Tuesday 15 January 2013

The ‘American Manga’ of Cinema [Double Team (1997)]

From http://cf2.imgobject.com/t/p/w500/kgFihiZdCqFYcvkc2udZ4BeTOz0.jpg


Dir. Tsui Hark
USA
Film #15 of The ‘Worst’ of Cinema

From http://www.thefancarpet.com/uploaded_assets/images/
gallery/1011/Double_Team_11980_Medium.jpg

An assessment needs to be made on nineties action films like this. A film like Street Fighter (1994) is in no way near as awful and reprehensible as the critical view on it is, as are many other examples like the movie I’m covering today. I am spending my twenties to slowly dissect the 1990s I grew up in, starting with cinema, and I truly do not remember the decade the way it actually was. It was a decade in hindsight that was completely chaotic, a fin de siècle decade that involved decadence, pre-millennium, millennium bug fed, anxiety and Vanilla Ice. In seriousness, it was the decade where post-modernism was felt in mainstream culture as well, something you could see especially in cinema of the time. Quentin Tarantino’s rise in popularity is pretty much the flagpole to this attitude of the era, in his breakdown of genre and self reflection, but the mindset could be seen in numerous areas of filmmaking, from Iranian art house cinema to videogame adaptations. American films of the nineties, especially the critically reviled genre franchises and adaptations of videogames, comic books etc., are a misunderstood, howling mass of gaudy colours, tonal shifts and pop cultural objects that are utterly fascinating and weird at the same time. Even by the end of the decade, where we view it through films like Titanic (1997) to Fight Club (1999), there were films like Batman and Robin (1997) and this. No one thought twice about making the immortals in the second Highlander film aliens.  No one realised the giant platform jump of making Super Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom into a grubby Blade Runner-like environment with Dennis Hopper, in Frank Booth mode, as King Koopa. And no one realised the pop cultural contusions Double Team would cause by putting together Van Damn, director Tsui Hark, in an era where Hong Kong cinema would drastically American action films from then on, Mickey Rouke and basketball star, and occasionally WCW wrestler,  Dennis Rodman within the same film.

From http://www.imcdb.org/i057066.jpg

Double Team is one of the closest things I have seen to a live action Japanese manga made entirely in the US, with the great influence of Asian and Chinese martial arts cinema, not just in Hark’s direction but an action choreography that was done by the legendary Sammo Hung. Bear in mind that manga is for all ages and genders in its home country, and of all genres and uses, so I am referring to stereotype of men’s manga that flooded the West, and I know of more through all the anime adaptations of them or within the same mindset, that were made, before the drastic change in audience after the 2000s. Action packed, a protagonist or two fleshed out enough to push forward the plotline, a twist or incident each chapter or page to keep the reader on their toes and show anything is possible in the story, and a bending, or complete abandonment, of physics to allow the author to create any imaginary set piece they can come up with. This is less bloody than this sort of material, and has absolutely no sex despite having the requisite fetish and gimp clothing from a cyberpunk anime in certain scenes, but the sprinting, delirious tone of them is clearly seen in Double Team. When he fails to capture the terrorist Stavros (Rourke), Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is sent to an island known as the Colony for spies and counter-terrorists that are too dangerous to set free but too valuable to kill off. With Stravros still on the loose, who has a personal vendetta against Quinn and targets his pregnant wife (Natacha Lindinger), Quinn has to escape the Colony and get the help of the unconventional gun dealer Yaz (Rodman).

From http://watchesinmovies.info/img/f/Double-Team-JCVD01.jpg

Van Damme’s filmography, while not thoroughly cleared through by myself, is far more fascinating than almost of his action star contemporaries that became big in the eighties, working with legendary Asian action directors like Hark and John Woo, able to suddenly star in, and act his heart out within, an abstract meta-film on himself in his home country of Belgium called JCVD (2008), and make utterly insane films like this. It is impossible to take the film seriously, and despite the negative lambasting it still gets now, this film was clearly designed to be as ridiculous as possible. That it has a serious strand to it, of Stavros having a justifiable reason to hate Quinn, fleshed as much as possible in this goofy film by having Rourke act in your film in any role, just adds a peculiar dark edge to a film that is full of elaborate tangents that are completely unexpected every time. The aesthetics of Hong Kong cinema, in its elaborate and complicated set pieces, is brought here with an even more comic book-like logic to everything that takes place.

From http://i4.minus.com/iblvPqLdpNYdEX.png

Van Damme does well, and despite being a little lost at first onscreen, Dennis Rodman at least has the visual appearance and charisma to really get into the swing of the film by its later action scenes. Even his puns based on basketball seem to have a cheesy coolness to them that is far from abhorrent. The aspect that makes Double Team work even more and makes its absurdity more distinct is Hark’s direction, very solid and made with great skill, using the camera movements and visual images to heighten the action and the lunacy. Knock Off (1998) would go even further in its experimenting – including a first person of a foot going into a shoe – but it’s easy to tell how talented Hark is even if his films I’ve seen aren’t always the best. I won’t spoil anything in the film as everyone who hasn’t seen it should go into it cold, so that the effects of the abrupt moments stand out more when you see them. It is amazing how tarnished it is even more so for me on this rewatch. It is insane, silly and comedic both intentionally and not, but far from mindless garbage when it has great action and fight scenes, looks great compared to films from the era like Double Dragon (1994) that, while I enjoy wholeheartedly, are a day-glo mess, and is trying as hard as possible to entertain the viewer. There is a sense that, not only was this not viewed within its own bubblegumish context back then, but that even now films like it don’t have the legacies of Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and its ilk, and have to deal with an internet culture that is far too hipsterish and ironic to view films like Double Team as sincerely ridiculous, especially when the films that are praised are self mocking or taking themselves too seriously. Thankfully people do love this sort of cinema too, and I won’t take back how much I love this film as well. I won’t call it a guilty pleasure either; I enjoy this film as a well crafted and great piece of cinematic bright coloured cinema.

From http://cdn2.screenjunkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/double-team.jpg

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