SPL: Sha po lang

Plot synopsis:
The movie is set before 1997, prior to the return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. Chan Kwok-chung (Simon Yam), a Hong Kong police inspector, has dedicated his career to putting Wong Po (Sammo Hung), a notorious triad boss, behind bars. While escorting a witness with damning evidence of Wong's wrongdoings to court, Chan's car is rammed by another car driven by Jack (Wu Jing), a ruthless assassin. Jack proceeds to kill the wounded witness and his wife, but spares their young daughter. Chan survives with a piece of glass stuck in his head. After the glass is removed, the doctor informs Chan of a tumor in his brain that will soon kill him. Chan becomes even more determined to bring down Wong Po, using any means necessary.
Three years later, Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen), a police officer from another precinct, is assigned to replace Chan, who is going to retire soon. Ma will lead Chan's team, composed of Wah, Sum and Lok. The three men are very protective of Chan, who has since adopted the slain witness' daughter.
An electronics shop owner brings to the police station a video tape of Wong Po torturing an undercover agent. In the video, Wong hits the agent repeatedly with a golf club, then one of his men finishes him off. Chan and his colleagues decide to alter the tape, intimidate the shop owner into accusing Wong Po of being the murderer, and eliminate the real killer. Ma, who once beat up a drug trafficker so badly that the latter has become mentally handicapped, has vowed to abstain from using questionable means in his career. He is upset when he sees Chan and his colleagues resorting to use underhanded means to frame Wong Po for murder. He witnesses Chan's team murdering the henchman that killed the undercover agent, and confronts the four of them, resulting in a brief fight. Despite their disagreements, Ma still assists Chan and the team later in the arrest of Wong Po.
The group receives a message warning them against leaving the police station that night. Ignoring the threat, Lok goes to buy a gun to serve as Wong Po's "murder weapon", but is trapped in an enclosed area and ends up getting killed by a knife wielding Jack. Later that night, Jack sneaks up on Wah and Sum and stabs them to death. Ma rushes to save them but arrives too late. Before dying, Wah confesses to Ma that he, Sum and Lok had stolen money from Wong Po (when they busted one of Wong's drug operations earlier) to help Chan raise his adopted daughter, and were targeted for retaliation by Wong. A copy of the original video tape is sent to Chan's superior, Cheung Chun-fei. Seeing that Chan had tampered with evidence to frame Wong Po, Cheung releases Wong and proceeds to arrest Chan. An elderly policeman called Uncle Ba helps Chan avoid arrest.
Chan goes to Wong Po's office with the stolen money. He shoots a few henchmen but is eventually overpowered and disarmed by Jack. At the station, Ma has a heated argument with Cheung over the handling of the case. Furious, he turns in his badge and gun. He receives a call from Wong Po, who tells him that he has taken Chan captive.
Ma then heads to Wong Po's office and encounters Jack in a back alley. After an intense battle, Jack wrestles Ma's baton away from him, but Ma manages to eviscerate Jack with his own knife. In Wong Po's office, he fights Wong and seemingly kills the crime lord when he backdrops the latter onto a tall display of glasses and bottles. Ma sits down at the bar and starts to pour himself a drink. However, Wong suddenly gets up and throws Ma out of the window. Ma lands on the car carrying Wong's wife and baby son, caving in the roof. All three are killed instantly. Wong gazes down at Ma's body and recognizes the car underneath. He slumps down and starts sobbing, broken with grief.
In the final scene, Chan and his adopted daughter are seen on the beach, with the girl playing near the shore. Chan finally succumbs to his tumour and dies.

Tags: dark, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback, melodrama, revenge

Review:
Donnie's character repeatedly goes for takedowns, armbars, chokes, and all the moves that you might see in a UFC or Pride match (with Sammo countering attacks exactly how the big fighters do it in a real bout), while seamlessly combining them with the incredibly fast, complex punching and kicking exchanges you'd expect in a Hong Kong flick.
Of course, there's always a backup tape, and the vicious crime kingpin again walks free, this time with a master plan to wipe out Simon's unit for good.Into this raging carnival of payback is transferred Simon's replacement Donnie, a not-quite- by-the-book hot shot whose initial protestations to the group's dark pragmatism and exclusionary procedures are rescinded after he helplessly watches one of them get slit up a treat by Sammo's snickering, psychotic blade-for-hire Jacky Wu Jing (who's hardly the "newcomer" he's being touted as by both the opening credits and the internet gossip cycle).
