Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with yet another review out of Toronto, this time a more detailed review of one of the flicks I'm really looking forward to. I love, love, love Sammo Hung to death and when Donnie Yen is at the top of his game his is King Badass. After reading this below reviews my mouth is watering. I must see this movie now!!! Enjoy the review of SPL!!!
Hey Harry, love your site, and I even have your book. It was in a bargain bin.
Just came back from the TIFF midnight screening of SPL, the latest HK martial arts flick starring Donnie yen and Sammo Hung.
This is only the 2nd TIFF movie ive ever seen, the first was last year's incredibly odd Vital. The lineup outside the theatre seemed impossibly long and while waiting I wondered if I was still in the same time zone. But things got moving pretty quick, and we all shuffled into a packed theatre. We were all pretty excited to see the film, I'd heard good things about it and was intensely curious to see Sammo Hung as a bad guy. The atmosphere was electric, good things were about to happen. Suddenly the director Wilson Yip shows up, along with newcomer Jing Wu and the big man himself SAMMO FREAKING HUNG and everyone goes fuckin nuts. One of the producers was there too, and he seemed pretty damned excited about the film too. He introduced it as the "dark, nihilistic side of hong kong cinema". A little melodramatic, yes, but I guess that's what they pay him for. On with the show.
I'll try not to deal with the plot too much. A team of skilled policemen have been trying to take down crime boss Po (Hung) for a while now. Yes, theyre cops, but theyre Hong Kong cops, which means things like rules and protocol are just considerations. They forge evidence, kill witnesses, steal money. Its not that theyre bad people, but they live in a world that allows bad people to do bad things and quite frankly theyre a little tired of it. Whatever it takes to put them behind bars I suppose. Enter Donnie Yen, the new tough cop who will replace their old boss in a matter of days. The team must work together to bring down Po.
Or something like that. The story isn't anything special but it is compelling enough to give purpose and meaning to the characters and their actions. There is great effort to humanize the characters, to give them a life beyond "police officer" or "crime boss". Each character is a father or son, and the issues and trials that those positions entail add a lot of emotion to otherwise flat characters.
Donnie Yen is the outsider in this film, forced to work with a tight-knit group that really doesn't trust him. It's easy to feel his isolation from the team, they see him as an obstacle rather than an asset. It doesn't help that Yen is a do-gooder by the rules kinda guy, while the rest of the team are beating down bad guys with metal pipes. Reminded me of Lt. Gordon in Batman Begins. His law-abiding nature stems from a mistake he made in the past, and thus he has a self imposed desire for retribution.
They say that Jing Wu is the new hotness, having studied under the same sifu as Jet Li. While I don't know if that is a magic formula cinematic greatness, it does pretty much guarantee that he'll end up kicking a whole lot of ass. He is basically Jet Li's character from Lethal Weapon 4: silent but violent, Sammo's personal assassin. And he wears a lot of white. You know the guy who wears white is gonna do cool shit, and he don't disappoint. The fights with this guy are amazing, his acrobatics are damned impressive. The alleyway battle with him and Donnie Yen is blazingly fast, and I don't doubt for a second that both of those guys could do that in real life. I hope he never learns English, the only true defence against the Hollywood machine. Don't make the same mistakes Jet Li did! Stay on your side of the pacific!
As good as the rest of the cast is, they just cant compare to Sammo. Seriously, this is his film. I couldn't envision this typically comical hero-type playing a bad guy, but goddamn he rocks in this role. Like Cruise's turn in Collateral, Sammo does a 180 and manages to embrace the villain in himself, and I hope he does more of this. He's got the cold intelligent anger of Don Corleone, with the unstoppable strength of a Wilson Fisk. This is a guy that could kiss his wife goodnight, then turn around and put out a cigar in your eye. This is a man to be feared and respected, in that exact order. You'll never look at Sammo the same way again.
