#all we get out of him is his eye expressions and occasionally some stilted dialogue bc hes frustrated

[mokutone]

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ID:

Panel one is so close to Tenzō that he's mostly out of the frame aside from the lower half of his face. He's trembling again. Behind him, Kakashi regards him with a critical eye. "Here I am, making you patch me up, asking you not to report me, but putting you in a situation where you have to," Tenzō says, then, adds, "And I'm scared of my own village." Panel two shows us only their backs. Tenzō is sitting straight, shaking, and Kakashi is leaning towards him slightly. "I'm, at this point, already a liability—" Tenzō starts, but Kakashi cuts him off. "Tenzō, I'm not going to report you," Kakashi says. Panel three, Tenzō turns to look at Kakashi. The tears have returned to his eyes and he doesn't seem to notice them. "I know you don't want to," Tenzō says. Panel four, Tenzō looks away and down. His shudders have noticeably increased. "You're very loyal," Tenzō starts. Kakashi interrupts, "Tenzō." "And I can't let myself take advantage of that," Tenzō says, as though he didn't even hear Kakashi. Panel five, Tenzō turns back to Kakashi. He's slightly smaller in the panel than the previous two. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I came here," Tenzō says. "Tenzō," Kakashi interrupts, this time in a larger speech balloon with bolder text, louder. Tenzō continues still, "I forced you into this situation—" Panel six features only Kakashi, his eyes are narrowed, his eyebrows low, and he's got his hand in front of himself as though he's making a slashing motion. "Tenzō, you're not listening to me," Kakashi says. "You're not a liability or a threat, and I will not be reporting you." Panel seven shows them facing each other. Kakashi is sitting straight, while Tenzō has once more assumed his defensive hunch forward. "Senpai—" Tenzō starts to argue. "I am however, going to bar you from both solo and split missions in any research labs for the next year, at least," Kakashi says, and some small, pale subtext beside it reads "Unless my order is superseded by a higher officer, obviously." Tenzō, looking frustrated, but still shaking and tears still rolling down his cheeks, argues back. "I told you, it wasn't the lab. I wasn't scared, it was like I—" /end ID

[deathonyourtongue]

Den of Thieves: The Review (Spoiler & Fangirling-free)

First off, I’d like to thank copious amounts of Kraken, Sailor Jerry, and a touch of Absolut for not giving me a hangover and making this review possible at the wee hours of 12:00 pm (I went to bed at 2am, don’t @ me.)

I will be the first to admit that I went into Den of Thieves with some trepidation, based solely off the fact that while I know Gerard Butler can act his ass off when he wants to, lately, he hasn’t exactly been making the best choices in flicks, and it’s been showing in his performances. I was worried that this would be another one of those ventures, and that he would inevitably drag the rest of the cast down with him when the ship sunk. I’m happy to say that was not at all the case and he and the rest of the cast knocked this one out of the park.

The audio in this movie was the first thing that struck me. The guns are LOUD. If you have sensitive ears, I suggest covering them for the gun fights, especially if you go see it in a higher-end theater. You feel each shot reverberate through your chest, and in the case of the theater I was at, through the seat. I feel as though they used the same sound effects team as Lone Survivor, and that’s not a bad thing in my book, because with movies like this, you need to feel the bullets and not just hear them whizz past. Speaking of whizzes, I was very happy to hear both snaps and hisses, and not just stock gunfire noises. If you remember the scene in Blackhawk Down, “A hiss means it’s close, a snap means--” it’s time to get the hell out of dodge, ‘cause you’re being shot at.

The other thing I noticed in terms of audio is that the movie is very quiet in terms of score. There were several scenes that were dialogue-only with no score to accompany the actors’ words. This, for me, added to the overall intensity, but also made it quite obvious when you were headed for a ‘big’ scene as the score would then kick in and you knew something was about to happen.

As far as picking sides goes, the movie doesn’t exactly do the Regulators any favors. While they attempt to make Gerard’s Big Nick sympathetic by showing his crumbling family life, all you really see is a man who is entirely responsible for the dissolution of his marriage and estrangement from his kids by way of his vices, attitude, and his far more stable ‘marriage’ to his job. One of the most uncomfortable scenes in the movie is between Nick and his wife, and you see the potential for just how cruel a man he could be, if not restrained by outside forces (in that scene in particular, the fact that his two daughters are watching his every move). The Outlaws, while incredibly flawed, paint a far more sympathetic picture, with special attention paid to 50’s family in the film, and the crew’s long-time friendships either through high school sports or their military careers. By the end, you’re rooting for them to pull off the heist and make a clean getaway and for Butler and crew to bite the dust.

