I won't deny that there’s a huge gap between silly midnight madness martial arts cheese and coherent dramatic films that have martial arts in it. Slight gunfights and a few thrown punches are fine in a drama, but including full blown 15 minute fights are a no-no. It’s not a real film because martial arts cheapens everything. It’s fake. They don’t have the directorial grace or character work that a “regular” film would contain. This brings me to Ryoo Seung-Wang’s “City of Violence”, a film with a little more on its mind then the latest Westernized Jet Li Actionner. It’s stylish, modern and it has a story and characters it wants you to care about.
Shame it doesn’t really work, but lets give it a good old SNAP-CRACKLE-POP for effort.
The story, about a policeman coming back to his home-town to solve a murder, is almost too earnest to be taken seriously. Director Ryoo is a genre maestro, but he really hasn’t come to terms with balancing his over the top tendencies and his more realistic expectations. The one saving grace here is the stylistic direction. If Guy Ritchie took one tiny step back and knew how to frame and film action it would look like this.
City of Violence isn’t packed with martial arts, but it knows when to deliver. The main character, played by Korean stunt-man/choreographer extraordinaire Jeong Doo-hong is suitably energetic and fast-paced. The final act is one long series of extended action scenes and in pure modern day style these guys get beaten, bruised and cut to ribbons. It may get a little bit repetitive by the final reel, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting. If you want to see a genre freak’s modern day take on the Martial Arts film this is it. The new 2-Disc SE form Dragon Dynasty is a behind the scene fans dream. You have over three hours of subtitled extras that break down scene by scene all those bone breaking stunts were pulled off.
WATCH IT!
NIFTY NOTE: The director/screenwriter stars as one of our high-kicking martial arts heroes. That’s dedication.
EDIT: I must make clear that the DRAGON DYNASTY edition of this film is probably the most comprehensive collection of special features dealing with an action film I've ever seen. They touch every single aspect of production and break it down step by step. Ryoo Seung Wang earned my respect with his ambitious student film "Die Bad", his Guy Ritchie riff "No Blood No Tears" and pulled out all the stops with his wire-fu epic "Arahan". Finally with "City of Violence" he pulled off the ultimate fan-boy dream: He made a "pure" action film. The only way he could top that is by doing a zombie film next...and wait...that's exactly what's going to happen.
RELATED LINKS
TRAILER http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ukd01o59bLU
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