Miami Connection - Film Review

Sometimes there are movies out there that simply defy everything you thought you knew about cinema. They are few, but I would liken them more to "experiences" than movies as they don't fit neatly into the boxes of genre that we are all so comfortable with. I would say that 2001: A Space Odyssey is a good example of this as, though it may say "science fiction," it is clearly quite different from nearly anything else you're ever going to encounter. Although this one is not remotely in the same league as Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, one cannot deny that Y.K. Kim's Miami Connection is truly something wholly unique. My friends and I were in complete awe when we watched this as there's so much to unpack that one can only truly appreciate this film by watching it first-hand. We saw this on IMDB TV (yes, that's apparently a thing), however it can be found on Amazon Prime as well.

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General Information 
Miami Connection is an independent martial arts action movie co-written, co-directed, and starring Y.K Kim (Richard Park is the other co-writer/director). It was Kim's initial foray into film and was initially released to an extremely limited number of theaters in 1988 by Manson International. The film completely flopped after a three-week run and nearly bankrupt Kim, who had re-mortgaged his Taekwondo dojo and taken out numerous loans to pull off the movie. The film was shelved and went unseen for decades until a representative of Drafthouse Films bought a copy of it for fifty dollars on eBay in 2009. After a warm reception, Drafthouse Films negotiated a re-release of the movie on 11 December 2012 in which the film has gained a cult-following as one of the best worst movies ever made.

To me, the story of Miami Connection's creation, death, and resurgence is worth making a movie about alone. The film lives up to its reputation as well, and holds a 53 out of 100 metascore on Metacritic (I feel like that says something about The Tax Collector that I recently reviewed as it's over twice that score).

The Story
The rock band, Dragon Sound, earns a gig at a nightclub in which they draw the ire of a rival band (who they replaced, because the club can only have one band for some reason). The rival band sets up a street ambush for Dragon Sound, but all of Dragon Sound practice Taekwondo and they get their asses beat. The rival band (they go unnamed throughout the entire movie) then sells themselves into slavery to the villainous biker gang leader, Jeff, so that he'll crush them. Jeff's already pissed at Dragon Sound because his sister, Jane, is dating a member of Dragon Sound and he doesn't like it when his sister has friends. Not only does Jeff send his goons to attack Dragon Sound, but he eventually enlists the aid of an infamous group of ninja bikers that supply him with cocaine.

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Jeff and his feather earring are not impressed with Jane's new friend

The film deviates from the normal practice of story-telling by not even showing Dragon Sound until well into its run-time as it starts out with showing us that the ninja bikers can kick ass. My friends and I assumed Jeff was the protagonist of the film until around one-third of the movie, when we started to see more of Dragon Sound. The plot seems wholly uninterested in itself as well, as Dragon Sound never takes any of the external threats seriously (despite numerous clashes with fatal consequences). There are numerous parts of the film where nothing of substance happens, however I like it as it only enhances the aura of insanity this movie is enveloped in. 

Special Effects/Atmosphere
I'm going to be serious for a moment, this movie actually has some pretty awesome choreographed fight scenes. Considering many Hollywood blockbuster movies (today) still fail to properly convey any type of melee combat without resorting to a deluge of jump-cuts, Miami Connection surprisingly has very few. It makes sense as the director is a Taekwondo instructor, but there were numerous points in the movie where my friends and I were genuinely impressed by all of it.

I was very close to describing this movie as a musical as it features numerous songs that are played to completion throughout its run-time. The song "Friendship" is played twice in two separate montages and "Against the Ninja" will always hold a special place in my heart (both were written by Angelo Janotti who also plays as my favorite Dragon Sound member, Tom).

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Tom is the real hero of Dragon Sound

One of the things that continues to crack me up about this movie is its use of unlicensed products and the likely fact that the cast and crew filmed in locations they were not permitted to be in. At least one of the ambush scenes takes place in the middle of a city intersection where it seems like the group just rushed in there and filmed it in the black of night before anyone could stop them. There's also displays of Adidas, Pepsi, and other brand names that likely had no knowledge that their brand/products would be in this film.

Despite all of the things I mentioned, I want to point out that this movie does not come off as a student film. The cinematography is competently put together and the equipment they used to film it was fairly on par with whatever they were using to film episodes of Miami Vice with at the time. The sound quality is also about on par, although there's a noticeable amount of dubbing going on through the film. This might've been done because their microphones weren't the best, however I wish Y.K. Kim had better dubbed himself as his thick accent made understanding his character very difficult (we watched with subtitles thankfully). 

The Acting
The acting of this movie makes me openly laugh just thinking about it. The dialogue is very clunky, with the exception of scenes where improvisation clearly occurred (the scene where the rival band lead confronts the nightclub owner is exceptional). Maurice Smith, who plays Dragon Sound member, Jim, steals the show with some of the most hilarious line delivery I've ever seen in multiple scenes. There's a dramatic scene where Jim monologues about his distant father where he forces himself to cry and it goes on for an agonizingly lengthy period of time while his co-stars mainly just stare at the floor in silence. Near the end, Jim is attacked with a katana and his reaction may just be the funniest thing I've seen thus far in 2020.

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Jim just wants to read his mail in peace

The Best of the Best: Jim getting mangled with a ninja sword.

The Worst of the Worst: Jeff dying by accidentally back-stepping off a raised platform (he deserved better!).

Would I Recommend?

*****

John thinks so

This is an experience everyone needs to see at some point in their lifetime. You may love it, or you may hate it, but you will certainly always remember it. Watch this with some friends and I guarantee you'll bond on a whole new level.

-------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments-----------------------------------------------------

• I suppose it's possible that Jim is half-Korean, but Jeff is half-Japanese? The reveal that Yoshito was Jeff's brother made so little sense that I didn't even have time to think about the fact that this meant Jane was also related to him. I guess Jane neglected to mention this to John...
• Just give Jim his damn mail already!
• Jim's father has aged like a fine wine. It's almost as if the actor that plays him is younger than the actor that plays Jim.
• "Only through the elimination of violence can we achieve world peace." -Y.K. Kim

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*IMDB. (n.d.). Miami Connection film cover image. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092549/. 

**gfycat. (n.d.). Jeff punching gif. Retrieved from: https://gfycat.com/discover/miami-connection-gifs. 

***SecondClassCinema. (2015, February 15). Dragon groove gif. Imgur. Retrieved from: https://imgur.com/VenrnFA.

****American Ninja Images. (2020). Jim at mailbox image. Ravepad. Retrieved from: http://ravepad.com/page/american-ninja/images/type/photo/9.

*****Second Class Cinema. (2015, February 15). John boogie gif. Imgur. Retrieved from: https://imgur.com/gallery/BJU5v.