apoweyn (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} apoweyn) wrote,@ 2007-04-11 12:15:00 |
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The Great Challenge (movie review)
The Great Challenge (2004)
Directed by Julien Seri
Starring Williams Belle, Châu Belle Dinh, Malik Diouf, Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke, and Elodie Yung
So, I’ve had a lot of luck recently with French action movies (Banlieu 13), Thai martial arts movies (Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Bang Rajan), and even French movies about Thai martial arts (Chok Dee). So I thought that a movie about a bunch of French parkour guys who go to Thailand and get embroiled in a war between the Japanese yakuza and the local Thai gangs would be a sure hit.
Not so much. But before I get ahead of myself, for those of you who haven’t heard of it before:
Parkour—Otherwise known as “free-running.” Essentially, parkour is a way of moving through an urban landscape using the environment to keep things interesting. Jumping from one roof top to another, somersaulting off of walls, leaping off of elevated stairways, etc. Reminds me of freestyle skateboarding or rollerblading, except that the originators of parkour are very vocal about its value as a form of expression and moving meditation. Like yoga, except with postures like “way downward dog” and “leaping over the hood of a Lotus position.”
You can see good examples of parkour in action in the aforementioned Banlieu 13 (released in the United States as B13) or the brilliant foot chase scene in the beginning of the most recent addition to the James Bond franchise, Casino Royale.
The movie opens in France, with a huge group of parkour guys playing a ball game on the city rooftops that, presumably, was specifically designed to get them all killed. Miraculously, they survive. And one of them approaches several others with an idea his has for going to Thailand, opening a parkour gym, and offering free classes to the local youth.
Don’t you dare think about that. Whatever your gut feeling is to that plot, it isn’t likely to improve with further consideration.
The leader of the group is played by Williams Belle, who I expect (though I’m no expert) is related to David Belle, the parkour expert in Banlieu 13. Hard to imagine that there are two high-level experts in something as new as parkour with the same name. But what do I know. Maybe every third person in Paris is named Belle. I digress.
Williams Belle doesn’t have quite the charisma or physical prowess of David. And, as the movie progresses, it quickly ceases to center on him anyway. So I was a bit surprised by the initial focus anyway. The gang goes to Thailand, sets up shop in a vacant barn, and goes out for a free run in the city. Almost immediately, they climb up the wrong set of scaffolding, run afoul of the Thai gangs, and land themselves in trouble with the leader of the gang, Kien (played by Châu Belle Dinh). It doesn’t help matters that Kien’s sister Tsu takes a fancy to one of the parkourists(?) and helps him escape from danger.
After that, some of the parkour crew decide that this was a stupid idea and vacate the premises. Some resolve to stay. One learns muay thai in an afternoon (or so it seems in the training montage). And one decides to seek out a remote Buddhist monastery. (Note I’m not going to great pains to differentiate one from another. That’s partly because I can’t remember and partly because so few of these guys actually seem central to the plot anyway.)
On the other side of the aisle, there’s Kien. He and his gang have been loyal servants of the local yakuza (Japanese organized crime syndicate). But Tsu has been having increasing misgivings and wants out. When she begins gravitating towards the French parkourists, Kien has even more cause to go after them. But [SPOILER WARNING] eventually, they all come to realize that the real enemy is a young yakuza boss who’s trying to make a big move and elevate himself in the ranks.
The film culminates with a three-way battle between the Thai gangs, the yakuza, and our heroes (the parkour group, Tsu, and a somewhat reluctant Kien).
Plot make your head hurt? Right there with ya.
But let’s be honest here. I wasn’t after plot anyway. I was after action. And in the first few minutes, I thought I was in luck. Two black-clad burglars sneak into an office building, dispatching guards with the sort of bone-crunching magic that makes me love Ong Bak so very much. Unfortunately (and suspiciously, given that the two characters are supposed to be Kien and Tsu, but the actors are completely masked and could well have been stunt people), that’s probably the best fight sequence in the film.
