Flashpoint: Perfect use of MMA in Fight scenes.

 

Donnie Yen is one of action cinema's greatest ever leading men. Just look at that man's lifelong work and the passion he has for his craft. He's already got a stellar body of work and even getting older hasn't stopped the machine that is Yen. It was inevitable that I would wind up reviewing at least some of his work on this blog and it's an honour as I'm a huge fan of the man. I picked Flashpoint as I felt that it's as good as any place to start in regards to Yen's incredible output. A collaboration with the Wong Kar-Wai of action movies, Wilson Yip, is a must watch after all!

Let's start with the narrative and go from there. The movie begins with Wilson, portrayed by Louis Koo, an undercover cop as he is on an assignment in a nightclub that's jam packed full of life within Mong Kok. We learn that he's on the trail of three criminal Vietnamese brothers. As it turns out, these brothers are engaging in a drug deal with a rival gang leader named Sam. Before Wilson can ultimately gain what he needs, his partner Ma Jun, portrayed by the awesome Donnie Yen, raids the club in an investigation. Wilson is not too pleased with Ma Jun's actions and ends up on the receiving end of a beautiful judo throw and arm bar. Fortunately, this allows Wilson to keep his cover and he takes the brothers to meet Sam at a driving range. Sam has become impatient due to the brothers having a hard time supplying the drugs that they ship over from Vietnam and which has been delayed. One of the brothers, Tony, decides to leap into action. What follows is a symphony of violence involving weapons such as golf clubs, naturally. From here, the tension ascends rapidly with Wilson's identity as an undercover cop being discovered and the violence escalating until a brutal final showdown between Ma Jun and Tony. It's not the greatest plot ever but, it has enough going for it to be adequately serviceable. I'm partial to undercover escapades and the whole gangsters vs police shtick and this kept me engaged enough for the plot to be considered a positive. 

That being said, the main selling point and what I'd wager most of a movie of this nature's audience to appreciate the most is the action. Flashpoint delivers and perhaps maybe even overdelivers in that regard. Having witnessed the fight scenes, it's no surprise that Donnie Yen picked up an award for Best Action Choreography at the 27th Hong Kong Film Awards and the Golden Horse Film Awards. Working with an international team of martial artists has done wonders for Yen's work and has helped him define a solid style of action in his work. His blend of MMA style takedowns, judo and his trademarks from years past of wu shu tae-kwon do is majestic. Flashpoint has it all, bloody gunplay, tense car chases, parkour and of course what we've come to expect from Donnie Yen movies, epic one on one fistfights.

One such fist fight follows a short, but tense parkour chase sequence with Ma Jun chasing Tiger through the streets before catching him in a restaurant. There's a real emotional weight to the following fight as Tiger had used the unsavoury tactic of holding an innocent young child hostage. This greatly angers Ma Jun as he enacts swift and brutal vengeance upon Tiger and almost beats the Vietnamese gangster to a pulp. The whole sequence does a tremendous job of keeping the audience invested and makes them want to see Ma Jun tear Tiger a new one. Props to everyone involved for that! 

Despite the awesome and brutal justice that is enacted upon Tiger by Ma Jun, the spotlight is stolen by the final showdown. In a fight scene that exceeds eight minutes of screen time, Ma Jun and Tony go to absolute war with one another. In what is one of the greatest fight scenes ever filmed, Donnie Yen and Collin Chou out do themselves and showcase perhaps the greatest incorporation of MMA in any fight scene ever. In this one scene alone we see a triangle choke, a German suplex, leg kicks, a rear naked choke (Donnie seems to love them) and poor Collin Chou being thrown and kicked into almost every object in sight. For a lot of people, this saves the film from falling into perhaps a run of the mill action movie and they may have a point. It's a beautiful concoction of violence that will be hard to top or even equal. Credit must go to Donnie Yen, Collin Chou and the stunt team that helped put this masterpiece together. In fact both Yen and Chou have stated that this was the hardest shoot they've ever done due to the complexity and intensity of the sequence. Hard to argue with them after having viewed the sequence. Also, there's no shaky cam or quick, snippy cuts with the camera work being fluid and enhancing the stunt work, making it look as brutal as possible. I've always admired the Eastern way of filming fight sequences and felt like they've always been superior to Western ways. This is a perfect example of that. I mean, imagine if a Hollywood director had been behind this with their camera crew? Thank god that that didn't happen. 

As far as performances go, Collin Chou stands out as he seems to have a lot of fun playing the main bad guy. His performance as Tony is delightful to behold and his work in the fight scenes is top notch. Donnie Yen is as great as always in the role of protagonist, Ma Jun and is splendid when it comes time to deliver justice to the criminals. Xing Yu also deserves a mention for his portrayal of Tiger as without him, that emotional standoff wouldn't be the same. 

All in all, Flashpoint was never going to be all about the plot. The plot by itself is adequate but not the greatest by any stretch of one's imagination. It could certainly be hard to follow at times. At the end of the day, most people watch a movie such as Flashpoint or most of Donnie Yen's filmography for that matter, for the action. In that sense, Flashpoint exceeds any and all expectations. Yen is amongst the best to have ever worked within the action genre and this is but one of many that proves that point. Also of note is that perhaps, casual action moviegoers would have seen another collaboration between Yen and Wilson Yip, Ip Man, but, unfortunately may have never seen Flashpoint. Ip Man will perhaps forever be known as the definitive collaboration between the pair however, Flash Point deserves a viewing from any action movie connoisseurs and casuals alike.