“CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” (2020) | Film Review

Reference to Jackie Chan:
Vi-Dan Tran and Andy Long are part of the Jackie Chan stunt team and absolute fans of Hong Kong action films. Naturally, their experience has been channelled into “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM”. So keep your eyes open while watching!

You can read all about the Jackie Chan stunt team in my detailed article:
“Jackie Chan’s stunt team members from 1976 to today in a complete overview“

No Budget, Low Budget, Whoa Budget!

Film is teamwork. Only those who pull together and utilise their individual strengths for the greater good can contribute to the magic of moving images. And when professional filmmakers join forces for a private short film project, it can turn into feature-length entertainment.

Since the release of the so-called fan film “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” (2020) on the T7Productions YouTube channel, I’ve been watching it several times a year. Simply because it’s great, stimulates my own creativity and shows with so many references that people who love and live film were at work here.

I was reluctant to write a review for a long time and still find it difficult. Because on the one hand, I could highlight pop culture references here and certainly get you excited about the film. But in my opinion, that’s exactly what robs the short film of some of its magic.

So watch “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” and come back here in a good mood after the concentrated 40 minutes to find out more about the project from my personal perspective.

Vi-Dan Tran has given his short film the suffix ‘fan film’, as if it were one of many YouTube clips. It is clear that this is by definition and certainly has something to do with legal clarification, as the successful filmmaker was not officially commissioned for the project. Everything was made by him.

For me, Vi-Dan Tran is a visual director. After completing his studies, he worked with big names in the German music industry for their music videos and even made it into the most extreme stunt team of all time, the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, as a stunt performer. He also demonstrated his multi-talent behind the camera, for example in Michael Bay’s film “6 UNDERGROUND” (2019).

And that’s the only film I’m going to mention here, because I think the vibe of Vi-Dan’s “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” comes close to “6 UNDERGROUND” without copying it. You learn from the best. That’s not mockery, but absolute respect, because “6 UNDERGROUND”, which is also (too) often on my screen, has that over-the-top feeling when it comes to the action scenes. Not to mention the clever product placement; here Vi-Dan gives great insights into how it came about in interviews.

However, where Michael Bay’s martial arts creativity is severely lacking, the expertise and experience of Vi-Dan and his stunt team brother Andy Long comes in handy. Both manage, in old Hong Kong style, to keep the story moving through the fight. I’ve already said that Vi-Dan is a visual storyteller for me and only uses textbook dialogue when it works.

And how they work! Even small cameos such as that of the film’s producer Michael Hilli aka Spoon Guy make the short film seem like a well-paced piece of music with a story thanks to the top-class acting and targeted punchlines. Vi-Dan has his own pace as a director. This is particularly noticeable in the scene when Johnny Silverman chokes his opponent Miyamoto Arasaka: he could have cut at any point here, but Vi-Dan holds on just before you run out of breath while watching, only to let the viewer go in a different story direction. Andy Long’s performance is the icing on the cake.

It’s actually unfair to the rest of the team to only praise a few of those involved. Because if you look at the making-of and interviews about the project, you quickly realise that this was no small undertaking. Not even because of the corona restrictions at the time. So treat yourself to the credits and you will be rewarded…

Now to the most difficult point of my review. How do I rate this Monday-Motivation-Movie, which gives me a feeling of perfection? Difficult, especially as I’ve never played the video game myself and can’t rate that side of the film. I see the film as a holistic team project in which everyone had fun and was able to let off steam creatively. I also want to highlight Vi-Dan’s genius for marketing, who created the film in English for an international audience and yet remained true to his home country with small German interludes.

A very strong 8 out of 10 stars

Original teaser | “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” (2020)

Complete film | “CYBERPUNK 2077 – PHOENIX PROGRAM” (2020)

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© Maul Cosplay, T7Production