Day Watch!!!!!!!!!!! Sergey Lukianenko!!!!!!!!!!

[alexandral]

"Day Watch" is the part of the film adaptation of Russian fantasy book series "Words of Watches" ("Night Watch", "Day Watch", "Twilight Watch" and "The Last Watch") . I am full of happiness because I discovered only today that "World Of Watches" is written by one of my favourite Russian fantasy writers, Sergey Lukianenko (with Vladimir Vasiliev). I think Lukianenko's previous book series Labyrinth (Labyrinth of Reflections, False Mirrors and Transparent stained-glass windows) is exceptional among Russian cyberpunk wave.

Oh, I am going to dive into the book-world of Watches starting from today and may be you will never see me again!



Storyline
There was a battle long time ago between the forces of Light and Darkness. This battle lasted thousands of years and at the end the whole world was in danger of collapsing because the powers of Light and Darkness were equal. At the end they signed a contract of co-existence. In the present day, two guard-forces consisting of people with supernatural abilities (or "Others") exist: Night Watch and Day Watch (Light forces and Dark forces accordingly). These forces try to maintain a balance between Light and Darkness. Others have an ability to access a special time-space continuum, "Twilight".

Films:
The first film "Night Watch" left me with the mixed feelings. There were some good ideas as special effects concerned, but these ideas seemed to be repeated so many times.. All originality was lost in repetition and the story was lost in the special effects. Though I loved the Russianness of "Night Watch", it was full of Russian cultural and fairy-tale references that made me feel back home. I also liked the main characters, especially Anton played by Konstatntyn Khabensky for they were complex and non-black-and-white.

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Day Watch" was so much better for me. It was a very very good film. I only have one doubt in recommending it: it was again full of Russian cultural references that could become lost in translation and subtitles.

So many things were good in Day Watch

Special Effects and cinematography: Were AWESOME. I am may be a little biased here, but I haven't seen anything like it yet. I even **gasp** liked special effects and cinematography in "Day Watch" more then in LOTR. Effects were very original, and made me feel that fabric of the story is real.. And there was just the right amount of the effects so that they were not distracting from the story..

Story: It all started on a not-so-original note of Tamerlane and "the chalk of destiny" but during the progress of the film I felt that this storyline was a part of an intricate parody. I had a feeling that the creators were including parodies on Russian and Western films and books into the flow of the story and into the black humour that was going on throughout the whole film, but was very cleverly done. And the ending was great..

Characters: were complex, interesting and deep. I cared for all of the them: Anton, Svetlana, Olga, Alisa, young vampire Kostya, Kostya's father, even for the devious leader of Moscow forces of Darkness Zavulon. Who is always a tiny bit lagging behind the leader of Moscow forces of Light Geser in deviousness and this is such a reassuring thing.

Forbidden love story between Anton (who is an average level mage) and Svetlana (who is the Greatest mage of them all) . Oh, this was so well-done. Their scenes were my favourite in the film.



Anton:



Svetlana:



Geser, the leader of the Moscow forces of Light:



Zavulon, the leader of the Moscow forces of Darkness:



Olga:



Alisa:





Screencaps, non-spoilery































A VERY fabulous trailer in the trailer_spot's LJ

PS: I have heard that the next film, "Twilight Watch" is going to be filmed in America. Oh, I hope not!!!!!!!!!! (Though it might be selfish of me)

Comments

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

I love cultural cross-references! But they are so hard to catch aren't they? Over the years I've managed to learn a few of the British and American ones, and since I've studied a lot of German history I'm starting to manage a few of the German ones. But it's hard. ;D

Have you ever read "Vampire family" by Russian 19th century writer Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy?

No, the only Tolstoy I've read is Leo. Tell me more? But vampires with less black leather sounds good. That and lace have been slightly over used in the vampire clothing department. Hee.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I love cultural cross-references! But they are so hard to catch aren't they?

They are.. This was the hardest part about moving into a different country for me, that it involves not just a new language but also a whole new cultural set-up.. It gets better with time, but slowly because the volume of information is so big.

No, the only Tolstoy I've read is Leo. Tell me more? But vampires with less black leather sounds good. That and lace have been slightly over used in the vampire clothing department. Hee.

Aleksey (Aleksei) Konstantinovich Tolstoy is most famous for his satirical poetry under a nick-name "Kozma Prutkov". But somewhere in the middle he wrote these scary almost fairy-tale like stories as adaptation of some of Slavic folklore. Sadly I could not find any of his little stories anywhere for sale in English translations, but I will keep my eyes opened. The stories are great and very scary. There were films made, IMDB link here (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0866239/) . To confuse the matters there was also a famous 20-th century writer, Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoy. :D

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Ooo thank you! This sounds great and I'll be sure to check it out. I love scary stories inspired by folklore. :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is SO scary!! May be because it feels more real without black leather and coffins.