Over the years and experience of holding an event to sum up the results of action films, we realized that we a) cannot and b) do not want to rush. After all, the editors try to produce the highest quality analytical materials for our readers. Therefore, we sum up the results long and hard.
In mid-May, we almost traditionally present you with analytics on the winners in one of the most important categories - the best battle of 2021. Since you liked the innovation with the battles that the editors liked, we also listed those battles that we liked, but did not deserve enough votes.
In general, as always, we are very happy to receive comments and your discussions about this.
Winners in the vote
Donnie Yen vs. Nicholas Tse (Crossfire) (16%, 30 votes)
Directors: Donnie Yen and Kang Yu (fight choreography), Kenji Tanigaki (stunt coordinator).
Location: under construction church. Occasionally appearing location in various action films. Heroes of John Woo's westerns and action films staged pistol duels in churches. For example, Scott Adkins, Olivier Gruner, Ben Affleck, Charlie Cox and others fought in the church.
Style: modern Hong Kong choreography with MMA elements.
Scene duration: about 8 minutes with talking.
Number of participants: one on one.
Main feature: Donnie Yen returned to the urban action genre, so beloved by many, at a respectable age.
Features and specifics: since the release of such cult police action films with Ian as “SPL. Stars of Destiny" и "Hot spot" 16 and 14 years have passed, respectively, but Donnie’s fans still want from him “the same fighting style” that they liked so much in the above-mentioned films. The latest hand-to-hand Chinese action hero tried to give what is expected of him in films “Special Person” (2013) and "Big Brother" (2018), but precisely in “Crossfire” Donnie Yen and Nicholas Tse were able to fulfill fan wishes.
Needless to say, when Tse twirls the butterfly knives in his hands, and Yen takes out and unfolds the police “telescope” to the alarming music, a wave of memories runs through the skin. Actually, the whole fight is one big nostalgia for the strong fights of Chinese militants in the early 2000s.
First, the battle is fought using edged weapons - the hero Nicholas Tse tries to reach the enemy with one of the knives, not only waving them in front of the opponent’s face, but also throwing them at him. Ian defends himself and periodically attacks with a police baton, causing strong associations with the fight of the same Donnie against Jackie Wu of “Stars of Destiny” (2005) - the same sweeping and chaotic movements, the same “walking” camera, sometimes showing close-ups.
Then the opponents engage in hand-to-hand combat, and here Ian “takes his soul away” with the help of various holds, throws, choking and painful techniques, only being distracted a few times by kicks. By the way, the lion's share of kicks fell on Nicholas, because Donnie is no longer young.
The authors decided not to end the fight with a banal signature blow, but tried to make it melodramatic and pathetic. Not to say that it is very convincing, but it is very traditional for the Chinese.
The main disadvantages of the battle: It seems at first glance that the concept of the fight is “the same Donnie,” but still this is not so. And the degree of emotions is not so high, and the tension of the nerve is not enough, and the crowning blows, although shown, are not filmed as brightly, clearly and impressively as we are used to. The editing also seems to be authentic, but somewhat careless, blurring the contact and beauty of the movements. One of the reasons for the sluggish nerve is the music, which is more like a series of sound effects and various samples superimposed on each other from libraries of cinematic sounds (unfortunately, in modern cinema this is all too common). There is synchronization of sounds with the on-screen action: Donnie’s biceps are emphasized by a pause and guitar notes with overdrive, the change in the rhythm of the battle is accompanied by an acceleration of the pulsation of the music, but still, for the most part, there is a kind of “hooting and booming” in the background, the only exception is playing the piano with your face Nicholas Tse, - this soundtrack is already on topic. At the end of the battle, the music smoothly flows into a symphonic part, but for some reason it is in a major mood.
It’s still impossible to ignore the “indestructibility” of Ian’s character: they stick a knife into his leg and hit him in the ribs with a sledgehammer, but these injuries are not played out in any way in the choreography.
