We continue to summarize the results of action cinema 2019 and this time we will talk about action series and independent films.
Action series
Warrior (25%, 37 Votes)
Do you want guaranteed success of a fighting game movie or TV series? Bruce Lee! A win-win option in any form, in any quantity and in any combination. No SMS, no preservatives!
Over the past few years, the figure of the Little Dragon has gained another unfading one hundred and second breath, even reaching Quentin Tarantino.
In the case of the series "Warrior", character Bruce Lee is absent from the screen, but is invisibly behind the scenes as a screenwriter and concept designer. According to his daughter, Shannon Lee, Bruce developed the idea for this story back in 1971, but it received a real embodiment only now, when Shannon found the author’s 8-page treatment (director’s explication), which the director of many parts became interested in “Fast and Furious” Justin Lin. And off we go: advertising campaign, interviews, footage, trailers, and as a result, the ratings are off the charts. It couldn't be any other way.
Let's try to look at the series soberly and impartially, slightly relegating the magical influence of Bruce Lee to the background, because we don’t know how much of his real ideas are actually present in this story, and how much is a publicity stunt and PR. We know that he developed the idea of “the appearance of a martial artist in the Wild West” for a long time, but there are practically no details.
So, before us is the first season of “Warrior”. This is obviously an expensive series with good pictures, expensive costumes and locations, multinational casting, where the main fighting roles, oddly enough, are played by the Japanese Andrew Koji and Indonesian Joe Taslim ("Raid", "Night is coming for us"). There is a lot of everything mixed in here: family dramas and the redistribution of spheres of influence of political forces and gangs, interethnic and interclass love, spiritual soul-searching of heroes and heroines, fights, betrayal, betrayal. In short, this is not just a series where the Chinese (and not only) fight, but also a full-fledged story with many winding plot lines developing in the dark alleys of San Francisco at the end of the 19th century.
The only thing is that, despite all the clear advantages of the narrative, there is somehow no lasting and deep empathy for the characters, including the main character. Passions are boiling, intrigues are weaving, but on the screen everyone seems to be going with the flow, and the main character is constantly crumpled (thank God, emotionally and not physically), which greatly affects the quality and the result of the final battle, despite the fact that it is very long , intense, with constant ups and downs (literally and figuratively) of one or the other fighter. As planned, it was the emotional turmoil of the protagonist that was supposed to serve as the main dramatic conflict of the fight, which, although it became the culmination of the first season, fell a little short emotionally. But the series itself confidently reached first place in this category.
Interesting, but how would “Warrior” directed by Bruce himself?
The Witcher (14%, 21 votes)
Hype project from Netflix has already been discussed from all possible angles, from controversial casting to costumes made of black garbage bags and a meme song about a minted coin.
It couldn’t be otherwise, because the target audience of this series is vast and extremely fastidious, and the universe created by Mr. Sapkowski, too self-sufficient to be treated carelessly.
What happened in the end? A rather glossy, clean and extremely politically correct series, in which a pumped-up white-toothed witcher with the eyes of a St. Bernard shakes his buttocks in leather pants, sending enemies of all stripes to the next world: from monsters to people. A kind of brutal cookie, which, unfortunately, lacks that very paradoxical property of the White Wolf - negative charisma and at the same time male heroic charm, just as there is a lack of on-screen chemistry in interaction with key characters, the same Buttercup or Yennefer.
They tried to give the character volume and inner world, adding book morality to the partial appearance from the game. Those who have not read the books may get lost in time from the very first minutes, starting to realize the non-linearity of the narrative only after a few episodes. But what does this give them if the first few episodes are spent asking who is fighting with whom, why these people drink poisons and jump from towers?
The other half, who read Sapkowski, will understand all the “depth of our depths,” but constantly catch themselves thinking: “I didn’t imagine it this way” or “the book describes it differently.” What will those who are fans, first of all, think of the game?
You can look at everything conciliatoryly from a philosophical point of view and say that each category of spectators will have their own rights. Yes, the story of Geralt of Rivia has been around for many years, but a decent film adaptation has never happened. Yes, we were all waiting for something new “The Witcher” too long ago. And let there be a project from Netflix, expensive, wide-ranging and maybe even long-lasting, which can always be developed and transformed into a worthy product that has taken note of all the fan’s prayers and calls. And let it be Henry Cavill, who tries to please everyone and be a universal witcher. In any case, he sits upright on his horse, holds his sword firmly and confidently, and it was not for nothing that his fight with the robbers in the square was in list of nominees categories “Best fight”.
