Shadow Master (2022) - A Review

 

Shadow Master is a horror martial arts movie that you've got to see to believe.

Shadow Master (also known as Hanuman: Shadow Master) is a martial arts horror movie released in the United States in 2022 and stars D.Y. Sao, Craig Ng, Luciana Faulhaber, Eric Gay Jr., Anna Harr, Brian Le, Daniel Mah, Layton Matthews, Dominique Swain, and Pearry Reginald Teo. Shadow Master was written and directed by  Pearry Reginald Teo, with stunts and choreography by D.Y. Sao and Martial Club (Andy Le, Brian Le, and Daniel Mah).

D.Y. Sao as An Voaen. Sao has some major martial arts skills!

In Shadow Master, D.Y. Sao plays An Voaen, a mysterious man with a violent past looking for a job as a night watchman at a building that has many colorful characters. Boon-Nam (played by Craig Ng) is in charge (it seems) and tells An that children are being abducted from this building. An keeps an eye out for this, especially after he befriends Janett (played by Luciana Faulhaber) and her wheelchair-bound son, Benison (played by Eric Gay Jr.).

An encounters the group that has been kidnapping the children, and dies in a battle against them. He is resurrected by his newfound friends in the building, but when Benison is kidnapped, An makes the decision to give his body to Hanuman, the Monkey King God of Death (played by Pearry Reginald Teo), to gain the otherworldly power he needs to defeat Mephisto and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (yes, you read that right). Can An defeat them and get Benison back safe and sound, and prevent the end of the world?

Brian Le (left) as the most dangerous fighter of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Shadow Master is a dark, brooding, post-apocalyptic movie that combines horror and martial arts. The story is told in quite a nontraditional way, which seems to have confused a lot of people who have watched it. Well, all I can say about that is: this is the type of movie where you shouldn't look too deeply into the story. Just take everything at face value. To me, everything is explained well enough. An, after violent encounters in his past, wants to avoid using violence. Of course, he has to fight in order to protect the children in the building he lives in/works at. The mysterious group is kidnapping the children in the building to give themselves enough power to bring about the end of the world. Hanuman will give An the power to defeat them, but at the cost of his (An's) life. I liked the story, and how it combined several religious cultural icons, but some may find this nonsensical or even offensive. D.Y. Sao plays An as a very conflicted man trying not to succumb to his violent past, having to, to save the world.

The fights are the best part of Shadow Master!

The absolute best part of Shadow Master are the fight scenes. With D.Y. Sao and Martial Club in charge of the action, you know the fights will rule, and they do not disappoint. The fight choreography is a mix between Hong Kong style and Panna Rittikrai's Muay Thai-based style. So not only is there fluid, fast, and intricately choreographed moves, but there is also the hard-hitting strikes of Bokator (which D.Y. Sao is an expert of). The best fight is the final fight (obviously) between D.Y. Sao and Brian Le (of Martial Club). This fight is so fast and hard-hitting; it's worth the price of admission alone! The fights in this movie can get very violent and gory, so watch out for that!

So, do I recommend watching Shadow Master? I would say, yes! The story is dark and foreboding, the characters are interesting, and the action is top notch. D.Y. Sao has a promising career ahead of him, hopefully he will be given more chances in Hollywood and beyond. It is really unfortunate that director Pearry Reginald Teo passed away this year (2023), as I think he could have gone on to make more cult classics and mainstream hit movies. Shadow Master isn't the best movie ever made, but it really is entertaining!

Reviewed by David Williams