The Night Comes For Us - Fight For Your Soul?
Thought On: The Night Comes For Us (2018)
An enforcer deeply entrenched in the Triad tries to escape his organisation, saving an innocent girl from the slaughter of his men.
The Night Comes For Us is a scream, an unrelenting bellow into shadowy depths whose black breath engulfs all that is and whose sable jaws rain upon all that there ever can be. A fight against cessation itself, this is marred by battle after battle, each fought between present death and a chance to save something that can live on beyond one's body; a chance to save one's soul, innocence and hope. Such outlines some of the archetypal underpinnings of what is, on the surface, a surprisingly gruesome meeting of martial arts and gore.
Of all the fight films I have ever seen, none really come close to The Night Comes For Us in regards to gore. Maybe some of the Rambo films come the closest, but to find more blood, guts and snapping bones, you'd have to move into horror and exploitation or outside of genre and into art cinemas (like the shadowy side of late 80s, 90s and early 2000s Japanese art cinema). The unique combination of exploitative spectacle of a visceral and real nature and a display of (for a film) high level martial arts - which goes far beyond the stylised goriness seen in the likes of a Tarantino movie like Kill Bill - is the film's key selling point. In some senses, this is then a rather more melodramatic incarnation, less sharp in the choreographic department, of The Raid (which is impossible not to think of thanks to Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim taking lead roles). Like The Raid 2, however, this suffers from trying to do a little too much in terms of narrative and dramatic performance. The Raid's excellence lays in its laconic characterisation and narrativisation; we come to learn only a little about who our characters are and what is going on - most of which is only imperative to understanding what is going on. The drama of The Raid, as is true of all great fight films, is found in physical combat; a key expression of conflict, meaning and theme. As described above, The Night Comes For Us does have a coherent narrative underneath it with an archetypal base. Too much of this, however, is rooted in melodramatic cut scenes and is not capitalised upon in the fights - a downfall of the too-long sequel to The Raid. That is to say that the fight sequences do not have drama embedded within them of much subtextual depth.
This is important and relevant not only for someone looking to write about the symbolism and meaning in a film, but because, without drama, a fight scene is only spectacle; is only an exuberant expression of martial arts skill, choreography, stunt work, set-design and practical effects (make-up, blood, etc). As masterfully executed these elements may be individually, without narrative support, they do little for a fight scene and simply aren't very engaging. This is especially true with all apart from choreography. Choreography is a form of storytelling, so it has the ability to generate its own drama, not just magnify drama established in a precursing narrative. Alas, it is highly unlikely that practical effects, for example, can generate drama genuinely. Of course, one can conceive of a means of making and analysing a fight scene that breaks this rule, however. One may then envision a fight scene in which blood streams through the air like visual poetry. Here practical effects create drama. On the other hand, one may see an excessive use of blood in a fight film to be an artistic commentary of some sorts; people have made this argument with art films such as Salo, perceiving the gore elements (manifested by practical effects) to be a core of dramatic expression. Alas, whilst this is a possibility, The Night Comes For Us operates in a more classical mode of fight film and so doesn't, in my opinion, deserve to be read in such a way - and indeed doesn't seem to mean to be.
In total, we are left with a somewhat mindless film in The Night Comes For Us. Its characterisation and story are weak. This is no surprise or much of a let down, but a bit too much time is spent on the empty melodrama. Furthermore, the acting is pretty shaky at points - one can even sense this through language barriers (which is... not good at all). Not all of the fights are choreographed and performed as well as one another (some early sequences are very stiff and unimmersive), and without generating physical drama, they lack impact despite being amusingly, creatively and strikingly gory. In the end, if you're a fight film fan, this may not be a masterpiece, but it is well worth the watch.
Previous post:
End Of The Week Shorts #83
Next post:
Bao/Jung/Sign/Symbol/Film - Semantic vs. Semiotic Readings
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
An enforcer deeply entrenched in the Triad tries to escape his organisation, saving an innocent girl from the slaughter of his men.
The Night Comes For Us is a scream, an unrelenting bellow into shadowy depths whose black breath engulfs all that is and whose sable jaws rain upon all that there ever can be. A fight against cessation itself, this is marred by battle after battle, each fought between present death and a chance to save something that can live on beyond one's body; a chance to save one's soul, innocence and hope. Such outlines some of the archetypal underpinnings of what is, on the surface, a surprisingly gruesome meeting of martial arts and gore.
Of all the fight films I have ever seen, none really come close to The Night Comes For Us in regards to gore. Maybe some of the Rambo films come the closest, but to find more blood, guts and snapping bones, you'd have to move into horror and exploitation or outside of genre and into art cinemas (like the shadowy side of late 80s, 90s and early 2000s Japanese art cinema). The unique combination of exploitative spectacle of a visceral and real nature and a display of (for a film) high level martial arts - which goes far beyond the stylised goriness seen in the likes of a Tarantino movie like Kill Bill - is the film's key selling point. In some senses, this is then a rather more melodramatic incarnation, less sharp in the choreographic department, of The Raid (which is impossible not to think of thanks to Iko Uwais and Joe Taslim taking lead roles). Like The Raid 2, however, this suffers from trying to do a little too much in terms of narrative and dramatic performance. The Raid's excellence lays in its laconic characterisation and narrativisation; we come to learn only a little about who our characters are and what is going on - most of which is only imperative to understanding what is going on. The drama of The Raid, as is true of all great fight films, is found in physical combat; a key expression of conflict, meaning and theme. As described above, The Night Comes For Us does have a coherent narrative underneath it with an archetypal base. Too much of this, however, is rooted in melodramatic cut scenes and is not capitalised upon in the fights - a downfall of the too-long sequel to The Raid. That is to say that the fight sequences do not have drama embedded within them of much subtextual depth.
This is important and relevant not only for someone looking to write about the symbolism and meaning in a film, but because, without drama, a fight scene is only spectacle; is only an exuberant expression of martial arts skill, choreography, stunt work, set-design and practical effects (make-up, blood, etc). As masterfully executed these elements may be individually, without narrative support, they do little for a fight scene and simply aren't very engaging. This is especially true with all apart from choreography. Choreography is a form of storytelling, so it has the ability to generate its own drama, not just magnify drama established in a precursing narrative. Alas, it is highly unlikely that practical effects, for example, can generate drama genuinely. Of course, one can conceive of a means of making and analysing a fight scene that breaks this rule, however. One may then envision a fight scene in which blood streams through the air like visual poetry. Here practical effects create drama. On the other hand, one may see an excessive use of blood in a fight film to be an artistic commentary of some sorts; people have made this argument with art films such as Salo, perceiving the gore elements (manifested by practical effects) to be a core of dramatic expression. Alas, whilst this is a possibility, The Night Comes For Us operates in a more classical mode of fight film and so doesn't, in my opinion, deserve to be read in such a way - and indeed doesn't seem to mean to be.
In total, we are left with a somewhat mindless film in The Night Comes For Us. Its characterisation and story are weak. This is no surprise or much of a let down, but a bit too much time is spent on the empty melodrama. Furthermore, the acting is pretty shaky at points - one can even sense this through language barriers (which is... not good at all). Not all of the fights are choreographed and performed as well as one another (some early sequences are very stiff and unimmersive), and without generating physical drama, they lack impact despite being amusingly, creatively and strikingly gory. In the end, if you're a fight film fan, this may not be a masterpiece, but it is well worth the watch.
Previous post:
End Of The Week Shorts #83
Next post:
Bao/Jung/Sign/Symbol/Film - Semantic vs. Semiotic Readings
More from me:
amazon.com/author/danielslack
