Sha Po Lang (& Dragon Squad)

[Drunk Monk]

Sha Po Lang is the new Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen and Simon Yam with Wu Jing. It's good. Great fights. Sammo, Donnie and Wu turn in some fantastic work. It a modern police story, heroic bloodshed and balletic gunplay ala John Woo, but where it really shines is the fights. Sammo is huge now, bigger than ever, but he's still fast and agile. Donnie has really come on to his own - he was the choreographic director and is on par with the best now. Wu Jing is furious. He's a relative newcomer to film - a graduate of Beijing Wushu like Jet Li and someone to watch. If you haven't seen him in action yet, check this out, the man has skills. Unfortunately, he took the name Jacky Wu for the west. At least it wasn't Jacky Li or Jet Chan or Chow Yun Jing of something... Like Tom Yum Goong, SPL's choreography is top notch. Unlike Tom Yum Goong, the story is tractable. It's overdone, overdramatic, and has some completely absurd plot turns, but it sets up the fights really well and that's all we ask. The name - Sha Po Lang - means Kill Ruin Wolf - it's a reference to some werid Chinese cosmological phenomenon that I don't understand yet. Cantones speakers say it's a killer title. The subtitles try to explain, but it's not that important. It's lack of a US title is telling about its marketing.

Dragon Squad came out right after Sha Po Lang. It stars Sammo and Simon. I swear they filmed this movie while they were during the breaks when filming Sha Po Lang. Both films are about a retiring cop and new incoming officers - The retiring cops are wracked with guilt for losing officers years ago, like in Jackie's New Police Story. Both deal with cops breaking the law to catch the villain - does the ends justify the means sort of stuff. Both movies have a lot of subplots on how burnt out these cops are - There's a lot of father/daughter issues in both films. Both films have Sammo smoking a huge stogy through most of it, although he's a villain in SPL and a hero in DS. Both films are very bloody - lots of exploding blood packs - veritible gallons. Both films have a similar MTV/Wong Kar Wai frantic style of cinematography that can give you a headache if you're too close to the TV. Both films have pivotal scenes shot in the exact same location - a rooftop with a stunning view of Hong Kong. The only difference is SPL has great fights and DS has great shootouts, although not that great. DS have this team of 5 young heroes pitted against 5 villains and it's too many characters to keep track of, to be honest. SPL has three great fighters, Sammo, Donnie and Wu, plus Simon Yam's fine character acting (although his characters are almost indistinguishable between the two films) and that's all you got to watch. It was very, very confusing to watch them back to back, late at night, while killing a bottle of glen garioch. The plots got all tangled up in my head. But I remember SPL as a great kung fu movie - the fight scenes are superb. Sammo isn't pitted against anyone in DS, so there's a fight, but it's mediocre - a lot of shots of Sammo doing solo stuff at the camera. SPL's Donnie vs. Wu Jing and Donnie vs. Sammo fights will go down as two of the greatest kung fu duels of this period.

[Drunk Monk]

Ok, instead of calling this SPL, it should be WTH? Gone are Donnie and Sammo. Wu Jing and Simon Yam are still with the franchise, and they've picked up none other than Tony Jaa. For this reason, the film is half in Thai. My version = no subs. My Mandarin is weak; my Thai is non-existent. I only spent a few weeks in Thailand, kickboxing, lounging on the beach, and eating, and I never learned a lick of Thai. As for SPL, I could hardly track the story. Was this a prequel? A sequel? I have to watch the original again to see if it fits. The only story arc I could follow was about a little dying girl. Maybe it's better if you know what's going on. Maybe not.

The film is really dark and dingy. Everyone is greasy with tropical sweat. The main color schemes are faded greens and blues. There's a lot of talking and a lot of cell phones. The action is way too few and far in between. The first firefight at the terminal is good gunplay. The prison fight is spectacular, the centerpiece of the film, one long continues shot of ultravi mayhem, cleverly CGI-stitched together from several extended fight scenes. There's another raid that's really grisly and has some brutal knife work. Then there are a few more fights that are way too dark so all that is seen is silhouettes. There's a final fight that happens in a bright white room, which is painful because the rest of the film is so dark, my pupils got sore from going pin too quickly.

There are some really feint homages to Ichi the Killer (Yam's restraint) and the eyeglass billboard in the Great Gatsby (2013 version). Maybe there were more but it was too damn dark. Those were really distracting because I kept thinking 'I've seen that before' especially with the Gatsby reference, and it was bugging me all night. I only figured it out on my commute this morning.

I was very disappointed by this film but I would totally watch that prison fight scene again. Just skip to that.

[Drunk Monk]

The Donnie binge continues. SPL now goes by Kill Zone, which seems random but whatev. Donnie v Wu & Donnie v Sammo are outstanding. I got into the story more this time - the subplots with the other cops is just enough to add emotional impact and not overly detract from the intensity. 

Sammo is brilliant as the crime boss. The way he works his cigar is spot on, and he literally knows when to twist the knife.

I remember this film was considered pivotal at the time, a turning point for Donnie as he rose to super stardom. And my prediction about Wu Jing 9 years ago came to pass. He’s now one of PRCs biggest stars after his two franchises, Wolf Warrior and Wandering Earth. 

Totally D00M recommended.

Seen on YouTube as Kill Zone, not the paid one, scroll right a bit more and you’ll find a vid that posts several names with the same running time.