Neo Noir Fun!

Vengance (2009) and Bunraku (2010)

If you haven't heard of either of these films, well, you aren't alone. Both had tiny theatrical releases in the US and although Bunraku featured known stars like Josh Hartnett, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson, no one seemed to care much.

Film noir as a genre is one that I feel like I enjoy even though I haven't seen many of the classic Hollywood film noir pictures. Its also a really tough genre to pin down... Although everything I've read consistently states that film noirs feature antiheroes, tough moral decisions, low key lighting, use of shadow and contrast, interesting camerawork... Apparently whole books have been devoted to find out whats actually noir.

The two things I found interesting during research was that two of what I call noir archetypes aren't actually considered film noir. Or to restate, what two characters would you most think of if I said "name a basic film noir character"? Both the hard boiled detective and the sultry femme fatale are apparently not original to film noir. My favorite description from the 50s was that all true noirs involve dream-like, strange, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel plot devices...

Anyhow, both of the above movies I'd place in the "neo noir" genre... Two of the most prevalent issues in neo noir are identity crises and questions of subjectivity as well as technological problems and social ramifications. Some of my absolute favorite movies have some basis in neo noir - looking over my shelf, films like Blade Runner, Dark City, Fargo, Memento, Out of Sight, Reservoir Dogs, Se7en, Minority Report... the list goes on and on...

So because most people probably haven't seen either Vengeance or Bunraku, I'll keep the plot descriptions light and try to be as spoiler free as possible....

Vengeance is a French-Hong Kong collaboration by prolific and acclaimed filmmaker Johnnie To. I am not familiar with any of To's other movies, but the biggest strength of Vengeance is the direction. The film's visual style just floored me at times. Its hard to explain, but think John Woo if he just got done watching a Sergio Leone marathon.

To has a talent for shooting "cool machismo" and in a era of silly wire work/bullet time fighting, it was super refreshing just to watch guys shooting pistols at each other. To’s brilliant emphasis on sound (or lack of), lighting, hero shots, slick angles and slow motion made the pow-pow bits highly memorable (the showdown near scrapyard is cool). There’s one gun party set in a forest, sporadically illuminated by moon light with no sound other than gun fire that's just breathtaking.

As far as the plot, it involves Vengeance... Without giving anything away past the first few minutes, it involves an older man (played by Johnny Halladay, the french equivalent to Elvis) who's daughter and family are gunned down by three Triad hitmen. The man, Costello, swears vengeance, and spends the rest of the movie trying to avenge their deaths by tracking down both the hitmen and their boss.

Hallyday made for an above the norm anti hero. With his emotion filled eyes, nonthreatening physique (the guy is in his mid 60s - far cry from an Arnold type) and a face that says “yes I’ve lived the hard life got a problem with that” he was ideal for the role. Special props to go three To regulars: Anthony Wong, Ka Tung Lam and Suet Lam. This quirky trio all shared an electrifying chemistry and gelled with Hallyday’s acting style effortlessly. Wong in particular really stood out – talk about an awesome screen presence. I'd never seen him before but I really loved his intense performance.

However, despite all this, Vengeance falls into the same "revenge" plot that's been done. There are a bunch of plot/logic holes here too (a lot of "Hollywood" aiming in certain scenes) as well as a total lack of police anywhere in the movie. Finally, although the movie has a lot of violent gunplay, the actual bullet impacts resemble a paintball fight more often then not. Although given the poetic nature of the film, that may be what they were going for.


Bunraku also relies on interesting visuals, although Guy Moshe seems to be going for a Sin City style Kurosawa film. The basic plot here is that in the future, all guns are outlawed after world war 3 so society basically backtracks to a quasi feudal system like ancient China. A woodcutter named Nicola comes to rise as warlord of all the world "East of the Atlantic" and hes got nine deadly killers as well as an army of red suited goons to back him up. The heroes are a no named drifter played by Josh Hartnett as well as a samurai played by Gackt (a super famous Japanese musician) who begrudgingly team up to take down Nicola (underplayed beautifully by Ron Perlman).

Its really difficult to describe the visual flair and style of Bunraku. Its a super rich, colorful film unlike Sin City but it features a similar stylistic approach. There's a great melding of animation and live action, also touching on classic western motifs and definitely oddly enough the musicals of the 50s and 60s. Although Hartnett and Gackt both look cool and have unique fighting styles, I didn't really get into them characterwise... they both have motivation, but they aren't very deep interesting people, mostly there to fight there quirky killers and armies of red shirted mooks.

Three things really elevate this movie beyond the average martial arts fight fest. I really loved Woody Harrelson as the bartender... He has great comic timing without being annoying, I felt like he had the most interesting backstory and character arc... Harrelson is a tricky actor to use properly but between Zombieland a couple years ago and now this its good to see him getting such good work. Will Patton plays the omniscient narrator and the narrator is almost his own character in the movie. Since good chunks are told in a quasi animated flashback, Patton's narration carries the movie through some of the more non linear perspectives (I love him in the opening too).

Finally, for me, the true standout and absolute scene stealer of the movie is Scottish actor Kevin McKidd as Killer #2. He mixes the danger and ruthlessness of Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs with the charm and grace of Fred Astaire and is a super uniquely cool adversary. If you unfamiliar with McKidd (beyond his current role in Grays Anatomy) I'd recommend his star making turn as the lead in Dog Soldiers. I'm serious that the character belongs in the Darth Maul group of "awesome bad guy henchmen (maybe a future blog post there)" and is super memorable, especially points of the climactic fight scene.

So what doesn't work about Bunraku? Demi Moore seems bored, out of place and wasted as Harrelson's love interest. I wish Perlman was in the movie a bit more and he had a little more backstory to play. The fights with the 9 killers for the most part are really well handled, however, some of the fights against the armies of mook henchmen could have been cut down. Finally, there are a ton of plot holes here, but the point is more on the visual/feel and fighting rather then strong script. Gackt's character in particular is so archetypal I feel like I've seen him in dozens of other movies (Hartnett gets less focus and has less dialogue so I actually enjoyed him more). If you enjoy kung fu movies and or Sin City or want to see a memorable villain and an epic Hartnett mustaches, check out Bunraku.

So we'll see what we get next in the old Netflix queue. I'm really looking forward to Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale as well as 30 minutes or less. It was just ironic that these two movies literally almost came back to back. Until next time, that's all I have to say about that..


Patrick