District B13

[liralen]

amberley recommended a French film called District B13 when I said that I was into watching action films when Jet is otherwise occupied somewhere else.

It's good. Very good. I hope that the main actors in the movie get to do more of the same kind of stuff, especially Cyril Raffaelli and his Exquisite Moves. He's very much an embodiment of what I see as the European-style of martial artist, it seems more stunt than art, but wow...



The thing about the movie is that there are no cgi affects. Nearly all of the affects are done the old-fashioned, old Hong Kong method, just by doing them. Which made the "Making Of" very different in that there is pretty much nothing about technique or how the affects were added, there's a LOT about the personalities and the people that were involved in the movie. There's a little on how the stuntmen prepared and how the choreography was done. Wow.

David Belle, the founder of parkour plays the brother, and his style comes through very clearly as well. It's interesting seeing his movement style next to Cyril's, especially when running like mad through barriers. It's funny to watch the fighting scenes as it's very, very much Cyril against Cyril's style as Cyril wrote the whole choreography and most of the fights are very, very much him. Except against the Yeti, then Belle's free-flowing movement works into a very circular/Kung-fu style (as opposed to a Tae Kwan Do straight punch style) against Cyril's almost Bond-like straight hits. Kind of like Good Jet Li against Bad Jet Li in The One...

It's interesting to see where the Western "martial" movie style is and where their actors are, in that they just portray their own style and own conviction through how they move. Whereas the Eastern martial arts movie style has actors who actually act their characters through their style of fighting. Though it may just be a matter of age and experience, as Ziyi Zhang isn't nearly as versatile, yet.

It is very, very violent. It is not complex. The plot's pretty much like a one-shot game with a very clear objective. It is breathtaking to watch, though. *grin*

Fun stuff, all in all.

Comments

[palinade.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my kind of popcorn movie. I'm always impressed when the martial arts films are all actor and not cg effect. Fun to watch. Thanks for the review.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay! You're very welcome!

[knappenp.livejournal.com]

Parkour is Too Cool.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grin* Indeed. I like that Dave Belle says, "Really, it's just a method of transportation."