“The Division” Teaser Poster
Director: Jean-Paul Ly
Producer: Law Plancel
Cast: Jean-Paul Ly, Laurent Plancel, Phoebe Robinson-Galvin, Toni Ash, Hugo Nicolau, Stephanie Bailey-Wright, Hung Dante Dong, Jane Elsmore, Antti Hakala
Running Time: 23 min.
By Martin Sandison
Last year’s Cambodian martial arts flick Jailbreak announced a few new names to the Asian action pantheon, with the most exciting being leading man and choreographer Jean Paul Ly. Ly has worked on the stunts for movies such as Doctor Strange and Now You See Me 2. Based in London, Ly is now working on a lot of his own low budget projects, with the upcoming action thriller Nightshooters being one of those. He made the short The Division as a vehicle for his talents, taking on acting, directing, choreographing, writing and editing duties. Made for only £9,000, does the film rise above its low budget and deliver the action? The answer is a resounding yes.
Jake (Jean Paul Ly) and Lance (Laurent Plancel, Jailbreak) are members of The Division, a special forces unit. The film follows them throughout the course of a day as they try and save London from a terrorist attack. Colourful villains and double crosses abound, as the two and the rest of their team must take on the terrorists using fists, kicks and handguns.
What excites me so much about this project is that it was filmed entirely in the UK, and Ly’s stunt team are all British. While the most famous export from these shores, Scott Adkins, makes most of his films overseas (apart from this years Accident Man), Ly has stuck to his guns (literally) using some British actors, and British stunt talent. They are also top of the game stuntmen, their reactions, falls and martial arts chops proving this. The action concentrates on Ly and Plancel taking out the thugs, in mostly one-against-many fights.
Crackerjack action is the order of the day, with both Ly and Plancel proving they are in the top league when it comes to onscreen Martial Artistry. In fact, the integration of gunplay and martial arts is some of the best I’ve seen, up there with last years John Wick 2, with original use of handguns between the hand-to-hand combat. The long takes are at times a wonder to behold, with superb form shown by both leads, captured with fluid camerawork and superb shot reframing to present the action very clearly. One take has Ly exchanging blows, suddenly the camera whip pans to Plancel taking out three guys with a flying kick and a judo throw. Impressive indeed, and made my jaw drop.
The centrepiece one-on-one fight features Ly, and is a superb example of modern handwork, tricking and high impact kicking. Unfortunately Plancel’s face off with English stuntwoman Phoebe Robinson-Galvin (Wonder Woman) is a bit of a damp squib in comparison, despite some good exchanges. The latter takes place on a pier, and looks a lot like the location used for Tony Leung’s yacht in Hard Boiled, with some gunplay thrown in for good measure, surely not a coincidence. There’s some brutal stuff when Ly arms himself with a couple of hammers, with great hits and conviction.
Ly and Plancel prove they have not just action chops, but are also good actors with screen presence. The two villains are fun, with Tyler played for laughs and a good sleazy performance from Toni Ash, and a charismatic one from Hugo Nicolau as Adam. The moments of humour work, and seem to poke fun at the low budget of the film, which is a definite positive. Some peripheral characters are unfortunately amateurishly acted, but it’s expected with such a small budget. Also expected are the CGI blood and muzzle flashes being not the best, again it’s a shame because the action is so adrenalin pumping.
The plot is decent if nothing new, with good pacing. A very big plus point is the screen doesn’t go dead when there’s no action; a criticism which could be levelled at a lot of independent action stuff we’ve seen in the last decade or so. Ly proves he can take on all the roles with aplomb, and as an independent film the action is up there with anything from the Young Masters, Reel Deal Productions, Andy Long Nguyen and Eric Jacobus, with the overall film being better than a lot of their efforts. Interior scenes are well lit, atmospheric and fluidly edited, belying the very low budget.
If this is what Ly can do with 9k, I can only imagine what he could do with a bigger budget. He made the short to develop in to a feature, and I hope he can achieve that goal, and we can all enjoy a UK production with modern onscreen ass kicking at its finest.
Martin Sandison’s Rating: 7.5/10
