SKIN TRADE
US, 2014, 96 minutes, Colour.
Dolph Lundgren, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman, Celena Jade, Peter Weller.
Directed by Ekaschai Uekribgtham.
Skin Trade is an action film focusing on human trafficking, especially in Asia.
This is very much a Dolph Lundgren film, not only acting in the central role but producing and cowriting. He has a history of action films. Also top billed is Thai martial arts actor, Tony Jaa, given the opportunity to develop a character in this film as well as the opportunity for many fights, including with Lundgren himself.
In many ways, that sets the tone of this dramatising of issues of human trafficking.
There are, some frightening visuals of the trafficking, a young girl in Cambodia answering an advertisement, full of hope, taken over by the criminals, drug, caged. Later in the film there is a sequence, ugly and dramatic, of rows and rows of cages with young girls trapped squalidly in them. On the other hand, there are the clubs in Thailand where these girls have to dance provocatively as well as the prostitution. At the end, there is information about the statistics of human trafficking.
However, it is very much an action film, Dolph Lundgren as a New Jersey detective, trying to track down a trafficking family led by Ron Perlman, through his sons, operatives in Asia, the younger son a student in the US, forced by his father to be violent but ending up killed when the gang go to a ship at the dock, raided by the police, and discover the dead bodies of many girls.
The detective is shot, his house burned down, his wife and daughter killed. Obsessed, he exits from hospital, gets his way to Cambodia, gets all kinds of information, tracking down the traffickers. However, he is under suspicion by the ties, which means that Tony Jaa, police, has to keep tracking Lundgren, eventually fighting with him.
As expected, there are lots of fights, shootouts, gruesome killings, and a final confrontation with the trafficking head villain – and the open end that Lundgren’s daughter was taken alive and has been sold into the trafficking world. A clear sign for a sequel – but there was none.
- The title and expectations? Human slavery, international, Europe, US, Cambodia and Thailand?
- Settings in Cambodia, the countryside, in Thailand, Citi sequences, countryside? The US, the American city, police precincts, the docks…? Musical score?
- Human trafficking, the girl in Cambodia, confident, the invitation, the bus, taken, drugged, imprisonment? The various sequences showing so many girls imprisoned, caged?
- Dolph Lundgren, producing, cowriting, starring? His career? Strongman? Detective, wife and daughter? Working with the police, the raid? The docks, the confrontation with give each, the death of his son, the revenge on his wife and daughter? The fire, his being shot, in the hospital, leaving, to Thailand?
- The trek of each family, Victor, European background, Serbia, Russia, his sons, the celebration with his sons, their work, especially in Asia, ruthless? Favouring his son? At the docks, waiting for the shipment, the dead girls, the attack, his son proving himself, dead? Victor getting himself to Asia? His contacts, blackmailing, protection?
- Police and detectives in the US, the discussions about the human trafficking, Costello, his position, involvement? Read, actively involved?
- The credibility of Nick Cassidy and his quest, his injuries, getting to Asia, the connections, information, it into Cambodia, his skill in getting information, his perseverance, to find the drag of each son? His being pursued by Tony?
- Tony Jaa, his reputation, martial arts, his character, with the police, confrontation with the traffickers? His fight sequences? His relationship with his girlfriend, her working in the club, the sequences in the club, the girls dancing, prostitution, clients? His suspicions of Nick Cassidy, pursuing him, the various fights?
- Nick, tracking people down, the clubs, his violence, shooting the manager, rescuing the girls, the fight with the younger son?
- The betrayal by the detective? Fights, death?
- The reconciliation with Tony, their working together, the girlfriend, her being captured, under siege, though, at the airport, his of the sons and their deaths, the final confrontations, fights, helicopter, the rescue?
- The threat to Nick, but his daughter had been taken from the fire, now part of trafficking?
