In the age of rising Asian countries in the genre of martial arts action that they were previously never known to be mass-producers of but quickly became extremely successful by, we've had awesome action films such as The Raid from Indonesia, Ong Bak from Thailand, and now it's time for Cambodia to boldly step into the spotlight and break a few bones and deliver non-stop, thrilling entertainment and entertain it surely does. The premise of Jailbreak is simple, just as simple as The Raid's, maybe even more so, a Team of cops led by a French GIGN member played by the new rising action star Jean-Paul Ly as well as a handful of local Cambodian officers are tasked with protecting a high value target in a rioting Prison from an orchestrated attack by a group of female killer gang known as The Butterfly Gang led by the sword-wielding Madame Butterfly(Celine Tran). The plot never goes into convoluted territory from here on but the performances keep the tale engaging and human, these are characters we care for much in the same way we cared for the SWAT team in The Raid, because of the situation they're in, but here I can say that since there's only 4-5 of these officers, they all have lots of screen time and develop their personalities and camaraderie rather believably, Jean-Paul Ly shines as the ultimate bad ass here, who exudes charisma and intimidation either from his wickedly cool haircut or his cool and suave composure, maybe both, becoming audience's instant favorite, while his bickering rivalry with co- star Dara Our feels like something out of a classy B-movie action heroes flick, which very much so suits the tone of Jailbreak, as it is a lot lighter and humorous than the Poker-faced Raid, most of the humor works very well too, some visual gags, some of which would fit right in a Takashi Miike film or some of the gorror exploitation flicks, left the audience gasping for air in ways they didn't expect, well at least I didn't. Celine Tran does admirably with little screen time she's given and her fight with Tharoth Sam, a Cambodian MMA champion is terrific, all in all a well-rounded, colorful cast elevates the basic, yet beautifully simple premise above it's generic roots.
The other way the audience was left gasping for air was the fast, furious and brutal fight choreography by Jean-Paul and Dara Our, bringing viscerally exciting combat that is never boring, varied and beyond bad ass, there are legitimate moves and punches and kicks here as well as the incredible use of machetes that I've never seen before, and this is coming from a guy who watches martial arts films as much as the cereals he eats everyday. Shot with just a single camera and with not extra backup from other countries such as Thailand due to budget strains, this is one hell of an impressive feat, one that even The Raid would look at and be like:"GODDAMN !". DP Godefroy Ryckewaert's camera-work here is exceptional, the inspiration of DOP Matt Flannery and Director Gareth Evans from The Raid films is obvious here, as the camera literally puts you in the middle of the action and isn't afraid to move around to showcase and highlight all of the brilliant moves that the skilled cast performs, it moves in a ferociously kinetic and energetic way, adding weight and punch to every hit, making them that much more painful, it's all clear and square tho, never is it too close, neither is it too far from the action and the obvious use of the steady wheel is noticeable as the image was constantly stabilized and blur-less as it swung from one person to the next and following their coordinated movements like the best glue in store, the use of a prisoner's point of view in probably the best fight scene in the entire film(the first entire team vs a whole lot of inmates fight) was truly spectacular and unexpected to say the least, other times a prisoner got tossed over a camera, with camera then reverting from from it's toppled state and getting right back into the action, but almost always the camera was engaged in combat just as much as the actors were, it is some WICKED STUFF ! The one on one boss fights were equally as good though perhaps not as exciting as the group fights, but fans of Law Plancel and Jean-Paul's short "Dead End" need not worry as their fight lives up to the expectations.
Jailbreak is the start of a country's film industry poised to deliver swift, no nonsense entertainment, writer/director Jimmy Henderson delivers his third and best film from Cambodia yet and enters it in a steadily increasing list of underrated Asian countries producing awesome martial arts action cinema, with a simple plot, charming humor, captivating performances and thrilling action, as a Martial Arts/Action movie fan, you owe it to yourself to see this.
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