Despite all the talk of it being 50’s movie, it’s really Schreiber and O’Shea that deserve the credit here, both turning out performances that make any other character on the screen obsolete. Pablo is in turns terrifying and nuanced. Not overly physical in his acting in this role, he does so much with subtle facial expressions for Merrimen, that you will be left at times fearing for the lives of other characters, and at others gutted that this is the path his character chose for his life outside the military. One scene in particular stands out not only because of the threat of violence in his eyes, but because the very next cut shows a man who is resigned to his lot in life and knows that he can’t turn back; It feels like  a sucker punch to the gut and makes you wish you could pull him in a different direction before things go sideways.

O’Shea showed a range that really surprised me for an actor who only has three released credits to his name (with three still in production). Donnie is by far the most relatable of the Outlaws, and O’Shea does a masterful job of portraying him as the everyman who’s caught up in something way above his pay grade. When Donnie’s scared, you’re scared not only for him, but with him, and that is a fantastic trait for an actor to be able to deliver.

This all being said, there are some flaws in the film, mainly in the fact that it relies on the audience having knowledge of certain topics going in, namely military, law enforcement, and currency. During my first outing to see the movie, the friend who came with me got pulled out of the story because she didn’t understand why money is destroyed on the daily. Same thing goes for why the FBI and the Sheriff's Department don’t generally see eye to eye, or what a MARSOC FAST Marine is. All these topics are fairly specialized for a general theater-goer, and if you’re like my friend (or the guy sitting next to me who would not get off his phone between his naps…) you may be left a little confused during certain exchanges that happen in the movie where pauses seem to be purposely written in to leave the audience to fill in the blank. These pauses, combined with at-times stilted dialogue, definitely puts potholes in an otherwise smooth storyline. These choices were a risk that only occasionally paid off throughout the film.

Tactically speaking, the movie was a joy to watch. Though I personally have no experience with firearms of any sort, it’s an area of interest for me, especially when it comes to film. Things like trigger discipline, recoil anticipation, and speed reloading are all things I watch for in movies, because it speaks to the level of training that the actors had, and which ones actually evolved beyond the basics in their training. The actors made it clear throughout their press tour that the Regulators got tactical law enforcement training, while the Outlaws got military training, and the difference is noticeable throughout. While the corridor scene provides a good look at how the two teams move together (and how they fall apart), the gun range is where you can really see the difference in the two boot camps.

I’m gonna be blunt and say that Gerard shoots while blinking a lot. A lot. Pablo blinked maybe once that I noticed. The scene at the gun range makes that difference explicitly clear and drives home the point that Merrimen is NOT a man you want to mess with, especially when he’s armed. Tactically, Pablo is pristine, fitting for a MARSOC Marine with plenty of experience under his belt, while Gerard is a little sloppy, which also plays well into Big Nick’s boozy, reckless personality. But more than character choices, I think it speaks to the training and in my opinion, the Outlaws definitely got the better piece of the pie. Pablo, with his prior experience in military films, stole the show.

As for whether the movie is a rip-off of Heat, it isn’t something I can speak to, mainly because it’s been years since I’ve watched it. I came into Den of Thieves with a fresh palette so to speak, and with that, I was thoroughly entertained, found myself biting my fist more than once due to the intensity, and came out with a new appreciation for my old favorites, and some of the fresh faces we were graced with.

9/10

Fun tidbits:

The best way to keep Gerard from sounding Scottish is to keep his mouth full of food, cigarettes, or booze the whole time. Seriously, it’s genius.

I feel like Brian Van Holt’s character was put in this movie just to say ‘What the fuck?’ to everything Nick and Merrimen were doing.

Nick’s distaste for the FBI was hilarious.

There’s an unexpected treat towards the beginning of the movie for any Portuguese speakers, courtesy of Kaiwi Lyman, which gave me a giggle.

There is a metric ton of arm porn on both crews in this one. You’ve been warned.

[meeedeee]

The Great Wall: Review RSS FEED OF POST WRITTEN BY FOZMEADOWS

Warning: all the spoilers for The Great Wall.

When I first heard about The Great Wall, I rolled my eyes and dismissed it as yet another exploitative tale of Western exceptionalism where the white guy comes in, either insults or co-opts the local culture, saves the day and gets the girl, all while taking a role originally intended for or grossly better suited to a person of colour. It wasn’t until later that I learned the film was directed by Zhang Yimou, filmed on location in Qingdao, China,  and featuring a predominantly Chinese cast, with Matt Damon – emphasised in Western marketing to attract a Western audience – starring as one of several leads, in a role that was always intended for a Western actor. The film was released in China at the end of 2016 – and is, in fact, the most expensive film ever shot entirely in China – and was meant to be an international release, designed to appeal to both Chinese and Western audiences, from the outset.

