TODAY’S SHORT: “Temple”

Hello there, and welcome to Today’s Short, where we go over short films in the genres of both science fiction and fantasy.

Today’s short film: “Temple”. Let’s take a look!

Director Nguyen-Anh Nguyen achieved a degree of notoriety as a filmmaker with his 2014 Akira fan film (or rather fan-made trailer) that received over three million views online. That project, on its own, was a feat in terms of non-profit creativity. It was beautiful, powerfully edited, and a great work full of the passion only a true fan (a true group of fans I should say) can demonstrate. With this next film, Nguyen takes the leap into original work. And I must say, he and the team behind this have done a great job worthy of analysis from a technical standpoint and, at the very least, intrigue from a story perspective.

“Temple” takes place in the distant future, in a society dominated by cyborgs threatened by a deadly virus. It follows a desperate but determined individual by the name of Oz in his fight the hold on to what little hope he has in this dystopian, cyberpunk hell. It features action and atmosphere not unlike Blade Runner merging with a Jackie Chan film and is definitely a worthwhile viewing experience. The production design is stellar, providing the narrative with a sense of depth even on a material level. The music is terrific. The two leads do a great job with an intense martial arts sequence (nice choreography there too) and two authentic, albeit a touch dramatic at times, performances. And of course, the direction is spot on for what Nguyen is going for. It actually has a sense reminiscent to Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver at one point, which I rather liked.

You can check out “Temple” by clicking here.

If you enjoyed Dylan’s review, you can find the rest of his work on Sci-Fi Bloggers by clicking HERE, or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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