JOHAN FALK-SERIES PART 18: WAR DIAMONDS

Previously on Johan Falk:

Things has gotten darker for GSI as Johan Falk has been framed for murder and is being extorted by the Russian mafia to help them. At the same time GSI learns they have  a mole in their midst.


Seth and Jack are now open enemies and both crews are desperatly trying their luck on  a diamond heist. At the same time has a new  player emerged; a Caucasian mob that has its base in an MMA club where they recruit talent ( reminds me of how Mr Han operates in Enter The Dragon but he had a kung fu island instead of a puny club.)

Seth gets involved with a woman he might regret as she might be doing someone elses biddings.

The plot:

This one has an undercover suspense story built into it this time.  Niklas ( Alexander Karim) is infiltrating an MMA club run by a Caucasian mob ( the Russian kind of Caucasian) as they are mixed up in the diamond heist. But the heist goes awry and everyone involved , including Niklas, are being holed up on an unknown location as the mob boss wants to find out which of them ratted him out.

Johans wife starts to take an active role in the proceedings, and shit gets serious as brother goes against brother in an all out struggle for control between Seth and Jack

Jibber jabber:

This bring brings back a lot of suspense that I felt Silent Diplomacy lacked, as one of the characters we actually care for is in jeopardy. I´m sorry , but I never really cared for Pernilla in any of the films she was in, She never had a personality to her, but Niklas has developed  throughout the course of the series, given some quirky character traits and comes across as a likeable dude. And we learn that he is capable in the mystical ways of Mixed Martial Arts, which brings me to a trope a I highly miss in todays action-cinema: The Kung Fu Cop. I love it!

I miss seeing movies about cops that are well versed in martial arts, cutting the red tape and go straight to the throat punch instead. We used to get a ton of those in the early 90´s starring Cynthia Rothrock, Thomas Ian Griffith and Don "The Dragon " Wilson. All Academy Award-worthy performances, believe me.  And Niklas follows a fine tradition of Kung Fu Cops in the newer MMA tradition that Donnie Yen may have started  in Flashpoint for instance.  I did not expect to see this in a Swedish action film, but I am happy to. The world need more cinematic kung fu cops who can get the job done, one kick to the throat at the time!

We get to see Niklas do some sparring against Seth in the club. Seth does not rat him out, as Niklas also knows who he is,  They both know their true identities. It is a Catch 22. They are both informers, and again says a lot about the overall theme of the story of how the real world is more diffuse, harder to grasp on a deeper level than what we are being told in simplified newspaper narratives where there is simply room for black/white points of view.

Later when Niklas is trapped with a few others. , unlike Frank,  he is not above above suspicion. We do see early on that he has built up some credibility amongst the crew, but there is still suspicion and therefore has he found himself in this nightmarish situation in which no undercover  cops want find themselves in. See The Textbook  of Undercover Nightmares, chapter 1, page 9.
                                                       
This is the type of situation a cop can finds himself into, whereas someone who has had time to build a street rep outside a police force, outside the boundaries and restrictions of procedural police work can do much better. We learn how capable he is in situations which are strainous  to say the very least. He keeps his calm and use his wits when he notices perhaps some of the others holed up with him might be easily influenced.

It is nice to see Niklas get some more screentime. Which is a good idea to bring him up, so he can shine in Falkology as well. At first in the very first film of the second season ( see Rules of the game) he is as freshbaked member  of GSI we can see  how he has problems with Johans methods. Now he finds himself in a position in which he has to take matters in his own hands. We see him as a pro active guy, expert in martial arts, talking to people, feeling them out ,a sense of who they are and such.  He should have a spin off series, I feel; Humanistic MMA Cop.

Meanwhile  Johan starts to get squeezed by the Russian Mob who wants him to do a few favors for them. Johan starts to act irrationally violent towards them and is using a gun, threatening them to back off his family.  It almost seems like his PTSD or whatever he has has gotten to him,

Zooms in on Johan, cut to Helen in the kitchen...

Shot on the family

Zooms in on Johan as whirring internal sounds keep escalating

The internal whirring  sound stops suddenly as Helen walks into the frame in the next shot

When Johan comes home to his family after the confrontation we experience his perspective. There is great use of a whirring sound as we finds ourselves in Johans pont of view that is suddenly interrupted as Helen approaches him. We have seen similar techniques employed where we are shut out from the external world to get a sense of Johans isolated position... Once in Executive Protection, when Johan is andering aimlessly around the cemetary  all caught up with the consequences of his action, and clueless on what to do next.  And in both those sequences, Helen shows up and interrupt his internal state which leads him to actually  become pro active again  and to start solve the problem at hand.

Helen is crucial to Johan, she  is the one person that dragged Johan back into the world and made him a family man again. I think these scenes are quite important to understand Johan, and for understanding Falkology.  They are  ways for us to get inside Johans  head and perhaps glimpses of someone who is used to shut the outside world out from him. But now , more than ever, is in dire need of people to help him.

 Good shit.


Next time on Johan Falk: Shit gets real. For real!