Which left me feeling rather more curious and charitable than I had been; enough so that, today, I went out and saw it. Historically, I’m not an enormous fan of Matt Damon, who always strikes me as having two on-screen modes – All-American Hero and Not-Quite-Character Actor, the former being generally more plausible than the latter at the expense of being less interesting – but I’ve always enjoyed Zhang Yimou’s cinematography, especially his flair for colour and battle sequences. The fact that The Great Wall is ultimately an historical action fantasy film – a genre I am predisposed to love – is also a point in its favour; I’ve watched a great deal of Hollywood trash over the years in service to my SFFnal heart, and even with Damon’s involvement, The Great Wall already started out on better footing than most of it by virtue of Zhang’s involvement.

Even so, I was wary about the execution overall, and so went in expecting something along the lines of a more highly polished but still likely disjointed Chinese equivalent to the abysmal 47 Ronin, an American production that floundered thanks to a combination of studio meddling, language issues with the predominantly Japanese-speaking cast being instructed to deliver their lines in English, last-minute changes and a script that couldn’t decide who was writing it. But of course, 47 Ronin’s biggest offence – aside from constituting a criminal waste of Rinko Kikuchi’s talents – was doing what I initially, falsely assumed The Great Wall was doing: unnecessarily centering a white actor playing a non-white role in an Asian setting whose authenticity was systematically bastardised by the Western producers.

Instead, I found myself watching one of the most enjoyable SFF action films I’ve seen since Pacific Rim. (Which did not waste Rinko Kikuchi.)

The premise: William (Matt Damon) and his companion Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are part of a Western trade mission sent to China to find black powder – gunpowder – for their armies at home. While fleeing Kitan bandits in the mountains, they encounter an unknown monster and, in seeking its origins, are soon taken in by the Nameless Order, an army manning the Great Wall against an expected incursion of the monsters, called Taotie. In charge are General Shao (Hanyu Zhang) and his offsider, Commander Lin Mae (Tian Jing), advised by Strategist Wang (Andy Lau). Every sixty years, the Taotie attack from a nearby mountain, and the next attack is just starting; as such, the Nameless Order and the Great Wall are all that stand between the hoards, controlled by a single Queen, and the nearby capital, Bianliang. While attempting to win Commander Lin’s trust, William makes two alliances: one with Sir Ballard (Willem Dafoe), a Westerner who initially came to China in search of black powder twenty-five years ago; and another with Peng Yong (Lu Han), a young soldier whose life he saves. While Tovar and Ballard are eager to steal the black powder and leave, Commander Lin, General Shao and Strategist Wang are working to counter the evolving strategies of the Taotie: if the Wall is breeched and Bianliang falls, the Taotie will have enough sustenance to overrun the world, a fact which forces William to choose between loyalty to his friends and to a higher cause.

From the outset, I was impressed by the scriptwriting in The Great Wall, which manages the trick of being both deft and playful, fast-paced without any stilted infodumping or obvious plot-holes, aside from a very slight and seemingly genre-requisite degree of handwaving around what the Taotie do when they’re not attacking. The fact that at least half the film is subtitled was another pleasant surprise: of the Chinese characters, both Lin and Wang speak English – their fluency is explained by years of Ballard’s tutelage – and who act as translators for the rest; even so, they still get to deliver plenty of lines in Chinese, and there are numerous scenes where none of the Western characters are present. A clever use is also made of the difference between literal and thematic translations: while the audience sees the literal English translation of the Chinese dialogue in subtitles, there are multiple occasions when, in translating out loud for the benefit of the English-speaking characters, Lin and Wang make subtle adjustments, either politely smoothing over private jokes or tweaking their words for best effect.The scene where Commander Lin’s ability to speak English is revealed made me laugh out loud in a good way: I hadn’t expected the film to be funny, either, but it frequently is, thanks in no small part to the wonderful Pedro Pascal, who plays Tovar so beautifully that he has a tendency to steal every scene he’s in.

Tovar is dry, witty and pragmatic, given to some dark moments, but also loyal, while his establishment as a Spanish character adds another historical dimension to the setting. Aside from calling William amigo, he only gets one real instance of subtitled Spanish dialogue, but the context in which he does this – using it as a private language in Lin’s presence, once her ability to speak English is known – makes for a pleasing gracenote in their collective characterisation. The brief details we’re given of William’s mercenary history, fighting the Danes and Franks and Spaniards, are likewise compelling, a quick acknowledgement of the wider world’s events. It reminded me, in an odd but favourable way, of The 13th Warrior, a film which made the strange decision to cast Antonio Banderas as an Arab protagonist, but whose premise evoked a similar sense of historical intersections not often explored by the action genre.