The bottom line: for the long-awaited battle in the style of the 2000s Donnie Yen came at the age of 55, so he set himself the job of defense, practically not attacking. He also greatly limited himself in terms of kicks, leaving the “crown” and a strange pirouette performed by a double. For such a fight, a 39-year-old Nicholas Tse turned out to be an ideal opponent, since he had been a hardworking performer throughout his career. Therefore, the fight between these two still evokes the necessary emotions, thus earning gold.
Bob Odenkirk vs. Chavs on the Bus (Nobody) (14%, 27 votes)
Directors: Daniel Bernhard (fight choreography), Dan Skene and Greg Rementer (stunt coordinators).
Location: city bus. Public transport in all its diversity is every action director's favorite. Keanu Reeves and Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone and even Salman Khan hit their enemies with their heads on the handrails. And why go far, one of our nominees, Simu Liu, showed his kung fu skills in a bus rushing along the road.
Style: acting combat in the aesthetics of neorealism (Hollywood neorealism).
Scene duration: pure combat 4 minutes.
Number of participants: five against one.
Main feature: the “pensioners back in the saddle” technique and the “John Wick” method: a good and hardworking actor, being a non-professional screen fighter, looks powerful and convincing on camera.
Features and specifics: Perhaps the main feature of this scene lies precisely in the choreography that was staged Daniel Bernhardt especially for the 57-year-old actor Bob Odenkirk, who had not previously been seen in action roles. According to the director’s idea, Bob’s character lacks the thrills that remained in his past life, so he decides to teach a lesson to the scoundrels pestering the girl “with his bare hands,” and therefore the title actor should have been in the frame as much as possible, leaving the understudies exclusively with moments with falls.
The choreography itself is as restrained as possible and, from the point of view of learning the movements, is quite simple, but it accomplishes the task: over-aged gopniks attack the protagonist, first one at a time, because there is not enough space on the bus, then, when the opponents have already received the distribution, they try to attack Odenkirk’s hero en masse, inflicting punches and kicks. He defends and counterattacks. Everything is used: knives, seat belts, a bottle, bus handrails and even a watch. But the hero, in his thirst to punch the hooligans, does not stop the first day even after he is thrown out of the bus through the glass, after which he returns to the bus and completes what he started.
By the way, the directors slightly relieve the tension of the battle through humorous inserts - this way the fight looks organic, charging the viewer with a kind of postmodern irony that permeates the entire film. In addition, through humor they explain to us what kind of character is in front of us, whose eloquent, victorious departure into the sunset only emphasizes this irony.
The main disadvantages of the battle: domestic viewers will be surprised by the unexpected Alexandru Pal, foreign - finds out Daniel Bernhardt, and maybe even Alena Mussi, more like a fashion model than a Gopnik, but he’s unlikely to remember anything after watching it. A well-choreographed fight, a solid demonstration of craft and, perhaps, nothing more. We've all seen this many, many times before.
The bottom line: another example of the fact that the acting work of all participants in an on-screen duel is no less important than fighting skills, and an interesting approach to dramaturgy within a fight will always be valued more than “showreel” choreography, albeit well-calibrated, but sterile from an emotional point of view.
Vidyut Jamwal vs Terrorists in the Physiotherapy Room (Psycho) (10%, 19 votes)
Directors: Andy Long aka Andreas Nguyen (fight director, stunt coordinator), Daniel Balconi (stunt coordinator).
Location: hospital. Our video will tell you about cinematic shootings in a hospital. “TOP 10 movie shootouts shot in one shot”, which contains two such scenes. But if you remember fights in hospital wards, then you won’t be able to get by with a couple of examples: ZhKVD in “Finish ‘Em All”, Scott Adkins in “Liquidators”, Jackie Chan in the third “Rush Hour”, Jackie Woo, Iko Uwais and many others.
Style: neo-Hong Kong school (Indian answer to Jackie Chan)
Scene duration: almost 3 minutes
Number of participants: three against one
Main feature: the hero of a Bollywood film fights on camera like a real Hong Kong hand-to-hand action star of the 80s
Features and specifics: member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Association and director Andy Long He never hid his love for the Hong Kong hits of the 80s and always implemented this particular style of choreography in his own projects. Once upon a time Long and a Bollywood star Vidyut Jamwala crossed paths and now they have already made three films together. Of course, Andy brought a lot of reference fights into the action with Jamval, which the Indian gladly (according to him) worked out.
