Leo: Bloody Sweet is a Kollywoodified remake of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.

(The layman translation of Kollywood: Bollywood = Hindi language, Kollywood = Tamil language — different geographical and linguistic sectors of India’s film industry; the untrained-eye would recognize similar motifs in both).

If that logline-lede doesn’t sufficiently sell you on the movie, how about these novelties:

Technological advancements can broaden cinema’s capabilities, especially within the kinetic confines of the action genre. Near the end of Leo, a full-on war breaks out inside a warehouse, a set-piece shot using a drone flying around the INTERIOR of the building as the swirling symphony of cacophonous bodies clash all around, cinematographic ingenuity that reminded me of John Wick 4’s gun-fu overhead angle.

Definitionally, Leo: Bloody Sweet isn’t a musical, because no characters sing on screen. BUT, the soundtrack features original songs, with lyrics that explicitly address the specifics of the movie. Not sure I’ve ever encountered that one before…

As much as America is credited with birthing the movie musical, India’s choreography comes closest to achieving the modern-day spectacle of a Busby Berkeley bonanza, what with the sheer number of moving bodies on screen.

I’m not enough of a historian to declare these Leo: Bloody Sweet novelties as true firsts . . . but can anyone name a prior example of a hyena as a Chekhov’s gun?