Warning! Spoilers for Fistful of Vengeance
Fistful of Vengeance has a fantastic one-shot fight sequence in its third act, but the technical elements behind it make it even more impressive. A follow-up to the Netflix martial arts series Wu Assassins, which debuted in 2019, Fistful of Vengeance acts as a standalone continuation of the show. Many of the series' core cast members also return, including Iko Uwais, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao, and JuJu Chan Szeto. However, it's the cinematography and technical proficiency of the fighting that really stands out.
In Fistful of Vengeance, Kai Jin (Uwais) travels to Thailand with his friends Lu Xin Lee (Tan) and Tommy (Kao) in pursuit of crime boss Ku An Qi (Rhatha Phongam). With Ku having murdered Tommy's sister Jenny (Li Jun Li), she's also one half of the ancient immortal Pan Gu, who seeks to wipe out the world and rebuild it anew. She also has the power to bring people under her control as zombie minions, which leads right into the movie's electrifying oner fight.
With Lu Xin brought under Pan Gu's control, he and several other henchmen are forced to fight Kai in the single-take action scene. While it's a truly standout set piece of the ending of Fistful of Vengeance, looking at the fight's creation shows what an achievement it really is. The fight was filmed on a robot bolt camera, and this presented considerable additional challenges for Uwais, Tan, and the other players in the scene. For one thing, the bolt camera moves swiftly from one section of the scene to another, capturing the fight from different angles. Meanwhile, the fight choreography sees everyone involved constantly changing their location on the platform that fight takes place on. This means that even more than usual, everyone partaking in the fight sequence had to be extremely cognizant of the camera's location at all times, lest the one-shot martial arts action scene be ruined midway through.
Beyond the obvious issues of any one-shot scene, however, the very swift rate at which the bolt camera moves from one spot to another presented the various players with a challenge of another sort. Any tracking shot is going to create ambient motion that could distract the actors in the scene, making it twice as important for their focus to be maintained. The bolt camera, true to its name, complicates that challenge even more by not only moving very swiftly, but being right in the center of the action at any given time.
This meant that Uwais, Tan, and the other fighters involved had to be careful to avoid both injury and distraction while the star of The Raid films and his co-stars executed complex fight choreography. The bolt camera swiftly darting around wasn't simply something to avoid being hit by, but also an object to make sure that one's peripheral vision never pay too much attention to. Letting the bolt camera creep into their view could have resulted in one of the actors roundhouse kicking another in the head. By the same token, the risk of getting hit or swept by the bolt camera could've caused an injury, damage to the camera, or both. Fortunately, the end product in Fistful of Vengeance is a very harmonious ballet of martial arts.
One-shot fight scenes are always a crowd-pleaser, but it should never be forgotten how much coordination and logistics go into them. As a major set piece of the Thailand-based shoot of Fistful of Vengeance, the film's one-shot fight is no exception. Ultimately, the oner fight of Fistful of Vengeance pays off in a big way. With the especially complex technical nature of it, viewers should tip their hats to everyone involved on a job very well done.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/WiVFESP
