Change Your Image
rayvik-74924
Reviews
Sankuchuari -seiiki- (2023)
Very Good, Entertaining, Worth your Time, Modern Storytelling Techniques
Who knew there were k.o's in sumo?
Who knew how prestigious sumo is in Japanese culture?
And who knew that a Sumo Sports Drama would be so good?
This drama has everything. Comedy, harsh reality, twisted truths, nail biting suspense. Everything.
I'm so invested in this story. Heck, even the characters in the story that just got into sumo are surprised how much there are into sumo.
What makes sumo so entertaining? Each bout is less than 30 seconds. As an MMA, boxing, wrestling fan, this is insane. No wonder the japanese watch it and gamble on it. It's complete tension and release in seconds!
Overall, the sport itself is great you'll love it. And you will definitely want to watch sumo live after this. It's so brutal. The knockouts, ringouts, tosses, strikes. Everything.
The Guardians of Justice (2022)
A very underrated show that delivers, realism, 80s style glorification of violence and cynicism
I was stunned within the first 5 minutes. The premise was very enthralling and the art style is well thought out. Unfortunately, budget restraints are apparent. Let's dissect the movie into components.
Plot and message: A refinement of "who's watching the watchmen?", or in other words, who keeps our heroes accountable? What exactly does humankind strive to work towards these days? Excellent message and plot. Political motives questioned and requestioned.
Characters: Excessively stereotypical. But this is it's strong point! When you have this many characters to introduce, you want them easy to understand and grasp. The only character we sort of see chiseled in granulated detail is the narrator and chief perspective driver, Night Hawk. A batmanesque figure with a detective frameset. A Whodunnit vehicle who is on top of things just enough to make it through the chaos of this world building escapade. Yes, I appreciate the way the story unfolds via Night Hawks investigations and his style of world building. He was the perfect character for us to cling onto in this frenetic story. A sense of order in a chaotic, sensory overloading world built by the author.
Action and fighting: Excessively detailed. Why are all the fighters trained in Judo and Jujitsu? I mean come on! Flying armbar to triangle transition to gun to head-shot? Seriously, this is too complex for most movie goers. This is at a level only MMA students will appreciate. Appropriate use of Judo in multiple enemy encounters, appropriate use of Jiiu Jitsu in single one on one encounters (men against men fights) the superhero fights of course I will leave to the comic experts to dissect.
As for gun play, there is appropriate use of cover and line of sight. But, the lack of reloading takes away the realism.
As for striking.... Yeah Tom Yum Goong and the Raid fans are not going to be impressed. But striking isn't necessary when almost everyone is weapon wielding so I'm willing to forgive this aspect.
Stylistic delivery of the fights is a mish mash of 60s Batman POW! And 80s Rambo fights and Kickass tongue on cheek.
Pacing: High velocity requiring multiple views to catch details or Red Bull or stimulants to keep up. Stay away from drugs kids. Just grab a red bull and some tea and you're good to go to experience this.
Overall verdict: Masterpiece. 8/10 receives penalty due to budget constraints. A welcome respite from the overly worn Marvel formula(which is practically just dance and music scenes short of an Indian Bollywood film at this point) if you don't understand the comparison, I expound; a Bollywood film has two major plots one early one late, multiple sub plots. It has multiple side characters, wrapped with an attempt attempt to stir every emotion. Is it action? Yes. It is social commentary? Yes. Is it drama? Yes. Is it comedy? Yes. Is it slice of life? Yes. Marvel movies are to film what Kpop is to music. Every identity and hence, no identity.
This series by Adi Shankar is the opposite. It has identity, it has its own way about it and definitely isn't cookie cutter friendly. For God sakes, the superhuman Alien that brings salvation is Korean! How alien and fresh does this series get! Also, it's deep, it's reflective of modern life, but it hides itself in the humble cloak of "superficiality". Thank you Adi Shankar. You have rekindled my interest in the Hero genre again!
Yip Man 4 (2019)
Inaccurate and dramatic but excellent storytelling.
Please excuse my non movie related preble but I must give context before I begin the review proper
Firstly, we must recognize ( as I have had experience in both multiple martial arts and studied martial arts history as sportive endeavors on one and and as combat preparation in real war in the other) that martial arts is a passion and HOBBY. If you're a "warrior" in today's time, you would know how to use a handgun, knife, rifle, basic close and mid range shooting tactics. ( Just watch professional soldiers beat paintball amateurs in YouTube) this is most likely how you would kill or be killed in real life of you aren't bombed in the first place....
As an additional crux to this, mixed martial arts is bound by the cage, ( so hand to hand and fighting against a wall is a huge part ) and using direct simpler methods of punches, elbows, knees and kicks. It is also bound by rules like no striking behind the head, no eye gouging and groin strikes. At the end of the day MMA is very effective if the practitioner is sufficiently skilled in submissions, wrestling/ upper body grappling/ clinch/ boxing/ muay Thai and (for MMA) specifically fighting against a wall/ cage. Advanced boxing and kicking/ advanced wrestling/judo advanced submission are seen but uncommonly so because they are easily countered by basic techniques in another field of fighting. For instance a 360 degree spinning kick is easily countered by running into the person and clinching. A blast double can be easily countered by a knee. Guard techniques are easily countered by posture and ground and pound. It's essentially a rock paper scissors scenario in MMA. Khabib may seem like he's winning in grappling but it's because he's sufficiently good in all other aspects to negate the opponents attacks, then he imposes his way of finishing the fight...
In conclusion for my first point martial arts and MMA are spectator events.... They take a long time to learn and their exponents are very injury prone. Few people want to spend their life on a mat or boxing ring...
In real life a knife, tactical flash light which blinds people and pepper spray will SMASH an expert in any martial art and give you a chance against multiple unarmed assailants... Let's not even talk about multiple assailants with non gun weapons....
In summary watch professional soldiers / marines/ spec ops play paintball and dominate in YouTube.... If you truly want to be a warrior you would spend your days with pistol, rifle and armed weapons tactics, and supplement with just one year training of grappling ( which you will use to knife a downed opponent anyway) and a few months of striking..
Then you would maintain these skills while going to the gym to maintain muscle mass and cardiovascular fitness. On the street, carrying a tactical flashlight/ pepper spray and knife if it is legal in your country will be the safest thing for you and your loved ones.
I mention all these because martial arts and ( this movie is no exception) will give you a false sense of safety. We must recognize what it for what it is: a semi fictional account of IP man, Bruce Lee and a commentary on racism in the 60s in USA...
Wonderfully choreographed, excellently paced, emotionally stirring as all ip man movies are with racial/ cultural/ patriotic messages ( within the bounds of what is ethically accepted portrayal) Yes it may spur you to learn martial arts and I hope whatever you learn you mix it with Brazilian jiu jitsu which will really help prevent women from being raped and men from being knocked out by physically stronger opponents.
The craziest and most awesome thing about this movie is the chief villain who acted in undisputed 2. He is known to be a huge fan and disciple of Jean Claude Van Damme and a Taekwondo exponent.... His flying kicks and incorporation of wrestling and boxing and taekwondo into his Jean Claude Van Damme style Karate is just so fun to watch!!!!! It was actually the first time in a IP Man movie the villain had a more interesting and impressive style than the protagonist. Kudos to the whole development and production team. Truly a work of art and worth watching over and over as long as you can stomach the ugly racism on display.