Part of the problem, I suppose, is that the film isn’t really designed to showcase muay thai. It’s designed to showcase parkour. And while it’s pretty obvious that you can craft a thoroughly entertaining fight scene around using the environment in your defense (see chapter 1 of 1001 Things I’ve Learned from Jackie Chan’s Movie Career), many of the schticks in this movie, we’ve seen before. We’ve seen the scaffold fight in Rush Hour 2, for instance. But better done, because Chan is able to carry off the environmental stuff and blend it seamlessly with actual movie fighting. Whereas these guys seemed a lot more awkward in the actual fight scenes, so that you see a fairly impressive stunt followed by an unconvincing kick or punch, then another breathtaking leap, and another thoroughly uncompelling attack.
Even the stunts themselves didn’t feel all that compelling. The movie suffers from the same affliction that many John Woo rip-offs do. There’s an artificiality in the setups that just doesn’t work. The way the main character reaches the top of the bannister that you know he’s about to slide down. The way that wheeled gurney just happens to be sitting within slow-motion dive of the doorway as the hero comes rushing in. That sort of thing. The Great Challenge feels the same way. “Here’s the scene where they do this one really cool thing from parkour. And then the scene where they do this other thing…” It doesn’t ring true.
The genius of a John Woo gun fight, and of the more recent uses of parkour in Casino Royale and Banlieu 13, is that they manage to make the setups not look like setups. It looks continuous and natural (given the highly unnatural setup of the plot obviously). Much of that comes down to directing and, in all likelihood, editing. I think The Great Challenge could have benefited from a bit more of both.
It’s a shame. I wanted to like this movie. I always enjoy the emergence of a new subgenre of a favourite genre. And this movie ostensibly fit into three subgenres I like. French action cinema (e.g., The Nest), Thai martial arts cinema, and parkour. But it didn’t really serve as a great example of any one of them.
All that said, I hope that The Great Challenge is still indicative of the sorts of movies we can expect to see from that market in the future. With some more polish, it could have been a thoroughly enjoyable action flick. And it’s quite possible that the next similar film will be just that.
The Great Challenge (2004)
Directed by Julien Seri
Starring Williams Belle, Châu Belle Dinh, Malik Diouf, Guylain N'Guba-Boyeke, and Elodie Yung
So, I’ve had a lot of luck recently with French action movies (Banlieu 13), Thai martial arts movies (Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Bang Rajan), and even French movies about Thai martial arts (Chok Dee). So I thought that a movie about a bunch of French parkour guys who go to Thailand and get embroiled in a war between the Japanese yakuza and the local Thai gangs would be a sure hit.
Not so much. But before I get ahead of myself, for those of you who haven’t heard of it before:
Parkour—Otherwise known as “free-running.” Essentially, parkour is a way of moving through an urban landscape using the environment to keep things interesting. Jumping from one roof top to another, somersaulting off of walls, leaping off of elevated stairways, etc. Reminds me of freestyle skateboarding or rollerblading, except that the originators of parkour are very vocal about its value as a form of expression and moving meditation. Like yoga, except with postures like “way downward dog” and “leaping over the hood of a Lotus position.”
You can see good examples of parkour in action in the aforementioned Banlieu 13 (released in the United States as B13) or the brilliant foot chase scene in the beginning of the most recent addition to the James Bond franchise, Casino Royale.
The movie opens in France, with a huge group of parkour guys playing a ball game on the city rooftops that, presumably, was specifically designed to get them all killed. Miraculously, they survive. And one of them approaches several others with an idea his has for going to Thailand, opening a parkour gym, and offering free classes to the local youth.
Don’t you dare think about that. Whatever your gut feeling is to that plot, it isn’t likely to improve with further consideration.
The leader of the group is played by Williams Belle, who I expect (though I’m no expert) is related to David Belle, the parkour expert in Banlieu 13. Hard to imagine that there are two high-level experts in something as new as parkour with the same name. But what do I know. Maybe every third person in Paris is named Belle. I digress.
