Imagine the movie "Spellbound" (one my favorites and very subversive, btw), mixed with the doc "The Freshest Kids" and you've got "Planet B-Boy" THE must-see flick of the year! Here's the ill trailer.
Director Benson Lee follows B-Boy crews from all over the globe (France, Korea, Japan, the US, plus crews from at least 18 other countries) as they prepare for the "Battle of the Year" to determine that year's world champion breakdance crew.
B-Boy Joe from Korea and Ketsu from Japan are straight up sick dancers! Korea's teams not only had ridiculous power moves, they had tons of them, so even if a crew could keep up with their own or have mad style, team Last For One would just come over the top with gravity-defying move after move. Almost not fair.
The dancing is phenomenal, as expected. The shot of the French dancers with the Eiffel Tower in the background is epic and serves as the movie poster. Following and capturing so many crews in so many places, Lee should be commended for his bull-doggedness. Getting Asian families to open up on camera was also impressive. He does a good job of trailing Joe and Ketsu and showing their challenges and issues with their fathers, but I felt cutting away in the final battle into interviews weakend that dance scene. Though it made the film about the people and their story, I thought that scene should have highlighted the dancing above all.
I thought the U.S. team actually had great style, an advanced nuanced style that was ahead of the curve, but that b-boying in Europe was still in a more athletic mode and they were punished for that. They rocked blazers, while everyone else was still in jumpsuits and sweats, which is not how it's done here now.
Like JabbaWockeez from MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew," this film reminded me why I love hip hop so much and no matter what, hip hop (like the Force) can never truly leave you if it was ever really in you in the first place.
