We continue to analyze and analyze the winners of the vote as part of summing up the results of action films for 2017. Today we will talk about such nominations as "Best Historical, Fantasy or Wuxia Film" и "Best Asian Action".
Historical, fantasy or wuxia film 2017
Perhaps this nomination is one of the few where each of the films presented deserves attention, despite the fact that the diversity of available nominees concerns not only subgenres, but also producing countries. USA, Japan, China, India, South Korea and even Russia. It is not surprising that the top three turned out to be so international.
The Legend of King Arthur (dir. Guy Ritchie, 2017) (18%)
Won first place and 16 votes "The Sword of King Arthur" Guy Ritchie. At first, the leadership of this film puzzled us somewhat, but after thinking it over, we came to the conclusion that the victory of “Arthur” was quite logical. Judge for yourself: the setting of medieval England, fantasy elements (from the notorious magic to huge mammoths a la "Lord of the Rings"), colorful characters and all this is mixed in the film language of a typical Guy Ritchie.
There was even a place for hand-to-hand combat, which, it must be said, looks very strange in this setting (like African Americans, yeah). The cast even includes a very good movie fighter Tom Wu (TV series “Marco Polo”), but the main character played by Charlie Hungnam (TV series "Sons of Anarchy"), like the main villain Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes duology) pull out the film as much as possible. Obviously, this was enough for our audience to pay increased attention to this film as part of the voting.
The Legend of Kolovrat (dir. D. Fayziev, I. Shurkhovetsky, 2017) (17%)
Second place and another surprise winner - a domestic pseudo-historical blockbuster "The Legend of Kolovrat". Losing just one vote to Ritchie's The Sword of King Arthur, Kolovrat demonstrated that Russia can also make its own “wuxia movie” and historical action a la "300 Spartans". Why exactly the story of a semi-mythical hero, which was told by the directors? Janik Fayziev и Ivan Shurkhovetsky It’s hard to say that our website visitors liked it more than other candidates in this category. Maybe the audience is hungry for the Russian heroic epic (about "Viking", hussars, be silent!), or because we finally saw sane battle scenes in our historical cinema or because of the visual setting, which is more reminiscent of epics Zhang Yimou, or maybe the musical accompaniment of “Kolovrat” by author is to blame Serj Tankian (System of a Down band).
Despite the far from smooth (and, alas, logical) script, we are very glad that such films are being released in Russia today. Perhaps it is through such pseudo-historical plots that Russian filmmakers will pay attention to action cinema. For example, we have no doubt that when summing up the results of action films for 2018, the recent film will be included in this category "Scythian", and perhaps, just like “Kolovrat”, will take a prize in our voting. In the meantime, a request to those who voted for “Legend” - write in the comments the reasons why you voted for this film. We think that the creators of “Kolovrat” (and we know that some of them read our site) will be interested.
Blade of the Immortal (dir. Takashi Miike, 2017) (16%)
And if summing up the results for 2016 in this category top three belonged to the wuxia genre, this time Chinese fantasy films did not take prizes. But the samurai fantasy action film “came off” for them "Blade of the Immortal" famous Japanese director Takashi Miike.
Anyone interested in Japanese cinema knows that Miike is a very uneven director. And for every "Harakiri 3D" there is "Terroforming", but sensei did his best with “Blade,” crossing the narrative from classic jidaigeki with a typical comic book plot and characters. The story of the immortal ronin Manji (Takuya Kimura), who became the bodyguard of a young beauty and avenged the murder of her family, is shown without much scope, but fans of good old samurai action films have something to see here.
Probably, therefore "Blade of the Immortal" immediately became the leader of the vote, initially competing with the Chinese historical action film by Gordon Chan "God of War", where there was also a place for samurai and the legend of combat cinema Yasuaki Kurate, who is in great shape for his age. However, Miike's "Blade" received more votes, taking the bronze pedestal.
Asian Action 2017
Typically, the top three in this category turned out to be very pop. These are exactly the kind of films that action movie fans either expected or were caught off guard by such a surprise hit as "Villain". The only film from the proposed candidates that could compete for third place is "SPL 3: Paradox", who lost bronze "Bullet in the Head" with Iko Uwais.
