"SPL Stars of Destiny 3: Paradox" is a continuation of the “star” series of films "SPL Stars of Destiny". They are characterized by drama, a twisting plot and vivid characters. In the previous parts of the film they played Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Jackie Wu, Tony Jaa и Max Zhang.
The third film in the series continues the theme of “underground donation.” The brief plot of the film is as follows: a former cop from Hong Kong comes to Thailand in search of his missing daughter. Local police will join the search. The main roles are played by Louis Koo, Wu Yue и Tony Jaa and the director was the well-known Wilson Yip (Ip Man trilogy, SPL Stars of Destiny).
The previous films in the series set a high bar, and the third part does not lower it, although it does not jump over it, despite the fact that there were all the opportunities for such jumps. This is primarily due to the film's lack of charm. He's cold. The main characters lacked written relationships with each other. Let's remember the masterful dramatic solutions John Woo, in which heroes unfamiliar with each other unite for a common cause, and as a result, male friendship is born, difficult, contradictory and not always obvious, but attractive on screen. The characters do not have to reveal all their secrets on the screen; it is enough to show themselves in a certain way in the right situation.
В "Paradox" this manifestation is not enough. The magic of the relationship between two (or three) policemen is also missing. Everyone solves their own problems within the framework of a common cause, but when they have to unite not in words, but in practice, it still happens somehow separately. What is missing is a couple of aphoristic phrases, half-smiles, some emotional signs, a small transformation of relationships. Yes, the father is looking for his daughter, and, to put it mildly, he has no time for strong male friendship, but the problem is that from the beginning to almost the end of the film he remains a mechanical robot with a stone face. And in this regard, Louis Koo could have given a more interesting performance, but the limited conditions do not allow him to do this. Despite his tragedy and his attempt to carry it inside himself introvertedly and even somewhat brutally, he does not look like a living person, and therefore you don’t really empathize with him. It was enough to show his background and conversation with his daughter in a restaurant as a starting point to understand his character, way of thinking and most importantly, his relationship with his daughter, and then show his changes in the search process. After all, his tragedy is that he painfully wanted to tie his daughter to himself, and as a result, precisely because of this, he lost her forever. There was final repentance, but for me personally it was not enough. And I would emphasize the search process with an even greater alternation of shots with my daughter (from childhood and after the abduction) to add tension, where tragedy is needed, and where suspense is needed, because at some point I caught myself thinking that I was talking about the wanted daughter at all Somehow I forgot. This problem could be solved simply by the correct change of personnel. Speaking of personnel changes. The editing is sometimes strange here. First we see a conversation between Louis Koo's character and his daughter. She talks about children, then there is a close-up of Ku, then there is a montage, and then it is not clear which characters are shown, either Louis Ku’s pregnant and grown daughter, or someone else.
The second main character played by Wu Yue looks much more voluminous. He is more flexible both in terms of acting, and in terms of character development, and even in terms of action, but more on that below. He looks like a classic inspector from Hong Kong films: casual appearance and spontaneity, but high moral standards. However, it would be more logical to emphasize that he draws a parallel between himself, who is about to have a child, and a father from Hong Kong looking for his daughter. When he shouts to his father-in-law in the finale: “We are from the police!”, it sounds understandable in the context of the situation (to shout out to a sense of duty, but at the same time not to show that they know his father-in-law), but it would be more interesting to make him said: “What if it was your daughter? Or mine? And the father-in-law takes out his phone and shows him the video. In this case, the father-in-law would be more motivated, and the throwing of the hero Wu Yue would be exacerbated.
The character of Tony Jaa came out crumpled and a little out of this opera, in any case, definitely not out of the Chinese one. It was strange to take Tony for one fight only to lose him in the first half of the film, while greatly neutralizing his distinctive features and capabilities. His presence, in addition to participating in the action scene of the film, also carries a certain dramatic move, but this move is poorly played out and if this move had not been there, the film would not have lost much.
But Tony was also treated, as they say, divinely, unlike Ken Lo, which has been leaked lately from film to film. I will not reveal the essence of his role, I will only say that he will not fight and he has little screen time. Sadly.
Otherwise, the villain is villainous, albeit average, and the crowd is massive.
Now about the action:
The era of Bruce, Jackie and Donnie is gone. Chinese modern the choreography is non-contact, almost always bloodless, and seems to have forgotten its best traditions and great achievements of the past.
And, despite the fact that the film’s choreographer was Sammo Hung, The production cannot be called ideal. The action in the film continues the tradition of the previous films in the series, it is bold, it has become less sterile, it has become “raid-like” in a good sense. But what the Chinese still cannot give up are cables. Cables in films like Paradox should be forgotten like a bad dream. But the choreographers seem to have lost the habit of filming without ropes; they cannot even think in any other direction. In my opinion, this smacks of choreographic dementia, because the characters without cables cannot take a step or sit on the toilet. Just like in Indian films, it seems simply unthinkable to start filming something without songs and dances. There was a similar problem in the previous film “SPL Stars of Destiny 2”, but in the current case this issue looks more acute, because the extremely realistic plot implies the same realistic approach to fights. This movie could have been made in South Korea or Thailand and most likely would have turned out better.
The second point that spoils the impression is the editing. As always, it is frequent, castrating the completeness and readability of the frame, and the angles hide gaps in the choreography and the contact of blows, especially the character of Louis Koo, who clearly cannot be called a good on-screen fighter.
The first important action scene is a parallel fight Wu Yue and Tony Jaa against the bandits.
