1685 – Hardcore Henry (2015)

timespace coordinates: near-future Moscow

Hardcore Henry (Russian: Хардкор; also known simply as Hardcore in some countries)  is a 2015 Russian-American science fiction action film written and directed by Ilya Naishuller (in his feature directorial debut).

It stars Sharlto Copley, Danila Kozlovsky, Haley Bennett, and Tim Roth. Henry was played by 10 different stuntmen and cameramen including the director Ilya Naishuller, Darya Charusha, who plays a dominatrix biker, is also the film’s composer.

Max Nicholson of IGN rated the film 8.6/10 stating “Two parts FPS, one part platformer and a pinch of HowToBasic, director Ilya Naishuller’s Hardcore Henry is a recipe for non-stop, ludicrous fun. While the film’s actual story is nigh existent [sic], it’s sure to please gamers and action junkies alike with its inventive set pieces and mind-boggling action” and “Hardcore Henry lives up to the title with non-stop, off-the-wall action and a love for all things video games”. (wiki)

The video game “Payday 2“ had a cross-promotion before the movie’s release. It came with heists relating to the film’s plot, along with a new playable character (Jimmy) and new weapons. A poster for the game can be seen on wall of the one of the apartments where Slick Dimitri is found and Jimmy’s mask from the game can be seen in the drawer with the weapons in the strip club.

Before this film, writer and director Ilya Naishuller made several music videos for his Russian punk rock band “Biting Elbows”. The videos were shot in the same style: Fast paced, first person perspective action videos.

imdb   /  possible sequel

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1595 – Fallen Angels (1995)

timespace coordinates: 1995 urban, nighttime Hong Kong

Fallen Angels is a 1995 Hong Kong drama film written and directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung, and Karen Mok. As with the filmmaker’s other features, plot takes a back seat to mood.

Originally conceived by Wong as the third story for 1994’s Chungking Express, it was cut after he decided that it was complete without it. He instead decided to develop the story further into its own feature film and borrowed elements of Chungking Express, such as themes, locations and methods of filming. Wanting to also try to differentiate it from Chungking and to try something new, Wong decided along with cinematographer Christopher Doyle to shoot mainly at night and using extreme wide-angle lenses, keeping the camera as close to the talents as possible to give a detached effect from the world around them.

In an interview, Wong had this to say:

…To me, Chungking Express and Fallen Angels are one film that should be three hours long. I always think these two films should be seen together as a double bill. In fact, people asked me during an interview for Chungking Express: “You’ve made these two stories which have no relationship at all to each other, how can you connect them?” And I said, ‘The main characters of Chungking Express are not Faye Wong or Takeshi Kaneshiro, but the city itself, the night and day of Hong Kong. Chungking Express and Fallen Angels together are the bright and dark of Hong Kong.” I see the films as inter-reversible, the character of Faye Wong could be the character of Takeshi in Fallen Angels; Brigitte Lin in Chungking could be Leon Lai in Fallen Angels. All of their characters are inter-reversible. Also, in Chungking we were shooting from a very long distance with long lenses, but the characters seem close to us.

In the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote:

The acme of neo-new-wavism, the ultimate in MTV alienation, the most visually voluptuous flick of the fin de siècle, a pyrotechnical wonder about mystery, solitude, and the irrational love of movies that pushes Wong’s style to the brink of self-parody.

wiki   /   imdb   /   rottentomatoes