War of the Wolves 2 (dir. Jackie Wu, 2017) (26%)
The sequel took first place in our voting. "Wolf Wars" Wu Jing is an expensive project of a famous film fighter from China, who this time received help from well-known Russo brothers, who occupied the niche of superhero action films based on comic books in Hollywood Marvel. And if the first film was a very local, hyper-patriotic and frankly boring action movie with little action, then the second one “gained weight” and showed some teeth.
There's really a lot of action in the sequel. As usual, it is very uneven in quality, but Jackie Wu definitely worked on the mistakes, providing his film with a variety of action scenes: from underwater hand-to-hand combat to real tank battles. Instead of Scott Adkins, the villain in the first film, the second “Wolves” acquired three charismatic villains at once: a Hollywood actor Frank Grillo, famous female stuntwoman Heidi Moneymaker and former professional wrestler Oleg Prudius (Vladimir Kozlov).
Apparently, thanks to all this abundance, far from Jackie Woo’s best film, but a very bright action film of 2017, received gold in this category.
Villainess (dir. Jung Byung-gil, 2017) (23%)
About South Korean "To the villainess" we are so much they saidthat adding anything else is extremely difficult. 21 votes and second place action drama Jung Byung-gil deserve it for a reason. Moreover, bronze in the nomination "Martial Arts Movie 2017" the fighter already has.
"Villain" - this movie is not standard, piece-meal, in a sense, even original. At the same time, much more attention is paid to the action in the film than in other action films without the “dramatic” prefix in the genre. Kim Ok-pin turned out to be not just a trained action heroine, but a real actress who confidently stays in the frame, which only increases the audience’s interest.
In general, it is obvious that "Villain" - one of the most notable action films of the past year. Silver and our recommendation! If anyone hasn't watched this action movie yet, then you're missing out!
Raid: Bullet in the Head (dir. K. Stambol, T. Tjahjanto, 2017) (15%)
"Raid: Bullet in the Head" from a team of Indonesian trash makers "Mo brothers", fell far behind the first two prizes, but nevertheless remained in the top three. And, frankly, we don’t quite understand why. Headshot tries to interest the viewer with a tempting combination: the main star "Raids" Iko Yuwais is placed in a thriller with exaggerated (and not particularly necessary) violence. But the creators of “Bullet” clearly failed to sit on two chairs, since the film turned out to be a cheap hack with a bunch of logical blunders, mediocre acting and very modest action. There was hope for hand-to-hand combat, but they weren’t even included in this film. Only the final fight between Uwais and Sunny Pana.
However, its fan base "Bullet in the Head" still got it. One can only guess why the film so captivated some fans of combat cinema. Of course, it's possible that it's all about charm Iko Uwaisa, who was given a credit of trust after "Raids" и "Merantau". Something similar happened with Tony JAA, which regaled its fans with disastrous sequels "Ong Baka", and they simultaneously spat at the films and praised Jah for his “flying knee.”
Let's be honest: we expected to see "Raid: Bullet in the Head" in the top three “winners” of the nomination "Disappointment of the Year". But look, this thriller took the bronze medal in our voting. Well..., apparently, this happens... Although, what are we talking about? Last year, the same place of honor was occupied by the American-Chinese film Forgive Me "Inveterate Partners" with Jackie Chan.
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Tags: Blade Of The Immortal, Headshot, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Villainess, Wolf warrior 2, Guy Ritchie, Janik Fayziev, Jackie Wu, Jude Law, Ivan Shurkhovetsky, Iko Uwais, results of action cinema 2017, Kim Ok-pin, Legend of Colovrates, Oleg Prudius, Sunny Pan, Takashi Miike, Takuya Kimura, Tom Wu, Frank Grillo, Heidi Moneymaker, Charlie Hungnam, Jung Byung-gil
Tags: Blade Of The Immortal, Headshot, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, The Villainess, Wolf warrior 2, Guy Ritchie, Janik Fayziev, Jackie Wu, Jude Law, Ivan Shurkhovetsky, Iko Uwais, results of action cinema 2017, Kim Ok-pin, Legend of Colovrates, Oleg Prudius, Sunny Pan, Takashi Miike, Takuya Kimura, Tom Wu, Frank Grillo, Heidi Moneymaker, Charlie Hungnam, Jung Byung-gil
Guys, of course I understand everything, but you very rarely post materials regarding the “results”, so it’s generally deadly tiring to wait...