That these two will later settle up accounts in a ferocious bout of hand-to-hand combat in the alley leading to Sammo's club is a foregone conclusion: that the fight is one of the most beautifully constructed, relentlessly exhilarating setpieces of martial arts choreography in the history of Hong Kong cinema, one that practically INVENTS new ways of kicking ass, comes as a breath of minty freshness in this era of assembly line romances and computer-assisted Jackie Chan in silly helmets.The sequence is rivaled in short order when Donnie finally takes on the Big Man himself, virtually trashing Sammo's opulent nightclub in the process just moments after Simon's abortive last attempt to kill his archenemy buys him a series of gaping stab wounds and a Great Big Knife through his hand.But the film isn't just about combat, phenomenal though it is; it's about consequences, and the dark decisions of the soul that, in Hong Kong movies at least, routinely resulted in cataclysm in film after film of the golden era of the 80's and 90's.
No one escapes fate in SPL, not that they try very hard: combatants on both sides of the battle have tunnel vision and live only to see the other side pushing up the daisies, their own deaths often appearing as surprising to them as they are to us.SPL feels like the movie its director, Wilson Yip, wanted to make in the mid-1990's, back when folks like Danny Lee knew the value of a hammer and a phone book in extracting confessions, so it doesn't surprise that the film is set in 1997 (a fact seemingly lost on the majority of the audience at the Toronto Film Festival where this debuted): how else to justify the "shoot-first-f***-the-questions" cocaine bust flashbacked as newly arrived Donnie quietly acquaints himself with the vacant desks of his new charges, or the sight of weary veteran Liu Kai-chi slapping around a mental retardate and trashing the poor boy's pad?Not that the film is all bleakness.
There's more authentic characterization on display here than in any five Hong Kong action thrillers of the past few years (barring the gorgeously grim procedural of Johnny To) - not for nothing is the film set on Father's Day - a fact not lost on the likes of Yip and Yen, who must have known respective talents such as theirs, coupled with an Asian cinephile's dream cast, could only result in something truly memorable.With little argument, this is Yip's most refined, tightly-wound effort to date, a lean, dark, unsparing bastard of a movie that melds the satiny luster of 2002, with which it shares art director Jeff Mak, with the sinewy, stripped-down plotting of BIO-ZOMBIE (minus the comedy, of course).
The plot was seriously stretched thin, you don't really get into the characters or care much for them; Audience members laughed at scenes that were supposed to be touching or sad but every criticism I could lay at the movies feet is fairly much washed away by the fight scenes.Donnie yen did a spectacular job with the choreography and MMA fans will be glad to know there is an energetic mix of all types of fighting styles including Jiu Jitsu complete with take downs and arm-bars.
To this point, the baton that yen wields in this fight scene was replaced three times as it was broken on Wu Jing's head while filming.Sammo is fantastic and I still marvel at how he moves at his age.
its not a story about idealistic law enforcement, its about cops living in a very bad world, and doing whatever they need to do to get the job done.Donnie Yen is in prime form here, its great to see him back in action and in such center-stage role.
Sadly it is so rare nowadays to see a martial arts film where real martial artists are fighting instead of pop stars on wires, and it makes such a huge difference because Donnie, Sammo and Jacky Wu were simply incredible.
Donnie Yen has finally joined the ranks of great fight choreographers with S.P.L.As good as the action was though, the story fell flat for me and put the film into the "Very Good" category when it could have been "Great".
They're headed by Chung (Simon Yam AGAIN), who's got it in for Wong Po after a family of witnesses under his protection got wasted on the criminal's bequest.But Chung's naturally about to retire in order to care for his goddaughter (sole survivor of said family), so the stage is set for new captain Inspector Ma, another fighting machine in the form of ever-likable Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey, Hero, Seven Swords) to come in and join the fray.
Others include abrasive, skeptic cop Ah Wah (Liu Kai Chi, pretty much in every HK movie over the last few years) and a nameless, lunatic killer employed by Wong Po (martial arts expert Wu Jing).Save for a few minor pseudo-surprises, SPL follows a normative mold as far as story goes, but succeeds mostly in terms of its superb pace and impressive mood-setting elements.
