Gareth Evans, director of the Raid movies, just posted a really fun short to YouTube featuring a fight between female samurai and two assassins who are out to seize the treaty she’s carrying. According to the video’s description, it’s a test sequence to see if it’s possible to capture The Raid‘s visceral, stylistic fight choreography while still maintaining a PG/PG-13 rating.
Note that you’ll have to view the video on YouTube here because embedding is restricted by request of Evans himself.
The five-minute short was shot over the course of three days in Wales using only one camera. It’s an interesting take on samurai films like those from legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Rather than large, sweeping vistas and distanced shots, there’s a lot of tight close-ups from multiple perspectives. This results in a shaky, much more “gritty” feeling, which lines up well with Evans’ style.
Essentially, this short is to samurai movies what The Raid was to martial arts flicks. There’s definite nods and deliberate references to the original source materials–scenic, wide shots, quiet, expressive moments–but there’s just enough in here that makes it distinctly Evans.
Perhaps the most awesome thing about this short is its main character: a female samurai. She’s a pretty rad fighter, and the sword fighting sequences in this short are choreographed beautifully. There’s no dialogue, but you get the idea of what’s going on really quickly.
This short is, in short (ha ha), pretty amazing. It succeeds in delivering some quality action while staying solidly planted in PG/PG-13 range. Great work!
(via Polygon)
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