Film Inquiry Recommends: Foreign Action Films

Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily film recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is Foreign Action Films! This week we wanted to highlight some under-seen films mixed in with some more well known fare, so you’ll notice the big exception on the list are Gareth Evan’s masterful films The Raid 1 & 2 and probably more that you’ve seen and could recommend to us.

1. Sleepless Night (2011, Frederic Jardin)

Country of Origin: France

Due to be remade in India and America soon, Sleepless Night is a great claustrophobic action film which juggles multiple characters, action and plot very well, whilst all contained within a single nightclub on one night. The plot centers around Vincent (Tomer Sisley), a corrupt cop who messes up a hit on a drug trade, thus ends up with a large amount of cocaine belonging to nightclub owner Jose. When Jose finds out what Vincent did, he kidnaps Vincent’s son and gives him one night to give his merchandise back in order to get his kid. This simple plan goes wrong when Infernal affairs police get involved and things start to spiral out of control. This film is quite intense, with several hard-hitting action scenes which are shot nice and clean, allowing the action to be seen rather than shaky-cam or poor editing taking over to hide poor filmmaking.

The way that the film juggles the interactions between all the characters within the crowded nightclub is really well done and makes sure you’re never lost with what is currently going on. Vincent is put in a really crappy position, but at the same time, he isn’t the most clean or likeable protagonist, which brings an interesting dynamic to the story and the film doesn’t resort to a Hollywood ending or a predictable ending featuring Vincent’s child being held hostage and his Dad saving him. The film avoids a lot of predictable choices and tropes, which makes it feel quite refreshing and with such an assured feature, it’s sad to see that Frederic Jardin hasn’t made a feature since, mainly stuck doing frequent television directing jobs.

2. The City of Violence (2006, Ryoo Seung-wan)

Country of Origin: South Korea

City of Violence is a really slick martial arts film which puts the priority on entertaining action rather than a complex story, which makes it an action film worth checking out. The story centers on a group of 4 childhood friends, who reunite after one of them is killed. The friends, who have split up as they got older went onto several different paths. Tae-su is a cop (Jung Doo-hong), Seok-hwan is a debt collector (director Ryoo Seung-wan),Dong-hwan is a maths teacher and Pil-ho (Lee Beom-soo) is the head of the local mafia outfit. The Tae-su and Seok-hwan suspect there is more to the death of their 5th friend (an ex-gangster) so they start to investigate themselves, to somewhat predictable results.

The action scenes in this are quite ambitious, featuring some great taekwondo fighting scenes, featuring multi-man brawls and creative uses of spacial awareness to really maximise on its surroundings.  The awesome climax features a large amount of extras attacking at the same time, which gives a much more epic feel than most martial arts films. The climax is a multi-layered series of fight scenes that’s worth watching the film for. This is a movie which understands that sometimes audiences just want a series of really well-directed and nicely stage fight scenes and puts its focus on that, which is not a slam on the plot or acting, it’s just that it excels in its action staging much more than any of the other elements in the film.

3.Viva Riva! (2010, Djo Tunda Wa Munga)

Country of Origin: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Viva Riva is a traditional western noirish crime thriller wrapped in a 3rd world context, which embraces its Congolese setting to make an original action film. Whilst the film is filled with femme fatales, an average man turned to crime to elevate his social status, clashes with the mafia, corrupt lawmakers, shoot-outs and fist fights, makes it sound like a typical forgettable crime action film but this is not.

Viva Riva tells the story of Riva, an intelligent citizen stuck in the Congolese slums where petrol is sacred, where word gets around about a large cache of petrol. When Riva hears this, he puts together a plan to steal it and get out of town towards a better life. But of course, due to its high demand, the cache is also hunted by various criminals, including Cesar. Cesar is an angry foreigner who is played by Hoji Fortuna, an actual threatening antagonist who uses old school brutality to make his mark. The constantly shifting plot tends to be quite predictable, but the fresh elements that the Congolese setting brings really elevate the material. The action scenes, especially the ending, are well shot and feature some well choreographed shoot out scenes.