To others, it's a useful storytelling conceit, in synch with the story's overall fairy tale, fantasy mindset.Additional assets in SPL's collection number generally strong supporting characters (Chung's crew and Wong Po's insane-clown head minion), a gorgeous soundtrack, and this perturbing ability to fuse components from action epics like Cobra and The Punisher with gangland hysteria a la Goodfellas or Scarface (just listen to the violins as they play in the background).Perhaps nostalgia and time won't be as kind to SPL as they were to the films that inspired it, but one can't hide from acknowledging we have before us another substantial action entry in a year that, for ten months out of twelve, was nigh on arid in the adrenaline department, and that's not even mentioning the years preceding.Archetypal tormented cops, obsessive villains, a city teeming with unrestrained violence and props so destructible they must have cost more than hiring Simon Yam and Sammo, who have been so prolific recently we have to wonder when they get any time off.In short, and acronyms aside, go watch it.Rating: * * * *.
This is an amazing film if not just for the fact it has Sammo Hung fighting Donnie Yen and fans of Martial Arts movies will know what I mean!
gangsters movie which Hong Kong is very good at making but as the story progresses and you get to know all the characters more, the twists kick you right in the gut.
I'll give credit to Donnie Yen for directing the fight scenes as they were brutal, shot with long takes and very little cutting just like the old Hong Kong fight flicks.
I watched these films before Hollywood hired Yuen Woo Ping and other HK choreographers repeating wire work scenes that I had seen earlier in other films and this kind of wire work made way for the antidote of the non wire work in the shape the excellent Ong Bak.I also watched the antics of Jet Li,Sammo Hung and Donnie Yen growing up.
However rather being a straight edged action movie it does attempt a story of that being Detective Chan (Simon Yam) leads a posse to take down Po(Sammo Hung).
However a shade of grey comes into Chan and his posse when they attempt to frame Po and that's were everything literally explodes.SPL is primary built on the finale between action Gods Sammo and Yen. No these guys are not Hollywood actors training "hard" for three months only to make an action sequence look so stiff you think your watching stop motion animation, these are actors who have been training most of their lives who can also act(is that too hard to find?).
What make's SPL interesting is the little fights in between that build you up for Donnie Yen's inevitable awesome confrontations with not only Sammo but his evil dagger wielding psycho henchman played by Wu Jing (Drunken Monkey) who is probably the best secondary bad guy since Bobba Fett.
The stylistic approach by director Wilson Yip is fresh and displaying that Johnnie To is not the only one who can do serious thrillers in Hong Kong...but I'm digressing lets talk about the action.Donnie Yen choreographed the fights and has it spot on, no wire work here just pure raw fight scenes, bloody and brutal but the most entertaining elements are the incorporation of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu moves, simply amazing.
The acting is superb by Yam and especially Sammo Hung hamming it up as the bad guy with such glee, Yen's character is perhaps the least developed although his motives become true to the end of the film but thats only a small hiccup.
But perhaps I would like to shout about the introduction of Yam's team to the audience when Yen visited their empty office - it's very retro, with the characters given the spotlight after undergoing a short action sequence in a police raid.On the whole, the movie works, up till the supposed ending which put me off, and where the final "hurrah" brings it down a little.
All the martial arts stars involved do their thing nicely- sammo proves that he's still got the moves, donnie yen shows off great kung fu as only he can and wu jing is striking and slightly creepy as the blade wielding killer.SPL is a great film that shows a return to form for hongkong martial arts thrillers.Riveting stuff..
I kept checking the time and thinking "Oh my God, it's only been 30 minutes??" And it never, ever gets better.The only good fight scene is in the last 15 minutes of the film, Donnie Yen vs.
An incredible martial arts display happens here, thanks to action masters Donnie Yen, Wu Jing, and Sammo Hung.
Inspector Ma Kwun (Donnie Yen) must make some difficult decisions when he discovers that Chan (Simon Yam), the police detective he is about to replace, and his loyal men have been bending the law in order to convict ruthless gangland boss Wong Po (Sammo Hung).Donnie Yen first smashed his way onto my screen over twenty years ago in the excellent Hong Kong fight-fests In the Line of Duty 4 and Tiger Cage II; sadly, subsequent roles in some less than memorable films saw him slowly slipping off my radar during the 90s (with only Iron Monkey making any lasting impression on me).
(AKA Kill Zone), a powerful crime drama enlivened by some amazingly brutal action, I'll be sure to track his every move from now on.Admittedly, with both Yen and Hung on board, I would have loved to have seen a little more fight action, but I found the story compelling enough to hold my attention until the inevitable bad guys/good guy showdown, at which point all hell breaks loose and kung fu fans finally get to enjoy some blisteringly fast and bloody battles.
