Fish, Fists and Ambergris

The theft of a Vietnamese fishing village’s precious ambergris relic triggers spectacular showdowns pitting three brothers against endless adversaries. Inspired by comedy-martial arts masters like Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow, the stuntmen and actors of Vietnam’s Action C group hold nothing back in their first film.

Three brothers must retrieve their fishing village’s precious ambergris artefact from a vicious group of Saigon thieves: a simple premise for wildly inventive action set pieces. One of 2025’s biggest hits in Vietnam, Fish, Fists and Ambergris introduces IFFR audiences to a talented, resourceful group of stuntmen and martial artists, whose sympathetic and relatable characters are grounded in a working-class, down-to-earth environment.

Fish, Fists and Ambergris’s first fight scene is also its first scene, setting the action-packed tone while offering a window onto a film culture too little represented in global cinema almost 20 years after the first Vietnamese breakout martial arts film, 2007’s The Rebel. Showing great resourcefulness and a winning sense of humour in the vein of inspirations like Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow, debut director Dương Minh Chiến has been working for years with the stuntmen and artists of Action C. After creating short-form content for their YouTube channel, the team’s talents are on big-screen display for the first time – unaided by special effects, their stunts are a triumph of discipline and experience. 

– Vadim Rizov

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