Alex Ship,
Indeed, due to the fact that an incredibly small number of people work on the site, we are not keeping up with the results. We ourselves are VERY worried about this. But we solemnly promise that there will be a new portion this weekend.
Alex, I think they are doing what they can. The site is small, supported almost by sheer enthusiasm, and there are not enough people.
If it weren’t for the phrase “Guy Ritchie” and his immortal “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Sp**ked,” then there wouldn’t even be a smell of first place here. It's just that people still pay him the benefit of the doubt.
I beg your pardon, but what kind of “Twin Monkeys” are these? I can't link to a torrent where you can see this creation, thank you.
Dmitry Padalko,
We're talking about this movie -> https://fight-films.info/bliznecy-obezyany-muaj-taj-i-pekinskaya-opera-v-odnom-flakone/
Dmitry Padalko, I didn’t find the torrent. I found it on some exchanger. And now I can’t even find it in the browser log, because then I found it not even with the English name, but with the original one. Which I don’t remember at all now and can’t recognize in the lists of nominees for voting.
That's it, that quest is always to find some movie with BI. Thank God, thanks to the site it is possible to at least find out about their existence or announcement. But then try and look again :D
There were plenty of other contenders to disappoint the year. Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Scott Adkins, Jackie Chan, Van Damme - the bar is still very high for all of them and it’s still a shame when they take off the pass. About the short film “Guardians of the Martial Arts” I’m still blown away: to collect so many legends of martial arts and leak them to some dick. He might be able to do something, but clearly (apparently) he doesn’t live up to the legends. And also don’t give them anything cool to show.
Plus a couple of blockbusters... In short, there were enough nominees to disappoint.
In addition, Headshot has some definite advantages. Ultraviolence. I'm tired of refined fights, where the fighters are always fresh and cheerful and don't even get bruises. Real fights to the death are exactly what they look like: hit the enemy with anything and anywhere, just to quickly and painfully, ideally immediately to death, but he is not a fool and resists. Moreover, in response he himself tries to do the same. And yet this ultra-violence looks quite technical. Not a fuss between two louts, but a fight to the death between experienced fighters.
Of course, there was disappointment, but not as strong as from the ones mentioned above. The advantages outweigh the benefits so far.
I almost forgot to add. But in the “Asian action movie” category there are very few contenders. Those “War of the Wolves 2” and “The Villainess”, the third “Stars of Destiny”, which for me are just a disappointment, and a few more rather passable films. I got acquainted with them somehow, nothing impressed me.
Wave,
Well, why are there so few applicants? Game Changer is good, and so is Shockwave and Asura. It’s just that, it seems to me, the majority of those who cast votes stupidly did not watch them.
Danil Chupakhin, looking at a large number of films unfamiliar to me, I began to look for what it was. For most, the trailers were enough to decide that I didn’t even want to watch it, let alone vote for it. Already from the trailers it was clear that it was complete garbage. I downloaded and watched several films. Moreover, finding them was non-trivial. So, of the ones I watched, only “The Monkey Twins” was at least somewhat interesting. The film itself is so-so, especially since I didn’t find a Russian road or subs. But in the combat moments there is a successful fusion of traditional Chinese opera and the martial arts of Southeast Asia.
Moreover, by now I have already forgotten that there is “Game Changer”, that “Shock Wave”, and that “Asura”. Although... This Korean criminal? Yes, he's good. I didn’t make it to “The Villainess” or the second “War of the Wolves”, and between it and “Headshot” I chose “Headshot”.
By the way, I can’t figure out where the “monkey twins” went? It seems like they were in the bloc of contenders for an Asian action movie. And now I don’t see them either among Asian ones, or among fantasy (among which they have nothing to do), or among independent ones. Is it bugging me?
Wave,
"Twins" competed in the nomination "Best Film with BI". Only one lit up.
It seems to me that if “bullet in the head” had lost the prefix “raid” in its title, the film would not only have lost financially, but also showed a much more modest result in voting on the site. Pop music is what it is. I didn’t like the film, although the problem here is that it’s an average “bullet in the head”, but a disgusting “raid”. Thank God that this perversion occurred to Russian distributors, which means we should hope for the third part as a worthy film.