I also appreciated Tian Jing’s subtle performance as Commander Lin, not only because her leadership of the all-female Crane Corps is objectively awesome – in the opening battle, the women stand on extended platforms beyond the Wall, bungee down on harnesses and spear monsters in the face – but because, refreshingly, not a single person in the film questions either the capabilities or the presence of the female warriors. When General Shao is mortally wounded in battle, it’s Lin he chooses to succeed him, a decision his male Commanders accept absolutely. While there’s a certain inevitable hetero tension between William and Lin, I was pleased beyond measure that this never devolves into forced romance or random kissing: by the film’s end, the Emperor has confirmed Lin as a General, William is on his way back to Europe, and while they’re both enriched by the trust they found in each other, William is not her saviour and Lin is always treated respectfully – both by William, and by the narrative itself.

(Also, The Great Wall passes the Bechdel test, because the female warriors of the Crane Corps talk to each other about something other than men, although they do still, somewhat delightfully, talk shit about William at one point. This is such a low bar to pass that it shouldn’t even merit a mention. And yet.)

Though the action slows a little at the midway point, it remains engaging throughout, while the overall film is structurally solid. As a genre, fantasy action films tend to be overly subject to fridge logic, but the plotting in The Great Wall is consistently… well, consistent. Even small details, like the role of the Kitan raiders, William’s magnet and the arc of Peng Yong’s involvement are consistently shown to be meaningful, lending the film a pleasing all-over symmetry. And visually, it’s spectacular: the Taotie are as convincing as they are terrifying (and boast a refreshingly original monster design), while the real Chinese landscapes are genuinely breathtaking. Zhang Yimou’s trademark use of colour is in full effect with the costuming and direction, lending a visual richness to a concept and setting which, in Western hands, would likely have been rendered in that same flat, drearily gritty sepia palette of greys, browns and blacks that we’ve all come to associate with White Dudes Expressing The Horror Of War, Occasionally Ft. Aliens. Instead of that, we have the Crane Corps resplendent in gorgeous blue lamellar armour, the footsoldiers in black and the archers in red, with other divisions in yellow and purple. Though the ultimate explanation for the Taotie is satisfyingly science fictional rather than magical – which, again, evokes a comparison to another historical SFF film I enjoyed, 2008’s flawed but underrated Outlander – the visual presentation remains wonderfully fantastical.

While I can understand the baseline reluctance of many viewers to engage with a film set in ancient China that nonetheless has Matt Damon as a protagonist – and while I won’t fault anyone who wants to avoid it on those grounds, or just because they dislike Damon himself – the fact that it’s a predominantly Chinese production, and that William’s character isn’t an instance of whitewashing, is very much worth highlighting. While William certainly plays a pivotal role in vanquishing the enemy, the final battle is a cooperative effort, one he achieves on absolute equal terms and through equal participation with Lin. Nor do I want to downplay the significance of Pascal’s Tovar, who represents a three-dimensional, non-stereotyped Latinx character at a point in time when that’s something we badly need more of. Indeed, given the enthusiastic response to Diego Luna’s portrayal of Cassian Andor in Rogue One, particularly the fact that he kept his accent, I feel a great disservice has been done by everyone who’s failed to mention Pascal’s front-and-centre involvement in the project.

I went into The Great Wall expecting to be mildly entertained by an ambitious muddle, and came out feeling engaged, satisfied and happy. As a film, it’s infinitely better than the structural trainwreck that was the recent Assassin’s Creed adaptation, and not just because the latter stars Michael Fassbender, the world’s most smugly punchable man. The Great Wall is colourful, visually spectacular, well-scripted, neatly characterised, engagingly paced and consistently plotted, and while I might’ve wanted to see a little more of General Shao and his offsiders or learn more about the women of the Crane Corps, that wanting is a product of the success of what I did see: the chosen focus didn’t feel narrow by construction, but rather like a glimpse into a wider, more fully-fleshed setting that was carrying on in the background. For Western audiences, William and Tovar are the outsider characters who introduce us to the Chinese setting, but for Chinese audiences, I suspect, the balance of the film feels very different.

The Great Wall is the kind of production I want to see more of: ambitious, coherent, international and fantastical. If we have to sit through the inclusion of Matt Damon this one time to cement the viability of such collaborations, then so be it. With films like La La Land and Fantastic Beasts actively whitewashing their portrayals of America’s Jazz Age, those wanting to support historical diversity could do much worse than see something which represents a seemingly intelligent, respectful collaboration between Western and Chinese storytellers. Maybe the end result won’t be for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself – and really, what more can you ask?

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