If you demand a good movie around them...well, fast forward or something..because Donnie Yen vs Wu Jing(Jacky Wu) is too freaking cool.It is astounding to me how many of these user comments are glowingly positive, calling this tripe the best HK film of the year, or in years.
Look at the scene where each of the cops gets a call on father's day from his daughter, one after the other, and tell me that this isn't a cheesy piece of ass-fudge movie with some seriously great fight sequences.
Another problem is, that to remain within it's theme, the story stresses probabilities at times.If you want to watch this merely for the martial arts, be aware that the fight scenes only make up a small part of this movie.
No quarter is given in what is essentially a p*ssing contest designed to let the enemy know exactly who is boss.Later though the police have a breakthrough, when a socially inept young man brings in a tape that inadvertently shows Wong Po being directly involved in a brutal beating and murder.As Wong Po clearly did not pull the trigger in the tape, more "special methods" are utilised and Wong Po is immediately arrested and charged with the crime.Chan and his crew must then work against the clock to clear up all loose ends that might absolve Wong Po of the crime before his 48 hour holding period elapses and he is once again on the streets.To this point the film is largely a goodies Vs baddies story with slightly blurred boundaries, Wong Po of course is freed from prison after a short time and the cops become marked men.
Once Donnie Yen's character Kwun becomes fully aware of what he is now in the middle of he must choose sides quickly and take the consequences.The film sets an early tone that tells us this will not have a happy ending, and the good and bad both suffer losses, often in sudden and brutal fashion.The final showdown is preceded by a frankly awesome fanboy fave knife fight between Donnie Yen and a white-clad assassin.
Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (who looks like an asskicking purple Chinese Santa Claus in this movie) both shine in this action orientated crime thriller.
Very solid Chinese cop/martial arts action movie with Sammo and Donnie Yen. This is a very well shot film, the entire thing is very visually interesting and sharply edited.
These, as far as I can surmise from the story line, represent respectively the characters played by Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen and Simon Yam.The gripping tension is expected.
But it's the action that is the main draw for this movie and in that department, out goes Simon Yam and in comes Wu Jing.The two top martial art stars today are Donnie Yen and Jet Li. In some ways, Yen is even better because Li is at times too cool.
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 Jing Wu all of whom credit legendary Yuen Woo Ping for a lot of what they know.
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.
Yip's brilliant direction and the stunning, bone-shattering choreography of the fight scenes alone are enough of a reason to recommend it, but the way the film deals with human tragedy at the same time as blowing the whole action genre out of the water has to be seen to be believed.It has been pointed out by detractors that Kill Zone is unbelievably dramatic, with a lot being made of the fact that no police force on earth would forgo jailing a man because he 'didn't kill' the guy he was beating unconscious with a golf club.
Donnie Yen is a powerhouse of martial arts power as always, newcomer Wu Jing is fantastic and terrifying to boot as an unspeaking knife-wielding assassin, and Simon Yam is on the best form I've seen him at since Full Contact back in the 90s.At the end of the day, this is not a crime-thriller, it is an action movie.
In this movie it turns into a bloody mess.Other powerful touches of the film: - the psychological "bottles scene" when 2 cops are dealing with the mob of angry juveniles with a great slow-motion glance delivered by Mr Sammo Hung (no fighting here, but the silent opposition is freaking good); - the Father's Day when the sons/fathers are dying one by one (blood sprays, leaks, and streams); - the possessed "knife killer-boy" who is an empty shell of a man (one of the most memorable cinema villains); - two one-on-one martial arts scenes near the end of the movie (both involving Mr Donnie Yen's character); - absence of stupid bed scenes and lousy love-and-hug elements (my guess is that 90% of potentially good action movies are spoiled by this vulgarity nowadays); - very enjoyable nature views (the ocean shore and the green field); - the final heavenly justice for all (man wants this and plans that: for instance, the police chief says to his colleague something like "You will be all right, I will not let anything happen to you", and further on the colleague is found dead; in reality it happens every day and it is one of those movies that show the futility of human self-confidence).There's much more to be mentioned but one should stop already.That's it.
It has fights, it has Sammo Hung as a bad guy (surprising), it has Simon Yam as a good guy who has become fairly bad in his quest for justice (usual), it has Donnie Yen as a hard as nails cop (enough said) and it has Jacky Wu as Hung's very effective right hand man.
Donnie Yen and Simon Yam impress as Ma and Chan and Sammo Hung is great as Wong Po; he may be a big guy but he has got what it takes for the fight scenes.