Cobra Kai (Season 2) (13%, 20 Votes)
The pleasant excitement that arose in the USA after the release of the series "Cobra Kai", may seem unexpected, strange and incomprehensible to the domestic viewer. Perhaps it's because the original film in this franchise, “Karate Kid”, came to us in the heyday of VHS, when video stores already reigned “Bloodsport”, “Kickboxer” and other joys of life, although these films came out three years later. We are already accustomed to “serious” action films, and the story about a teenager going through the adult journey did not leave any noticeable mark on us. After all, we have already seen Frank Dukes, who, after an insidious enemy technique, gets up from his knees, wipes the heroic balls and sends Chong Li on a long journey with a jumping spinner. These children's championships were given to us...
But in America this story became a cult story, an entire generation of young viewers was brought up on it, and Pat Morita was a candidate for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role. Therefore, the return of this rather aged, but still relevant story in the form of a series was received extremely positively by the American audience. And don’t rush to fit this series into a purely local American context. Our viewer can watch it with great interest, because the plot, and the whole concept as a whole, demonstrates painfully familiar moves, while managing to remain fresh and not out of their minds.
Let the main characters be already respectable guys who solve teenage problems and behave like teenagers themselves, measuring the length of their black belts, but at the same time you sincerely empathize with them, because they are normal living people who in one episode can quickly find themselves in the role of heroes, and antiheroes. It's amazing to watch in contrast - the same "Warrior", which took first place in this category, is in all respects more mature, more serious, and more expensive. But “Cobra Kai” touches the soul much more noticeably. And let karate from Ralph Macchio looks even funnier than it was 35 years ago, but no matter how much you try to force yourself to wince, such karate will look touching and naive, but will not seem like an absurd parody and stupidity, being essentially just a catalyst for the movement of this whole story. Although there is also a fighting game in it (and in some places it’s even good). Paradox, you say? Watch both seasons, then we'll talk.
Independent film
Ip Man and the Four Kings (dir. Fu Liwei) (31%, 25 Votes)
Mythologization Ip Man and his transformation into a cardboard figure embedded in any plot began in the original franchise Wilson Yip с Donnie Yen starring. Moreover, the movement in this direction was noticeable already in the second part, and by the fourth film the character gradually went into circulation.
At the same time, we must not forget the periods of “the amazing wanderings of Ip Man,” when several more different Ip Mans appeared parallel to Donny. The legendary master was on the screen both old and young, the actors playing him and the directors filming him changed. And he, by and large, turned into another analogue of Wong Fei Hungg - a figure more fabulous than real.
"Ip Man and the Four Kings" from Fu Liwei - another attempt to rethink the story about the Wing Chun master, but... is this a rethink?
Stylistically, the film resembles the line set by Wilson Yip and Yuen Wu-Ping and carries all the features of the Chinese fighting game of recent decades. The same artistic solutions, the same dramatic structures.
Ip Man is still the same wise and resilient master in a white hat, a fighter against injustice and evil Europeans who sell drugs, kidnap people, and trample on respect for kung fu (underline as appropriate).
В "Four Kings" he is further conserved and becomes an even more abstract figure who can do whatever he wants in any plot - investigate a murder or fight with aliens. Leading actor Michael Toon on the screen from all sides there is a correct and taciturn character, maintaining a constant facial expression throughout the entire film, apparently symbolizing the highest moral qualities of the owner of this face. Only his hairstyle is somewhat inauthentic.
The impression from the choreography is also ambiguous: these are endless rapids, and, as is usual with the Chinese, there are close-ups of faces, fists and raindrops even in dry weather, and any dynamics are captured by the camera from above. Moreover, this doesn’t look like an amateur effort, it’s just that the director has nothing to say and in the end there seems to be choreography, but it’s as if it’s not there.
But why this "Ip Man" did the audience like it so much? First of all, flair Donnie Yen has not yet dissipated. Secondly, we are so accustomed to this character and become close to him that any on-screen incarnation of him automatically takes on weight in our eyes. Well, to tell the truth, Michael Toon although boring, but much more formatted Ip Man than, for example, was Anthony Wong в “The Last Showdown”. A "Great master" from Wonga Kar Waya not about martial arts at all and not even really about Ip Man, but about directing and a little about love.
In any case, despite the fact that Donnie Yen finished his “IPman journey” in cinema, from the legendary Wing Chun master and part-time teacher Bruce Lee Chinese cinema will not give up anytime soon. If he refuses at all.
Night Shots (dir. Mark Price) (20%, 16 Votes)
Author's work Mark Price - a hand-to-hand action movie that will start to surprise you very quickly, starting as a comedy about losers, but quickly changing into a bloody dramatic pulp. Is this a conscious screenwriting or directorial move, given that Price himself is responsible for everything, or simply an inability to decide on a genre?
