NEWS
Star Wars: Visions Season 2 Has One Of The Best Lightsaber Duels In The Saga
2023-05-04
This post contains spoilers for "Star Wars:
Visions" season 2
The highlight of "Star Wars:
Visions" season 2 was, for me, episode 5: "Journey to the Dark
Head." Animated by South Korea's Studio Mir (which was responsible for the
majority of episodes in "The Legend of Korra"), the short is set
during a period of open war between the Jedi and the Sith. "Journey to the
Dark Head" has the classical anime style that made "The Village
Bride" (courtesy of Kinema Citrus) and "The Ninth Jedi" (the
work of Production I.G.) such standouts of "Visions" season 1.
There
are three main characters. One is Ara (Jang Ye Na/Ashley Park), a young girl
born on the Outer Rim planet Dolgarak. On Ara's home is two large parallel
statues, representing the light and dark side of the Force. Children are taught
to read prophetic images left on the stones below these statues by rain. Ara
believes cutting off the head of the dark statue will hurt the Sith, so the
young Jedi Toul (Lee Kyung Tae/Eugene Lee Yang) is assigned to go to Dolgarak
with her. Toul saw his master struck down by the Sith Lord Bichan (Yun Yong
Sik/Daniel Dae Kim), who wants to convert Toul to the dark side and follows the
pair to Dolgarak
.
Duel choreography besting the prequels
"Journey
to the Dark Head" reminded me of the Samurai anime film "Sword of the
Stranger." Animated by Studio Bones, that film has an unforgettable finale
where a samurai and Chinese warrior engage in an acrobatic swordfight across an
emptied fortress.
Toul and
Bichan are always moving: their fight takes them from a moving speeder to the
statue ring's exterior to its cavernous inside. The scene cuts quickly between
wide shots of the two clashing and close-ups to emphasize their battlefield
emotions. The "Star Wars" prequels had this sort of duel choreography
too; characters would twirl around with their lightsaber swings and make
inhuman leaps. However, the actors also moved with a slight sluggishness, which
underlined how their movements were pre-choreographed.
In
live-action, this results in flashy but inauthentic duels. In animation,
though, it's exhilarating. It's easier to buy impossible movements when the
duelists aren't real to begin with. Animated characters can also move at the
exact speed and manner an artist deems so, without an actor having to worry
about timing or following steps. Instead of lightly parrying, Toul and Bichan
slam into each other, their blades crackling with power and their brows sweaty
with determination. This means their duel doesn't feel weightless like the
battles in the prequels often did.
.
.
.
"Journey
to the Dark Head" knows how to use colors too, particularly blue and red. The
battle takes place on a cloudy night, so the backgrounds are mostly a
purplish-black. That means lightsabers themselves are the primary illumination,
which does wonders for the short's mood.
There are a
couple of different close-ups of both Bichan and Toul, with their blades
interlocked in an X-shape. Each time, Toul's face is mostly blue and Bichan's
mostly red, but the colors are mixing. This reflects Toul being pulled toward
the dark side as Bichan draws out his rage. These shots also recall the ending
of "The Force Awakens," when Rey and Kylo Ren's faces were lit by
their sabers in the same way. Blue and red lights run through the statues' ring
too — when Ara sees both colors in both statues' heads, she finally
realizes that the light can't exist without the dark.
The point
of "Star Wars: Visions" is to see the galaxy far, far away rendered
through different eyes. It's thrilling when those eyes are as skilled as
director Hyeong Geun Park and his colleagues' at Studio Mir.
https://www.slashfilm.com/1272811/star-wars-visions-season-2-best-lightsaber-duel/
DEVIN MEENAN May 4,
2023