Both heroes show themselves well, despite all the director's attempts to show them poorly. In this fight, we see for the first time a bearded villain in a hat - a colorful and unkillable character (Chris Collins). Tony is trying, he still has something to show, but he also flies on harnesses (and even on a flying saucer). And although he tries to work in his characteristic manner and technique, the staging of this fight still deprives him of his advantages and smoothes out his features. But in general, if you close your eyes to the cables and the general protractedness of the fight, in the fight “Jaa VS Bearded Man” there is a good fragment with the umbrella of the best traditions of Chinese cinema, a number of distinct blows from Tony, not suppressed by angles and editing, and in general the whole fight is quite large-scale in terms of working with space. But he could have been better, much better.
The hero Wu Yue diligently plays out his battle emotions, tries to be tough and contactable. He acts in a variety of ways: there are striking techniques, painful holds, elements in the style of Thai boxing, spinners, but when it comes to elementary tricks, we again see violations of the laws of gravity. In my opinion, it is better to equip the actor with protection like a polar explorer, or even take a double, but constantly lift him off the ground as if he has kryptonite in one place... I don’t know, I don’t know.
The next fight scene is Louis Koo against a crowd of enemies at the slaughterhouse, where Ku appears to us in robot mode and, I must say, it is in this part of the film that it looks adequate. The unblinking gaze and frozen face with which Louis Koo moves towards his goal without looking at his opponents to music stylized as an OST from either “James Bond” or “Mission: Impossible” is what is needed, although the scene itself is a cliché .
But Luis is not a strong on-screen fighter, so he is often “saved” by editing, sometimes by a double, and in general his passage through the corridors of the meat slaughterhouse cannot be called an interesting fight. If it had been filmed in one take, it wouldn’t have worked.
But further events unfold more interestingly when they flow into a knife fight. Louis Ku fights first, and then Wu Yue joins in, and this is perhaps the best moment in the film. Firstly, there is finally blood on the screen, no matter how strange it may sound. There is no longer the feeling of a theater with fake swords, there is no effect of non-contact combat, we see that the characters are people, and they receive damage, and if they are cut in the stomach with a knife, then something red comes out. Secondly, rhythm has appeared in the fights, the right fuss has appeared and there are almost no failed dynamic moments, although the opponents still attack one at a time. Thirdly, editing does not kill all movements, so some ligaments are completely visible. Filmed a little bit not in Chinese style, the style is reminiscent of a mix of elements from films with Johnny Nguyen и Iko Uwaisom.
The downsides of this fight, again, are the ropes and the bearded man’s overexposure to survivability, who gets hit in any way and with anything, but he’s like a cucumber.
The bottom line:
Yes, the Chinese cannot completely escape their own traditions and stereotypes of film thinking, there are plenty of disadvantages, but the result is already better. SPL Stars of Destiny 3: Paradox is an action-drama in every sense of the word. This is definitely a gritty film, much grittier than most modern Chinese action films. The dramatic vector is direct and precise, although not always refined, and the choreography of fights has become more dense, bloody and dynamic, again, with a good emotional background. As part of the Stars of Destiny series, it fits in well with the style of the previous films.
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Tags: paradox, Ken Lo, Chris Collins, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Tony JAA, Wu Yue, Wilson Yip
Tags: paradox, Ken Lo, Chris Collins, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Tony JAA, Wu Yue, Wilson Yip
Tony Jaa was leaked, and the film is complete crap, nothing interesting.
What questions? Add! :)
Louis Koo's passage through the "corridors of death", where he famously carried out everyone, was, of course, thanks to Sammo Hung. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the style almost repeats the fights from “The Old Bodyguard,” especially painful controls and close combat with elbows, short punches and throws. It’s just that if Sammo is completely elderly, then Louis is simply not a fighter. So thanks to Sammo that this spectacle still looks good! And Jaa...eh, what is and what is not. By the way, yesterday a new Kickboxer was released, another contender for nominations
Thanks for the news. Somehow I missed the release of the film. Unfortunately, as the author said, the Chinese are still stepping on the same rake. Of course, a lot can be discussed, but I imagine the main problem of all films is not even the lack of new Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but the staging of normal fights. And after all these years, nothing meaningful has come out, except for a couple of films with Donnie Yen, considering that there are far from stupid people at the helm. This means that the most difficult thing in this matter is to stage good fights. Is it really the lack of fresh ideas or have the Chinese forgotten why the whole world loved them?
Not a bad dramatic action, yes. But it's let down by the editing, Koo's bland acting, the tightropes in the action scenes, and Wilson Yip's lack of any style. In any case, it could have been more interesting, stylish and better. It felt like they were in a hurry. As usual, however.
And yes, it’s a bit of a shame for the merged Ja and Ken Lo,
Danil Chupakhin,
The reason is that there are not enough strong personalities on screen. Both character and acting. The first part of "Ip Man" and the first part of "Stars of Destiny" were very worthy, because there was Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, who pulled a lot on themselves and covered up Wilson Yip's flaws. And here..neither Louis Ku nor Wu Yue can in any way reach them either in terms of energy, or as on-screen fighters, and even more so. Tony Jaa could, but he's here for 10 minutes.
Ravenside,
It's strange though. The fighter from Luis is certainly weak, no doubt about it, but he is a good actor. And why it’s made of glass here is unclear. And again I will say for the style - “Paradox” is empty in this regard. The first SPL had a style: pictures, framing, suspense, visuals, where they played with color and light. There was style in “Confession of Pain” with Takeshi Kaneshiro, although there are no hand-to-hand scenes. But here it’s sterile.
In general, it seems to me that Wilson Yip is a rather overrated director. And he doesn’t always “can”.