The fight against mercenaries in the physical therapy room takes us back to the movies Jackie Chan The 80s, where the action hero used everything he could get his hands on in battles, but there had never been such an “assortment” of items as here in Chan’s career. Long probably thought so, placing the hero and villains in a space with shaping balls, exercise bands, dumbbells, barbells and other sports-rehabilitation equipment.
In the best traditions of Chan's films, the hero is attacked by all opponents at once, and he uses various objects in the room to fight them off. Hand on heart, the elastic element is practically genius. Rhythmically, the battle does not sag, since the hurricane of action does not subside before the viewer’s eyes until the part where the hero Jamvala and the female mercenary dive into the pool.
The main disadvantages of the battle: either Indian dance traditions are too strong, or they have become overplayed Jackie Chan, drowned in references and forgot that choreography in this genre should be primarily combat, which means that in fights there should be contact and damage, and not preludes, during which the viewer waits for the real mess to begin. Moreover, the main character is called Psycho, no more and no less. And somehow absurdly the hero Jamvala incapacitates two mercenaries - some decisive blow was missing, indicating that the scoundrels had switched off.
The bottom line: It’s clear why visitors to our site voted for this fight - we all miss the cool fights from the hand-to-hand cinema of Hong Kong in the 80s, and, by and large, such nostalgic choreography is staged and implemented by not many directors. And if this happens more often in the field of short films, then in large full-length projects you rarely see this. A good dynamic fight, the staging of which would be worthy of old Jackie.
Editor's Choice
Takeru Sato vs. Makenyu Arata (Vagabond Kenshin: Finale) (6%, 11 votes)
Stage Director: Kenji Tanigaki (fight director, stunt coordinator), Kenji Sato (stunt coordinator).
Location: stone house in classic style, Japanese garden. Of course, the most common location for samurai films filmed either in Japan or in Hollywood. From Toshiro Mifune and Shintaro Katsu to Tom Cruise and Hugh Jackman, thousands of films have featured katanas in the interior of a Japanese home, casting gleams of metal through falling cherry blossoms.
Style: modern Japanese choreography.
Scene duration: about 12 minutes including dialogue.
Number of participants: one on one.
Main feature: an emotional summation of an entire franchise.
Features and specifics: In fact, the FFI editors consider this fight to be the best among all the nominees this year. It is curious that two years ago the editors also noted among their favorites sword fight. Does this mean that there are few good fights using edged weapons these days? Yes, that means!
Readers voted well for “Kenshin”, but only got 7th place likes. This is not a complete failure, because even Adkins was outdone by the fight (splashes of champagne, firecrackers, hysterical cries of joy), but to be honest, I would like better recognition.
Those who have watched the entire line of film series “Vagabond Kenshin” will see in this fight the classic choreography characteristic of all five films: a sweeping whirlwind duel, where katanas flash at the speed of light, with despair, anger and adrenaline in every splash of blood. A successful example of working with space and lighting design of locations, and the use of cables in it is smart, conceptual, and stylistically justified. The opponents rush like a cascade, slide in a semicircle along the ground and run along the walls, and if you look closely, you will notice that Kenshin and Enishi almost never fight in the center under the cold light, but cross swords along the perimeter of the room, only occasionally crossing the circle.
It is clear that the interaction of swordsmen in such close contact and at such a distance will force them to change their fighting technique and choreography, so here they hit with swords like sticks, sometimes just backhand. Fortunately, this is plot-appropriate, since the main character does not have a katana sharpened.
The main disadvantages of the battle: The editors would be happy to write that there are no downsides, and by and large this is true. Rather, there are moments that may turn off some viewers, and these are due to the long running time and several long pauses filled with dialogue. Fans of the genre will understand everything and this will not be a problem for them, quite the contrary, but non-fans may want to rewind. But on the other hand, will “casual” viewers specifically watch the Kenshin series of films? Well, if we’re really being picky, it’s often noticeable that the characters’ swords are toy ones.
