Lack of good storyline.

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

When I picked up this movie, I was expecting something rather different from what the movie actually turned out to be. The title "Sons of the Wind: Bangkok Ninjas" led me to believe this was a Thai martial arts movie, not some Parkour event movie.Sure the people in the movie, the ones doing the Parkour, were really athletic and did some rather amazing stuff. But, personally, I think you really need to be into Parkour to find this movie interesting. It was so disappointing for me to sit through, waiting for martial arts, and only seeing Parkour. I must admit that I gave up about one hour into the movie.And why was everyone speaking French in the movie? It made no sense that the Thai people spoke French as well. Sure, I could understand the Parkour people from France spoke French, but the natives Thai? Come on... Now, I got nothing against French language or movies that isn't in English, but at least keep it proper to the regions in which it take place.It should be said that the camera work was really nice, it was almost like you were right there in the action yourself. But still, you have to be appreciative of Parkour for this to really be interesting.This was a major disappointment to me. But it just goes to prove, that you can't always put your trust in the DVD cover.

I thought about suggesting that it might be a good idea to watch "Yamakasi 2 / The Great Challenge / Sons Of The Wind" with the sound off (it would at least eliminate the absurd French dubbing of every character in Bangkok, even local small children and Asian mobsters), but then you would not be able to listen to some pretty driving music....I'm not sure if the plot would make any less sense, though. For example, the final battle must have set some sort of record for "highest number of participants", but even our heroes seem confused as to whom they are fighting or why. If you forget about the plot and concentrate on the action, this movie does have some scenes that will have you going "Wow!", although sometimes the cutting is a bit too frantic. All the leads here (from the Luc Besson - discovered group Yamakasi) are obviously gifted athletes, and following Xin Xin Xiong's choreography, they come off as high-level martial artists as well. Special mention must be made of Elodie Yung, who is not only absolutely gorgeous and impressively fit, but a great fighter too. Her scorpion kicks rival those of Cynthia Rothrock! **1/2 out of 4.

This is a bad movie If I understand this correctly this is the sequel to a movie about "free runners", the same sort of thing that you saw in B-13, where people run and jump over and around buildings and objects with out a net and with a skill matched only by Spiderman. The first film (as was B-13) was made in connection with Luc Besson, here someone else picks up the rains and it shows. I have not seen the first film and after seeing this I don't know if I ever want to.The plot has a group of these free runners going to China and getting involved with the triads and the Japanese Mafia or some such nonsense. Mostly its an excuse to watch these young athletic guys and girls go running over roof tops and jumping from building to building with out visible means of support. This would be all fine and good if there was anything resembling a story to follow, but there's not. We get a fancy dress party being held in the court yard of a building, when there is a robbery from the upper floors. As the thieves leave through a window there is a sudden and completely out of place rain storm. There is no explanation of where the thieves went only that they landed on another building- somewhere. We then get the introduction of a good many characters all of which make no impression. We also get some action scenes that are filmed in such away that you're on top of each person giving you no sense of the danger or their location. When the final battle comes and the various sides decide to battle it out for no good reason as the police close, in we get a good many people going through obviously choreographed movements in a most embarrassing manner. Think poor French TV movie about martial arts.This is a martial arts turkey that needs to be actively avoided.

5 years after YAMAKASI failed to introduce Les Groupe Yamakasi's brand of Parkour to the wider world, the members are reunited by director Julien Seri for a semi-sequel, this time taking the action to Bangkok for a change of scenery. The group are all a bit more mature, and so is the film - not so much a kids movie anymore. Time does not appear to have diminished their "Free Running" skills - in fact I *think* they've gotten quite a bit better. I have to qualify that observation because it's really hard to tell - the director belongs to that school of thought which says that action scenes are more exciting if you can't tell what on earth is going on :( That was the main problem with the first YAMAKASI film, and I really hoped some lessons would have been learnt and this time they'd leave the camera in one place a bit longer and actually let us see the Parkour the group are performing... that _is_ why you'd hire them all to be in a film, after all.Sadly, Julien Seri seems to have missed the point entirely, and shoots all the action in the most infuriating way possible. He proudly tells us in the extra features that he used 4 cameras to shoot the action, and he really enjoys "just getting the camera on my shoulder and running about" when he's on set, but "the most creative part is in the editing room". What this means is that as soon as the cast start moving at more than 3mph, the camera starts zooming and shaking and we rarely get a shot that lasts more than 1/3rd of the second before it cuts to another angle. What we do get to see of the action looks amazing... the film mixes up Parkour with Muay Thai and other martial arts styles in a way that could have produced an absolute classic. In the right hands this could have been the beginning of a whole new action film style, as exciting an action film as ONG BAK. Sadly, Seri clearly does not have the right hands :( I suppose some comments about the story are appropriate... it's rather daft. The Yamakasi go to Bangkok to help set up a gym for poor kids, and accidentally get involved in a turf war between the Triads and the Yakuza (who all speak French. In Thailand). A pair of French-Chinese siblings are the catalyst for much of this - a brother who wants to get into the Yakuza because the Triads rejected their mixed blood, and his sister who thinks all this crime is maybe a bad thing.The film suffers from chronic "orientalism" - the insidious form of racism which certainly doesn't think Asian people are inferior to westerners, no way Jose - in fact it thinks they're great... with their ancient traditions, quasi-mystical religions and mad martial arts skillz - they probably just need a group of westerners to spend a few days with them and sort out their generations old blood feuds (and teach their ladies how to love). The Bangkok setting is beautiful, but it seems to be populated entirely by gangsters, monks, Muay Thai rings and alleyway markets.LES FILS DU VENT could have been great - the design of the action scenes is brilliant, and Les Groupe Yamakasi really deserve a vehicle that showcases their skills rather than trying to hide them. Again they've been let down by a director who's so in love with himself he's perhaps afraid that if he let us see them in action for more than half a second we'd start thinking it was *their* film, not his. If that was his worry, he definitely shot himself in the foot (actually head), because all he accomplished with his camera work and editing was to make me hate him.The film still manages to be enjoyable, but you have to look past what you're actually seeing to what was really being done to appreciate it. I'm torn between loving the ideas and the actors and hating what was done with them on screen. That leaves me somewhere around... 6/10.