Dir. Patrick Alessandrin FRANCE 2009
"You obviously don't watch enough movies. If you did, you'd know that when the organization betrays a killer, he'll pay back twice to the ones who've wronged him. Even if he dies trying."
Woo, foreign movies! I paired these two together by virtue of their being a) foreign b) action movies and c) really silly. However, I enjoyed Fulltime Killer quite a bit more, so I'll probably have more to say on that than District 13, which is basically a textbook example of a disappointing sequel. Onward!
Fulltime Killer is the first Johnnie To movie I've ever seen, something I will quickly and further rectify since a lot of his stuff is now on Instant Watch. I've been a fan of the Heroic Bloodshed genre ever since late high school, and I'm pretty well versed in the John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat classics that define the genre (Hard-Boiled, The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, etc). Highly inventive shoot-outs, extremely badass characters and uber-dramatic male bonding are the main tropes of the genre, as well as a lot of unintentional, but appreciated humor that comes from the action and the drama being cranked up to 11. With Fulltime Killer, Johnnie To and his co-director offer an interesting subversion on the genre and a witty commentary on the tropes of action films in general.
PLOT: 'O' (played by Takashi Sorimachi) is a Japanese assassin operating out of Hong Kong. Disciplined and highly prepared, he has a reputation as the most reliable and successful hit-man in all of Asia, although he lives a stereotypical life of solitude, while admiring Chin, the young woman who cleans his apartment, from afar. His life is turned upside-down by Tok (played by Andy Lau), a brash, reckless new assassin who cribs his flashy style from the action movies he admires so much. In his attempt to supplant 'O' as the number one hit-man in Asia, Tok slowly begins to ingratiate himself into every aspect of 'O's life, and starts by dating Chin.
Fulltime Killer does an excellent job of having its cake and eating it too via it's two protagonists. 'O', with his cold efficiency and somewhat overblown angst, plays straight many of the tropes found in classic Heroic Bloodshed movies. Andy Lau, on the other hand, plays Tok like a leather clad, gun toting Bugs Bunny, while engaging others (and the audience) in spirited meta-conversation regarding action movies and film in general (he has a excellent point about bad movies being able to have great trailers, which I always find myself thinking). The film takes some weird diversions, especially toward the end, but spends most of its running time skillfully walking the line between a genuine action flick and a silly parody of itself.
The strongest aspect of the film is the character of Tok (obviously) and more specifically, the way Andy Lau dives into the character headfirst. Andy Lau is probably best known to American audiences for playing the Matt Damon character in the Infernal Affairs films (the first of which was remade as The Departed). His work in those films proves that he's got serious dramatic chops and great screen presence, which is why its so much fun to see him completely unhinged in Fulltime Killer. At the same time, his character is down-to-earth and charming enough for the audience and Chin to relate to. Contrasted with the super-serious and emotionally numb 'O' (the quote at the top of the page is his, which sums up the tone of his character pretty well), Tok pretty much flies off the screen and insists you enjoy the film.
The action in this movie is less prevalent than in a John Woo film, but it does so for the sake of building the characters and making them seem like interesting (sort of realistic) people. And although To's camera work isn't as flashy or dynamic as Woo's (way less slo-mo, no Jesusy, dove-filled frame compositions) the action is still well paced and enjoyable. The sequence about two-thirds of the way through in which 'O' and Chin fend off a squad of riot police while descending the outside of an apartment complex was my personal favorite. Recommended if you think you'd like it.
So I'm guessing most people saw Casino Royale when it came out a few years ago. One of the best parts of that movie (for my money, at least) is the first big action sequence in which Bond chases a terrorist through a construction site and later an embassy building in Madagascar. That scene employs parkour, a French physical discipline that revolves around getting from point A to point B as fast as you can, utilizing your own physical skills and the environment around you. Combined with a knowledge of martial arts, it is some serious shit. The first District 13 film (2004) starred David Belle (widely credited as the founder of parkour) and Cyril Raffaelli (a parkour stuntman who also specializes in shotokan karate and wushu kung-fu) as a badass cop and a noble criminal forced to team up and stop the titular ghetto of B13 from being destroyed by a government/criminal conspiracy. They did this by beating the shit out of tons of dudes. Witness the glory of the opening scene.
The first film benefited from badass fights, no wire work or computer effects, and the clean, capable direction of Pierre Morel, who garnered enough attention with the film to end up making Taken, that Liam Neeson-murders-every-gangster-in-Europe-to-get-his-daughter-back movie that was a surprise hit last year. Best of all, the film struck just the right balance of action and character development that you want from something like this. Draw the characters in broad strokes, let some interesting performers flesh out the details, then start the ass-beating and don't let up.
Unfortunately, the sequel smacks of cheap cash-in across the board. The two protagonists are reunited, but you've got a different director, a plot that's essentially a re-hash of the first film and a bizarrely lopsided ratio of action to talking. People are constantly explaining the plot to other people (which isn't that complicated and certainly doesn't need to be done for the audiences sake) and the fight scenes that are there all pale in comparison to the ones from the first film. If actions sequels are supposed to be bigger and better, no one told these guys.
I don't want to get into all the other details of why it sucked (although some of the poorly translated subtitles are good for a laugh; one character describes another as a 'slender, natural-born killer', which was just...really creepy), but I do recommend you check out the first movie.
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