The bottom line: powerful and emotional fight, beautifully shot in an authentic interior and a worthy ending to the current final film about the tramp Kenshin. It’s understandable: the fight choreographer is from the team Donnie Yen - Kenji Tanigaki, will not remove nonsense.
Lewis Tan & Hiroyuki Sanada vs. Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) (5%, 9 votes)
Directors: Chan Griffin (fight choreography), Kyle Gardiner (stunt coordinator)
Location: octagon. In the ring for a fight according to MMA rules, endless heroes of sports dramas and action films like Hector Echavaria, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins and many others, including the occasional Jet Li in “From Cradle to Grave,” were sorting things out.
Style: adaptation of game mechanics to combat choreography
Scene duration: about 7 minutes.
Number of participants: first one on one, then two against one.
Main feature: implementation of computer fighting game character techniques in cinema
Features and specifics: on the one hand, we, being fans of the franchise Mortal Kombat We were upset that there were practically no really cool fights in the film. On the other hand, we are glad that exactly two fights in the film are worthy of praise and both of them pit Scorpion and Sub-Zero against each other. Therefore, we could not help but highlight at least one battle of these iconic characters and the choice fell on the final confrontation.
Scorpio performed Hiroyuki Sanada appears at the most desperate moment when the villain is trying to kill his descendant Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan. From this moment, a brutal one-on-one battle begins, within which you can catch modern Japanese choreography with sweeping sword strikes, blocks instantly turning into a counterattack and work at the lower level.
But the main thing in this fight is the implementation of the characters’ gaming techniques within the framework of choreography, the lion’s share of which fell on the character Joe Taslima. What do you remember about Sub-Zero? He has an ice sword, he can freeze people, throw sharp icicles, deceive the enemy with an ice clone and grow an ice wall, which can then be broken by his opponent. The moment when Sub-Zero cuts Scorpion with his sword, freezes his blood and sticks this blood icicle into him is famously realized. This is exactly what we expect from battles between the heroes of Mortal Kombat!
Scorpio swings his sword perfectly, not forgetting to use his legendary lasso. It is worth saying that 80% of the fight was performed by Sanada himself, who was almost 60 years old at the time of filming. He and Taslim generally created a rather synergistic duet on the screen, which pulled off the MK remake. Just notice how both actors play with their eyes while wearing masks. This works to a huge advantage in their clash, thus enriching the choreography with additional dramaturgy.
The main disadvantages of the battle: despite the fact that the plot of the film presupposes the presence of a main character, and the theme of “saving the family” runs like a red thread through the entire Hasashi clan, it seems that Cole Young is not very necessary in this fight - Scorpio and Sub-Zero look so self-sufficient not only as a fighting game -characters and on-screen fighters, but also as bearers of centuries-old enmity, the point at which they actually set in the battle. And the character Lewis Tan With his clubs and petty problems, he could do something more useful. It’s not for nothing that Scorpio sends him away at some point: they say, go help your family, break the ice, and dad will sort everything out. As a result, where the teamwork of the ancestor and great-grandfather begins, Cole with a permanently “lost” face also seems superfluous.
The bottom line: an excellent final fight that shows that Sanada still has gunpowder in his flasks, that Joe Taslim not only an excellent fighter, but also an excellent actor, and that imaginative fights are a necessity for film adaptations of computer fighting games. It’s a pity that there is only one such lively, interesting and brutal fight in the entire film.
Simu Liu and Zhang Meng'er vs. Scaffolding Mercenaries (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) (5%, 10 votes)
Directors: Andy Cheng (fight choreography), Bradley Allan (stunt coordinator).
Location: scaffolding. Not the most common location for on-screen fights. Jackie Chan's fight in Rush Hour 2 comes to mind.
Style: big budget modern kung fu
Scene duration: about 4 minutes including dialogues.
Number of participants: The FFI editors counted three positive characters, one Death Dealer and about 10 nameless ninjas.
