Skin Trade (2015)

Art is one of the most important aspects of society.  It has survived countless generations and made its way flawlessly into the modern world.  Hieroglyphics are a form of art, where the people of the distant past used pictures to convey different things happening in the world around them.  The renaissance, which saw a massive growth in civilization through the 14^th, 15^th, 16^th, and 17^th centuries, was heavily influenced by the rise of great artists.  Some of the greatest scientific minds of the time, such as Leonardo da Vinci, also made long lasting artistic stamps on the world.

The way that art can change the world has been seen throughout the history of art.  Much of what artists put into their work has a message to it.  People such as Banksy use their art to let others know about the atrocities and bad influence of the government and corporations that control many aspects of society.  The messages given through artistic work is meant to enlighten people while also showcasing the talent and skill of the person behind it.  Paintings, sculptures, photography, movies, television, literature, and music all bring out these messages in order to give different life perspectives to the everyday person.

Sometimes the messages are more obvious than others.  In the case of Skin Trade, a 2014 action movie, the message is right in the title.  There are people in this world who kidnap young girls and use them for sexual gratification.  It’s the titular skin trade.  A black market trade of female skin to get your rocks off.  The movie doesn’t do the greatest job of showing how horrific that dark spot of the world is, choosing to focus mostly on the action of a few police officers trying to stop a sex trafficking ring leader from doing what he does.  In fact, there is a fairly major loose thread left at the end of the movie, but that will come up later in this post.

Skin Trade follows two characters from different countries.  Nick Cassidy (Dolph Lundgren) is a New Jersey cop hot on the trail of Viktor Dragovic (Ron Perlman).  His precinct is helped by the FBI, specifically an agent named Reed (Michael Jai White).  Cassidy comes close to capturing Dragovic, killing Dragovic’s son in the process.  As retaliation, Cassidy’s family is attacked.  Cassidy’s wife dies, and his daughter is kidnapped and forced into sex trafficking.  Cassidy then goes to Asia to find Dragovic and get his daughter back.  Meanwhile, Tony Vitayakul (Tony Jaa) is a detective in Thailand also looking for Dragovic.  When Cassidy comes to Thailand in search of Dragovic, Vitayakul is tasked with finding him.  And that’s the basic plot of the movie.

First and foremost, Skin Trade is an action movie.  Though the premise is based around the idea of sex trafficking, the movie is more focused on the action than anything.  The action is the lifeblood of the movie and pushes it forward.  And for the most part, the action is pretty good.  Having people like Tony Jaa, Dolph Lundgren, and Michael Jai White in a movie will help with that.  Each of the three men know how to perform action on screen, from Jaa’s martial arts work to Lundgren’s overpowering muscle to Jai White’s mixture of the two.  They all have their strengths and the combination of the three make for some entertaining pairings in the fight scenes.

Of particular note are two fights in the movie.  One is a fight between Jaa and Lundgren which takes place in a grain mill or a location similar to that.  The other was between Jaa and Jai White in a location that seemed sort of like a construction zone.  Much like any fighting movie, the locations helped accentuate the moves during the fight.  Location is important to choreography.  It gives the fighters something to move through as well as use for their moves.  The locations helped to provide walls for the men to fall or be thrown through.  They gave good places for Tony Jaa to jump off of or through.  And they looked good as a backdrop to what was going on, without looking so distracting that they took focus off of the fighting.  The fighting was also good, as in both fights, the different styles played off of each other well enough to blend into an entertaining mishmash of moves.

Yet, fighting can’t be the only focus of a movie that has a message to spread.  When it comes to Skin Trade, that message is about how there is sex trafficking going on and it is bad.  The movie does perfectly well in making sure the audience knows that this sort of stuff is bad.  It shows young girls getting kidnapped, raped, and being held in small pens like some kind of farm animal.  It portrays this inhumanity throughout the runtime.  However, Skin Trade chooses to focus much more on Nick Cassidy finding Viktor Dragovic than it does on anyone saving the women.  Sure, some of the women are saved, but in the end, it was all about Cassidy confronting the man in charge.  The confrontation didn’t stop the skin trade from continuing.  It didn’t even conclude with Cassidy finding his daughter, which is a major loose thread setting up a potential sequel that will likely never happen.

Skin Trade is a movie that is easy to appreciate.  It brings human trafficking to the forefront in an attempt to get people to help prevent it.  It also has some good fight scenes scattered throughout.  All around though, the movie doesn’t stand above any of the other lower budget action movies that have been recently released.  It is simply another movie to add to the bargain bin at whatever local store is still selling physical copies of movies.

And this is simply another post ending with notes:

• With his inclusion in Skin Trade, Michael Jai White has reached the top ten of the most frequent actors featured in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  He was previously in Exit Wounds as well as two of the Toxic Avenger movies.
• Michael Adamthwaite is making his third Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance with Skin Trade.  He has already been featured in The Marine 3: Homefront and Repeaters.
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa has now been featured in three Sunday “Bad” Movies.  This week’s movie follows his appearances in the two Mortal Kombat movies.
• Sahajak Boonthanakit and Gigi Velicitat are both making their second appearances this week.  Both actors were in The Marine 2.
• Mike Dopud was in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever before reappearing in the Sunday “Bad” Movies this week with Skin Trade.
• Finally, we have Ron Perlman.  He plays the main bad guy in Skin Trade.  He also played a pirate in The Ice Pirates.
• Have you seen Skin Trade?  Have you heard of it?  Do you like any of the actors in the movie?  Use the comments section if you have any comments about this post or movie.
• If you would like to see me watch a movie as part of the Sunday “Bad” Movies, feel free to suggest the movie in the comments or on my Twitter timeline.
• Next week’s movie is Fateful Findings, which I had previously mistitled as Faithful Findings.  Either way, it’s a Neil Breen movie and I don’t know what to expect from it.  We’ll find out soon though.  See you next week when I’ve seen it.