I have been writing about Maria Tran for as long as I can remember myself being a writer. Her 2013 action comedy short with Adrian Castro, Hit Girls, was a great find at the time and it showed me what kind of an artist and performer she is, but even more so than that all of the other short film projects where she displayed her skills as a filmmaker along side fellow indy film maker castro. Plus some tv work here and there along with a couple features to round off her resumè nicely in the meantime; like working with legendary producer Roger Corman on Antony Szeto’s Fist Of The Dragon or taking up villain duties opposite actress Troung Ngoc Anh for Cuong Ngo’s Tracer among others.
One project that I had hope of seeing come to fruition was a kung fu drama from co-helmers Robert Chen and Nathan Colquhoun called The Challenge Letter, until production went belly up about seven years back. Notwithstanding this project’s absence has not slowed Tran down one bit–if anything it has only tipped the scales further in her favour over the years since then with other productions now cooking under her shared Phoenix Eye Productions banner, which they have already gained recognition for locally in Western Sydney having given their artistic community hereabouts such a boost; including making the continent’s first Asian-Australian psychological action drama Echo 8.
Written by Elizabeth H Vu (scribe behind upcoming horror thriller Wake) and shepherded by mostly women behind the scenes Echo 8 makes sure you know who our titular protagonist (Tran) is a hitwoman working for secret organization Zodiac partnered up with Delta 1 (David Vuong) under guidance from Agent Five (Takashi Hara) who gets his orders remotely from organisation senior official Z12 (Mike Leeder). Hanh (Gabrielle Chan), local politician election campaigner targeted by Z twelve through A5 after Z twelve orders A5 to kill Hanh. Already Echo 8 is troubled by a number of disjointed but recurring images in her head something she notices also occurring with Delta 1 and the nightmares he’s been having lately. With his erratic behaviour stirring up concern among his operatives, it’s only a matter of time before agent five’s secrets are revealed, unearthing a forgotten past that will decide Echo 8’s future.
Echo 8 was photographed in fourteen non-consecutive days within the month prior to the imposition of COVID-19 restrictions in 2020. Keep this in mind when you notice how strangely empty the streets and sidewalks are, especially at night which is supposed to give it that dark, melancholy vibe every now and then. Speaking of vibes, once you get past the first eight or nine minutes (a kind of prologue for future reference), things start picking up real fast as we get to know the rest of what’s going on and Echo 8’s personal demons begin haunting her quietly away from friends. Tran’s performance dances nimbly through the exposition and mid-development stages of the film with a light-footed, well-balanced approach that lets you keep up with her thought process; but some of the more nostalgic parts might be a bit confusing if you miss a step or read too much into them. In those cases it usually helps to stay present and take in what you’re seeing, letting everything else fall into place.
Vuong first came across my radar in mid-2016 when Sam Gosper was getting ready to shoot Circle Of Ninja which I believe is still yet to be made or released. After that there was about half a dozen other shorts he worked on so it’s good to see him finally get something where he can flex his acting chops outside of martial arts. He has good chemistry with Tran; Delta 1 also brings some funnies with him besides being generally lighthearted around Echo 8. At same time there’s some seriousness there too which makes him all-rounded character rather than just an extra comic relief buddy, which I appreciated. Same goes for Hara as Agent 5 who is just as cold-blooded as he is calculating only really starts making sense after we find out about what happened with his family.
Fight scenes were designed by Tran, Hara, Castro and Vuong who all appear throughout the movie. They’re not super complicated or anything but there’s a lot of them (about seven in total) and they do keep it pretty actiony. Two are between Tran and Vuong who play different characters, two others include Hara who’s worked with Tran before on one of their shorts. There’s couple scenes where they have to take out goons by numbers which okay there’s this extra in one sequence whose “tough guy” walk almost ruins the whole thing cause it looks so goofy, though luckily the fighting makes up for it. It really is that kind of flick though, where you can tell they were going for something bigger than what they had resources for at certain points while still managing to achieve most noir beats with a dark story full of twists and turns lifted from the pages of hardboiled detective novels.
If you are lucky enough to catch this movie, Echo 8 delivers a smart and thrilling action drama that features top notch performances, meticulous production design, psychological suspense and enigma, plot twists and unveils executed at the right pace to engage the audience more without compromising its dreams. It’s my favorite kind of progressive indie film-making where there is complete understanding between artistes involved in the project as well as shared vision; Tran being casted here serves both as another step closer towards recognizing her potential as an action starlet but also our love for such like mindedness in artistic creation.
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