Main feature: the feature belongs more to the film as a whole than to individual fight scenes, and we have mentioned it in other summing up articles - a rare case when martial arts are the central theme of an expensive blockbuster from Marvel.
Features and specifics: A very reference fight containing many classic genre elements. And the location of the fight and the scheme in which the main characters fight against a dozen masked no-name mercenaries, and the friend, and in our case the girlfriend of the main character, who, inserting jokes, runs away from the villains, as if accidentally defeating them - all these are painfully familiar techniques .
The fight itself, despite the fact that it is multi-part and tricky, is filmed very smoothly and dynamically accurately, when the main character fights enemies with almost one touch, in one movement vector, jumps over structures, receives an electric shock, and then again jumps through the crowd. At the same time, the camera always follows the characters, allowing you to see every detail of the action scene in detail.
The fight can be divided into two parts: the first is a brother and sister fight against ninjas on scaffolding, and the second is Shang Chi's fight against the Death Dealer performed by Andy Le on the floor of the same skyscraper under construction, which reveals the combat skills of the actors much more. This frisky fight takes place, so to speak, at the lower level, where the antagonist attacks with sweeps, capoeira-style strikes and a knife, and the hero defends himself in response and, at some point, seizing the initiative, practically defeats the enemy.
All this is accompanied by flashbacks, which caused the FFI editors not so much emotional involvement in the battle, but rather the question: what age is this Death Dealer? Or maybe there are several of them in the gang? Or maybe this title is inherited or based on the results of interviews? But one way or another, this fight is not only beautifully choreographed and executed without annoying post-processing, misplaced cables and jerky camera, but also has a pivotal plot significance when the hero Tony Luna receives the part of the amulet he needs.
The main disadvantages of the battle: The disadvantages, perhaps, lie in the main character himself, who plays a martial arts master trained to kill since childhood, but at the same time fighting exclusively in a defensive style. Even when it comes to showing aggression, he does it Sim Liu with some kind of apologetic face. It is clear that there is a purely dramatic plot explanation for this, but still the main character really lacks eggs and “correct” aggression.
The bottom line: a good and even fight with a moderate age rating, working for any audience: both fans of comic book blockbusters and fans of martial arts in movies. We are waiting for the continuation.
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Tags: Mortal Kombat, Nobody, Raging Fire, Rurouni Kenshin: The Finale, Sanak: Hope Under Siege, Bob Odenkirk, Bradley James Allan, Vidyut Jamwal, Joe Taslim, Donnie Yen, Daniel Bernhard, results of action cinema 2021, Kenji Tanigaki, Lewis Tan, Makenyu Arata, Nicholas Tse, Summing up the fight cinema, Sim Liu, Takeru Sato, Hiroyuki Sanada, Zhang Men'er, Andy Le, Andy Long, Andy Cheng, Yu Kang
Tags: Mortal Kombat, Nobody, Raging Fire, Rurouni Kenshin: The Finale, Sanak: Hope Under Siege, Bob Odenkirk, Bradley James Allan, Vidyut Jamwal, Joe Taslim, Donnie Yen, Daniel Bernhard, results of action cinema 2021, Kenji Tanigaki, Lewis Tan, Makenyu Arata, Nicholas Tse, Summing up the fight cinema, Sim Liu, Takeru Sato, Hiroyuki Sanada, Zhang Men'er, Andy Le, Andy Long, Andy Cheng, Yu Kang
People, would anyone be so kind as to once again post it somewhere or point to the link “Hit & Run” with Taslim? I lost it, but I wanted to watch it again.
Wave,
Crap. Already deleted from the file hosting service. Maybe I'll post it later. The film was never translated?
I couldn't even google the original. Not that time, not this time. Your Google-fu turned out to be stronger.
It's like that. Donnie Yen showed class in the style of the 2000s, but his age is showing. Odenkirk is not a fighter and is a bit old. Crazy - we played Jackie Chan, but the moment with the rubber band is really cool. Kenshin - everything is the same too. And Taslim and Sanada are the best thing in the film. And Andy Le absolutely rocked it.