But what happens when a beautiful and deadly woman comes between two friends who happen to be highly trained assassins?"
"Dragonwolf" tells the story of two men, once friends, now mortal enemies and, through flashbacks, how they came to fall out over a woman.
Not a massively original story but it's put together well, nicely shot and the fight scenes aren't bad at all. Energetic and reasonably inventive, in fact.
So why did I stop watching this film halfway through and throw it back on the shelf for two weeks?
In fact, the only reason I bothered picking it up again was that I haven't done a film piece in a while.
The problem is the dialogue.
I don't know if this is a foreign-language film that was dubbed by minimum wage nightshift workers suffering from sleep-deprivation or the entire cast are all speaking a language they only just learnt. Either way, things move along Ok when nobody is talking but as soon as anybody opens their mouth it gets uncomfortable to listen to.
It doesn't help that our unfortunate thesps are given lines that desperately want to be Tarantino-style cool but veer off course and hit "Pretentious" instead.
There are other problems. One supporting character has a bad case of Incurable Ham Actor. Another is the sort of jive-talking Black Guy stereotype that stopped being acceptable somewhere in the 80s.
Then there's the three swordsmen who seem to have teleported in from another movie entirely - some Japanese thing about demon-hunters would be my guess - quickly followed by a swordswoman dressed like a go-go dancer who seems to have been added purely to up the fanservice quota. God knows she doesn't really do much beyond tidy up a few plot holes. It's a bit random.
Dragonwolf does have some things going for it - fights especially - and if it wasn't for the hamfisted dialogue I'd be a lot more impressed. Approach with caution.
How much did I pay for this? £4
Was it worth it? I'd be lying if I said I was anything other than disappointed.
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