4. Elite Squad (2007, José Padilha)

Country of Origin: Brazil

Elite Squad is not just an action film, there’s a lot more going on than your standard police thriller. Elite Squad takes aim at police corruption, class issues, our ideas of morality and more, wrapped in a well-directed intense police thriller. The film intertwines several stories, with the main character being Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura, who is slowly making his face known in Western Cinema), leader of the BOPE (Special Police Operation Battalion) but due to his pregnant wife and worsening conditions at his job, he strives for a different position, whilst dealing with crime on the streets and his corrupt police force. At the same time, new recruits Neto (Caio Junqueira) and Matias (André Ramiro) expect to join an honest police force, but are confronted with the high levels of corruption and lack of efficiency, decide to join BOPE where they are trained by Captain Nascimento.

The film balances realism and entertaining action set pieces, making sure that the audience takes these scenes seriously rather than seeing them as some empty action scenes purely for entertainment purposes. The cinematography, directing, writing and acting are fantastic overall and is one of the best Brazilian movies alongside City of God (which dealt with the criminal side rather than the police). Due to the film’s huge success in Brazil, there is a sequel (also starring Wagner Moura) which delves into the politics much heavier and is less of an action film and rather a political thriller. Whilst not a bad film, people expecting another action film may be disappointed.

5. District 13 (2004, Pierre Morel)

Country of Origin: France

This great French Free-Running action film is one isn’t a deep film at all, but features some incredible practical stunt work and ADD-infused directing style which keeps the film going, never slowing down, much like the characters in the film. The shallow plot, is about Leïto, played by David Belle (who is regarded as the founder of Parkour), a vigilante inside a blocked off section of France, named District 13, which houses all of the lower class citizens and criminals. After things go wrong when trying to take down a drug dealer, Leïto is forced to team up with undercover cop Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) to stop a kingpin who is about to launch a nuclear device.

It’s over the top, but the film doesn’t really care and put its focus on the action scenes, which are some of the best parkour footage you’ll see outside of shaky amateur footage. The opening scene, which sees David Belle scouring various rooftops, is something to behold and the clip has frequently gone viral online. The film was remade by Americans in 2010, titled Brick Mansions and was one of the last roles by the late Paul Walker, who played the undercover cop Damien, whereas David Belle reprised his role as Leïto (whose American accent needs work). The film also had a sequel, District 13: Ultimatum, which brought back Belle and Raffaelli and whilst it’s still entertaining, doesn’t do much new and suffers the syndrome of most sequels where it mostly retreads most elements of the first film without injecting enough new material to feel fresh.

6. Born To Fight (2004, Panna Rittikrai)

Country of Origin: Thailand

Following the worldwide success of Ong Bak, Thailand followed it up with Born to Fight, an all-out stunt spectacle that once all the pieces are in place, does not stop and features some awesome practical stunt work that are sorely missing in Western cinema. Born to Fight tells the story of Daew, a cop who is currently recovering after arresting drug lord Yang, which lead to the death of his partner. His sister asks him to join her on a trip to a small village to do some charity work, once there, a gang who works for Yang arrives and takes the town hostage, demanding that Yang be released in return for the town. When the town decides to fight back, all action breaks loose.

Whilst some of the ideals and actions of the film may be lost in translation to a Western audience (as some of the more patriotic elements come across as quite cheesy and arbitrary) overall the film is focused on its martial arts fight scenes and crazy stunt work. The film opens up with a fight on-top of a moving truck which opens the film in a spectacular way and once all the exposition is out of the way later on, the film devolves into full-on action, which features a combination of shootouts, hand to hand combat, parkour, soccer tricks and more. Born To Fight is not a deep film at all, but a really good pure action film.

7. Cell 211 (2009, Daniel Monzón)

Country of Origin: Spain

Rookie Prison guard Juan Oliver (Alberto Ammann) is accidentally left inside a prison cell when a full scale riot goes down. In order to stay alive, he poses as a prisoner and slowly starts to become friendly with the head of the riot, Malamadre (Luis Tosar), whilst some of the other prisoners start to suspect something is off with this new prisoner. With Juan’s pregnant wife waiting for him on the outside, the media circling around the riot and Malamadre having to constantly assert power, Juan must fight to stay alive.

It’s a great premise and Monzón directs it really well, slowly tightening the tension and building the suspense as Juan has to keep covering his tracks and keeping us his prisoner facade in order to stay alive. Some of the action scenes within the prison are quite brutal and the film heightens the realistic aspects of the film, without revelling in the brutality or gore of the scenes. The film is quite a bleak adventure, which avoids the tropes of usual Hollywood films. Overall, the film is quite solid, from the acting, cinematography and ability to keep the audience engaged throughout.

What are some more great foreign action films that you can recommend?

(top image: Sleepless Night – source: Tribeca Films)