Williams Belle doesn’t have quite the charisma or physical prowess of David. And, as the movie progresses, it quickly ceases to center on him anyway. So I was a bit surprised by the initial focus anyway. The gang goes to Thailand, sets up shop in a vacant barn, and goes out for a free run in the city. Almost immediately, they climb up the wrong set of scaffolding, run afoul of the Thai gangs, and land themselves in trouble with the leader of the gang, Kien (played by Châu Belle Dinh). It doesn’t help matters that Kien’s sister Tsu takes a fancy to one of the parkourists(?) and helps him escape from danger.
After that, some of the parkour crew decide that this was a stupid idea and vacate the premises. Some resolve to stay. One learns muay thai in an afternoon (or so it seems in the training montage). And one decides to seek out a remote Buddhist monastery. (Note I’m not going to great pains to differentiate one from another. That’s partly because I can’t remember and partly because so few of these guys actually seem central to the plot anyway.)
On the other side of the aisle, there’s Kien. He and his gang have been loyal servants of the local yakuza (Japanese organized crime syndicate). But Tsu has been having increasing misgivings and wants out. When she begins gravitating towards the French parkourists, Kien has even more cause to go after them. But [SPOILER WARNING] eventually, they all come to realize that the real enemy is a young yakuza boss who’s trying to make a big move and elevate himself in the ranks.
The film culminates with a three-way battle between the Thai gangs, the yakuza, and our heroes (the parkour group, Tsu, and a somewhat reluctant Kien).
Plot make your head hurt? Right there with ya.
But let’s be honest here. I wasn’t after plot anyway. I was after action. And in the first few minutes, I thought I was in luck. Two black-clad burglars sneak into an office building, dispatching guards with the sort of bone-crunching magic that makes me love Ong Bak so very much. Unfortunately (and suspiciously, given that the two characters are supposed to be Kien and Tsu, but the actors are completely masked and could well have been stunt people), that’s probably the best fight sequence in the film.
Part of the problem, I suppose, is that the film isn’t really designed to showcase muay thai. It’s designed to showcase parkour. And while it’s pretty obvious that you can craft a thoroughly entertaining fight scene around using the environment in your defense (see chapter 1 of 1001 Things I’ve Learned from Jackie Chan’s Movie Career), many of the schticks in this movie, we’ve seen before. We’ve seen the scaffold fight in Rush Hour 2, for instance. But better done, because Chan is able to carry off the environmental stuff and blend it seamlessly with actual movie fighting. Whereas these guys seemed a lot more awkward in the actual fight scenes, so that you see a fairly impressive stunt followed by an unconvincing kick or punch, then another breathtaking leap, and another thoroughly uncompelling attack.
Even the stunts themselves didn’t feel all that compelling. The movie suffers from the same affliction that many John Woo rip-offs do. There’s an artificiality in the setups that just doesn’t work. The way the main character reaches the top of the bannister that you know he’s about to slide down. The way that wheeled gurney just happens to be sitting within slow-motion dive of the doorway as the hero comes rushing in. That sort of thing. The Great Challenge feels the same way. “Here’s the scene where they do this one really cool thing from parkour. And then the scene where they do this other thing…” It doesn’t ring true.
The genius of a John Woo gun fight, and of the more recent uses of parkour in Casino Royale and Banlieu 13, is that they manage to make the setups not look like setups. It looks continuous and natural (given the highly unnatural setup of the plot obviously). Much of that comes down to directing and, in all likelihood, editing. I think The Great Challenge could have benefited from a bit more of both.
It’s a shame. I wanted to like this movie. I always enjoy the emergence of a new subgenre of a favourite genre. And this movie ostensibly fit into three subgenres I like. French action cinema (e.g., The Nest), Thai martial arts cinema, and parkour. But it didn’t really serve as a great example of any one of them.
All that said, I hope that The Great Challenge is still indicative of the sorts of movies we can expect to see from that market in the future. With some more polish, it could have been a thoroughly enjoyable action flick. And it’s quite possible that the next similar film will be just that.