And of course there are the fights, sweet glorious jaw-dropping fights. This isn't silky-smooth wushu, this is gritty and dirty, like Hong Kong. The fights are fast and painful, every hit looks like it would kill a lesser being. People get thrown, things break, everyone in the audience winces and goes "Oooo, damn!". Lots of long uncut shots, which makes me very happy. They seem to incorporate a lot more grappling manoeuvres that what ive seen before, which is great. A little something for the UFC crowd to swoon about (if any of the UFC actually swoon). Like I said before, the fight between Jing Wu and Yen is great and fast and the look on Jing Wu's face when he fights is some kind of sadistic delight. The end battle between Yen and Hung, though, is just incredible. Sammo's getting on in his years but the fucker can still move like a 20-year old and is more than a match for Yen. By far the best fight scene ive seen in a long time.
If someone tries to spoil the ending for you, hit them in the face and run. Run far. Seriously, when what happens happens you'll never see it coming. The audience was cheering and rowdy throughout the film, but the ending left them totally silent. Genius.
Some half-assed Q+A afterwards, nothing special to say. Overall, a great goddamn film, hopefully they'll bring it here intact and "un-shaolin soccerfied". This is probably the only TIFF film I'll see this year, but I am damned glad I saw it.
-Yellow Fever
I like the directness of the intro to this next one... kinda sets the tone, eh?
Harry!!! You gotta get off yer ass and go see SHA PO LANG (SPL) by any means necessary!!!
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In 2003 martial arts fans were treated with the deadly art of muay thai and muay boran in Ong Bak. A year later Banlieue 13 gave us a glimpse of parkour. In what appears to be, in some respects, an appropriation of Hong Kong action in many of today's films one may ask: Is Hong Kong action cinema no longer at the forefront of bone-shattering goodness? Any such fears are given the smack-down courtesy of Wilson Yip's SHA PO LANG (SPL), an utterly brutal take on the good-cop-versus-bad-gangster premise starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, and former wushu master Jing Wu all of whom credit legendary Yuen Woo Ping for alot of what they know. Simon Yam rounds out the principal cast members.
SPL is a dark, unforgiving action thriller that begins with detective Chan (Yam) recovering from a deadly strike ordered by crime boss Po (Hung). Frustrated at the number of failed attempts to capture Po over the years, Chan eventually gives up and looks forward to retirement. Tension is introduced to the ranks when his replacement, Ma (Yen) a highly disciplined but violent martial arts expert joins the already troubled precinct. Truth and justice is given a twist when one of Po's henchmen kills Chan's undercover operative.
SPL continues to unfold in a series of bloody assults as each member of Chan's team is brutally murdered by Po's right-hand man Jack (Wu). SPL is highlighted by some of most intense action sequences ever put to film in recent years. Wilson Yip wisely gave Donnie Yen free reign to choreograph all the martial arts sequences of SPL. Without ever resorting to excessive edits, the brawl between Donnie Yen and Jing Wu was an incredible and downright in-yer-face-get-the-fuck-outta-here brutal! The speed at which these guys were hammering each other with their mad wushu skills had the audience whooping and hollering from the beginning and up until the disembowling end. Remember kiddies: a 40 centimeter knife is not a toy and neither is a metal baton! And no one will ever forget that it was SPL who gave us the first ever onscreen showdown between Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung; this was an absolutely fucking blast! We're talking about pure Hong Kong action from the late 1970s, early 1980s baby! Sammo Hung is fat and 53 years old but he can still beat the shit out of anyone ... ab-so-fucking-lutey!!! And remember that knife I mentioned??? Well consider this ... one throw, one deflection, one take, no CG, no wires ... just pure Sammo!!!
After the screening, director Wilson Yip and stars Sammo Hung and Jing Wu addressed the audience for a 20 minute QA session. Sammo was his jovial self, as always, and quite enjoyed his moment in the spotlight. Sammo provided insightful and often funny answers. And unlike Jackie Chan, Sammo confirmed that he will in fact continue to fuck people up with his martial arts skills for many years to come (although he does dream of starring in a film entitled 'Sammo In Love' one of these days). Anyway, I took some photos with my cellphone camera. I apologise for the quality of images but you can have a look over at this site!
Okay people, remember the name: JING WU. He's primed and ready to become next in line after Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan as the premiere Hong Kong action cinema star. You folks will be hearing alot about JING WU for many years to come.
So, if you want to see Hong Kong cinema reaffirm its domination in the realm of combat cinema crank up your Dolby 5.1 audio system to 11 and go check out SHA PO LANG (SPL).
