One of the guys at my work is a hard-core Asian movie fan. Action, horror, drama, if you ask him, Asia has us beat. He’s nearly obsessed. As a result, I’ve seen quite a few of these movies myself. I do enjoy a few of them, but I must admit, the majority of them I just find weird. In fact, I thought they were some of the weirdest movies ever made. I realized that this opinion was flawed, however, by a limited scope. ‘Cause I tell ya, they ain’t got nothing on Russia.
Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) is the biggest movie to come out of Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. With a budget equaling approximately $4.2 million US, it opened in its homeland against “Return of the King” and won. It is (loosely) based on a series of novels by Sergey Lukyanenko about a man who is caught up in an ancient battle between good and evil. It’s already even spawned a sequel (yet to be delivered to US shores) with a third movie in production. After such a huge success, it was no surprise when Fox Searchlight bought the rights to distribute internationally. Unfortunately, for reasons only known to them, Fox dropped the ball (some say intentionally) in advertising before giving it initially only a limited release. By the time it went wide a few months later, few noticed. In fact, in my neck of the woods, I believe AMC Easton was the only theatre to carry it, and they only had it for a week or two.
The movie version of Night Watch tells the story of Anton Gorodetsky who goes to a so-called witch after his wife walks out on him for another man. The witch promises him that she can make his wife come back, but warns that she is carrying her lovers child and that it will eventually draw her away once again. The only way to get her back for good is by killing the unborn child with a curse. With only a moment’s hesitation, Anton agrees, but begins to develop cold feet midway through the ceremony. He tries to stop her, but she is too far gone by this point. The curse is only stopped by three mysterious figures who appeared out of nowhere who displayed amazing powers including turning into wild animals. Anton soon learns of the ancient struggle between good and evil Others. Others are wizards, witches, shape shifters, vampires, and all other various forms of enchanted humans. Hundreds of years ago, the two sides clashed in one epic battle that threatened to destroy the entire world. Seeing that both of their forces were evenly matched, they called a truce and set down a set of laws that would allow them to coexist in fragile peace. The Light Others formed the Night Watch to make sure the Dark Others followed the law and the Dark Others formed the Day Watch to make sure the Light Others did the same. And so, they held the peace. It was prophesized, though, that an all powerful Other would one day come that would throw the balance in favor of whoever he joined. (No side could force an Other to join them, they had to make the choice on their own.)
Years later, Anton is a member of Night Watch on the case of two vampires wanted for violating the law by attempting to drain a young boy without a license. (The Dark Others are actually allowed to do certain evil acts as long as they get permission.) As he tries to save the boy, he meets a young woman who has fallen victim of a curse that affects everyone around her. Now it’s up to him to save the child from hungry vampires, break the woman’s curse that’s grown the Apocalyptic proportions, and to evade the Day Watch for killing a vampire in self defense.
Night Watch was advertised here in the States as a Russian Matrix with Vampires. This is only partially true. It dose have the same dark and gritty tone as the original Matrix and it dose feature a couple of vampires, though not all Dark Others are necessarily vampires. Really, this movie is something else entirely. One challenging but ultimately rewarding aspect of the movie is that, being Russian, it escapes a lot of the usual trappings of your average American action film. The first thing I noticed were the actors. After seeing film after film staring the likes of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, I had some difficulty at first accepting Konstantin Khabensky (Anton) as the hero. Looking less like Neo and more like that annoying emo kid who THINKS he’s Neo, even his character is a sad, pathetic, looser. He never says a catch phrase, he doesn’t even begin to handle himself in a fight, and he’s about as lucky with the ladies as a dead fish. And he’s the cool one! (I’ve always joked that I look like Hurley on Lost, but I think one of the Night Watch guys may have him beat.)
It wasn’t until my second viewing of the film, however, that I realized how refreshing this actually was. The actors were chosen for /gasp/ their acting skills instead of their looks! And, dare I say it, it made them … identifiable! It actually made this world full of magic and vampires seem real. Somewhere, Joel Shumaker just had a stroke.
And, beyond the actors, this movie is just different from ours in the way it was made. It’s heavy with symbolism and relies on a style unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. This is where a lot of the true weirdness comes in, which I find nearly impossible to describe. After I saw it the first time, I didn’t quite know what I had just witnessed, but I knew it was cool.
Night Watch will probably be very challenging for those of us who grew up watching movies like the Terminator and Die Hard, but it’s well worth the effort. I had to watch it twice before I really “got it”, but I know I’m already hooked. It may not be my favorite movie of all time, but it’s a nice snack when you get tired of the American cheese. That is why I’m giving it a four out of five.
PS: DON’T WATCH THE DUBBED VERSION! WATCH THE SUBTITLES! You must watch the subtitles for two reasons. 1) As all true movie buffs will tell you, it’s just better that way, and 2) Night Watch features animated subtitles that are actually affected by the scenery around it. For instance, there is a scene where all the words turn into blood that dissolves into water. Save for one or two instances where it becomes difficult to read, it makes for a really cool experience that really adds to the movie.