The synopsis is as follows: an amateur film crew accidentally witnesses a murder in an abandoned factory, and now a group of gangsters with guns at the ready are already breaking down the steps to kill them. The main characters look like losers, the gangsters look like losers, everyone makes stupid jokes, everyone gets screwed, and we think that now the film will continue to develop in the same spirit. But it comes to the fore Jean-Paul Ly (“Prison Break”) and the film turns into a hand-to-hand action movie. And again deception. The viewer will think that while the other heroes wait in the back room, Lee’s character will scatter the villains and bring everyone into the light of day alive and unharmed. However, Price begins to arm the crew with improvised means and pyrotechnics, which mow down enemies in thrash style. At the same time, events develop tragically, members of the group die, bloodily and harshly, which is why you constantly switch from one emotion to another. Often these transitions look raw and unfinished, because mixing surrealism, sitcom and drama is a delicate thing and requires precise proportions.
What do we have for action, you ask? Jean-Paul Ly in his repertoire, and shows us his typical choreography, which was in the same “Prison Escape”. He faces battles with a crowd of opponents, two against one and one on one, in which he suddenly looks either like an unkillable superman or a weakening drug addict (suddenly) and this is not always convincing. One can assume that Price wanted to show us the behavior of a random person in force majeure circumstances, but when Lee skillfully slashes his opponent’s throat with a knife, this impression somehow dissipates. Note that they oppose him Marcus Shakescheiff ("Kamikaze", "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"), Karanja York и Hungg Dante Dong.
The Fans Jean-Paul Lee should be happy, but don’t you think he’s starting to linger in second-rate projects?
Half a century of poetry later (dir. Yakub Nurzynski) (12%, 10 Votes)
And again the Witcher universe, only without Geralt, but with Lambert, Triss Merigold and the short-lived Dandelion (Zbigniew Zamachowski from the original Polish series). This four-year full-length project, even by the standards of professional cinema, can be considered a long-term construction project, but for a fan film it is truly a titanic work.
We won't idealize “Half a century of poetry later”, since the impressions after watching remain mixed, but we won’t turn up the viewer’s face either, because fan films of this level are always an Event.
A good picture, slightly smoothed to resemble an analogue one, although perhaps too dark, but this is, as a rule, a consequence of filters that are placed on videos due to the desire to appear more expensive. The locations are mostly top-notch, although occasionally you’ll come across modern buildings, albeit dilapidated ones. The costumes also hardly cause any complaints, and compared to their major brother from Netflix and even more so. The graphics do not hurt the eyes, although it would be more logical to make them even darker and gloomier, without crimson or yellow colors, then they would fit into the concept even more and fit like a glove. The fights are uneven - sometimes they are quite dynamic and energetic, and sometimes blurred by angles or editing, despite the fact that the shooting of general plans, nature and the movements of the heroes from location to location is simply excellent and never amateurish.
The story is simple, without any special pretensions or intricacies, exactly what the creators could pull off and the actors could realize. Speaking of actors. In some places everything looks convincing and professional, and in others it falls apart into amateur performances, but always or almost always the secondary characters and extras play better than the main characters. The main villain also let us down, he did not evoke any fear or awe, but looked like a big and very budget version Mark Strong.
As for the main character, Lambert played Mariusz Drezheka It turned out to be colorful, thanks to the actor’s truly wolfish appearance and his cunning squint, but not entirely understandable. I had to complete the character and background of the character myself, and in battles he did not always look like a worthy student of Vesemir.
Since the level of audience demands in the 21st century is incredibly high, and it has become extremely difficult to surprise and satisfy these demands (it seems almost impossible), we subconsciously begin to evaluate fan cinema in comparison with its expensive “official” counterpart. But with all the reservations, “Half a century of poetry later” confidently takes a punch, and can deliver a couple of hooks itself, being one of those films that move fan cinema forward and upward, trying to create something original, fresh and sincere, forcing professionals to squeeze their cinematic buns, because if amateurs have already learned how to do this to make a movie, then viewers should have a lot of unpleasant questions for large studios.
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Tags: Cobra Kai, Ip Man and Four Kings, Netflix, Nightshooters, The Witcher, Warrior, Bruce Lee, Henry Cavill, Justin Lin, Joe Taslim, Jean-Paul Ly, results of action cinema 2019, Michael Toon, Mariusz Drazek, Mark Price, Half a century of poetry later, soap opera, Fu Liwei, Andrew Koji, Jakub Nurzynski
Tags: Cobra Kai, Ip Man and Four Kings, Netflix, Nightshooters, The Witcher, Warrior, Bruce Lee, Henry Cavill, Justin Lin, Joe Taslim, Jean-Paul Ly, results of action cinema 2019, Michael Toon, Mariusz Drazek, Mark Price, Half a century of poetry later, soap opera, Fu Liwei, Andrew Koji, Jakub Nurzynski
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