates to a bit of fun to add something extra to an otherwise two-dimensional plot (not to mention laugh-out-loud memories of Zamir punching out any man who dares so much as look at her!).Other users here may see this and HATE the computer-animated blood effects poorly tacked on afterwards to give the film a bit of wholly unnecessary gore, but bare in mind that this flick is incredibly low budget, don't allow this and some of the terrible studio backdrops to ruin it for you and you'll find a film that just wants to kick a lot of butt and have a lot of fun in the process.Still, budget restraints aside, the final shot of Zamir walking off into the painted sunset, clearly not making any ground on the running machine he's made walk upon just has to be intentionally funny.I was going to give this film a 7 for effort but a 6 is about right - just keep an eye open for the impressive Marko Zaror, who deserves a brighter future. For Caterina whatever-her-name-is (okay, Jadresic) who plays Kim, I'll rate it a 10.

The movie was exactly what I thought: funny, nice, tender, violent, and with some very good fights. The "Chilean" tint es everywhere (is necessary: if you think for a while, there no exist any Chilean martial art, but "knife-and-poncho-fighting"). Is NOT an martial arts film, is a love story with martial arts. If you can laugh about martial arts, you should see that movie.yeahgood movienice pictureAnd so.