Saat po long

Definitely nihilistic and gritty Sha Po Lang is a good mix of cop drama and action film. I thought the direction was was quite nice although it seemed inconsistent, sometimes wandering into "art film" territory. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I don't know that it worked 100%. Overall I thought the movie was 'alright'. 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. One of the main fight sequences is the most spectacular upon first viewing and then more-so on reflection as you find out that Donnie Yen and Wu Jing had no rehearsal and no direction; simply, they were told to "go for it". 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. I've always been a fan of Donnie Yen and this is definitely a great fighting film for him. Wu Jing is a relative unknown but trained in the same opera company as Jacky Chan and Sammo Hung,being taught by Wo Ping. during the Q&A, Wu Jing said his next film will likely be a prequel to Sha Po Lang.

I took a photo of the stage assembly and thought I would include it here if anyone wants to see it. They were exceptional and patient at answering questions. even the slightly embarrassing ones.

http://virtuafighter.ca/downloads/SPL01.jpg

left to right: Translator for Wilson Yip, Wilson yip, Announcer guy, Sammo hung, Wu Jing, translator for Wu Jing.

This is a low budget movie about good intentioned cops taking the law into their own hands to take out the bad guys. With some kung-fu fighting mixed in. When it came to the cops trying to frame and wipe out the bad guys, it just wasn't all that interesting. Nor was it all that entertaining to watch. In another words it just wasn't one of the great Hong Kong crime syndicate movie or anything like that. So I just wanted to get to the fight scenes. Which is very very few in this movie. There is two main things that stands out about this movie. The first, is the fight between Donnie Yen and Wu Jing. The second is the ending, which I just didn't expect. Besides that this is a watchable flick, but not really a stand out movie.

6/10

This is some of the best fight choreography I have ever seen in 25+ years of watching martial arts films. The action was so exciting the entire crowd I was with in the theater were howling with delight. 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. My only complaint with the action was that there was not enough of it. 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 tried for an "Infernal Affairs" style police thriller and didn't nearly hit the mark. While Simon Yam and Sammo Hung were both great in their parts, the other acting was just functional and the story had way too much overdone melodramatic content that seemed very forced. The emotional arc of the picture was pretty much set up right at the beginning and would have been sufficient, but they had to keep laying on the unrealistic drama and it did slightly take away from my enjoyment of the film. Another criticism with the story was that it seemed like parts may have been cut from the film, because some pieces of the story that earlier had seemed pretty insignificant became a big deal towards the end of the film and it felt like it came out of nowhere, like we weren't told everything.

Having said that though, my negative criticism about the story should not stop you at all from seeing this film. I didn't go into S.P.L. expecting The Godfather, I just wanted to see some incredible martial arts action and I got it. I cannot wait to see what Donnie will do next.

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). However, having just seen S.P.L. (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. Also serving to make S.P.L. slightly more memorable than your average Hong Kong cop drama are the inclusion of a really loathsome assassin (played by Jacky Wu) and writer/director Wilson Yip's relentlessly grim approach which offers little hope for any of the characters and culminates in a real downer of an ending that left me speechless.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Despite what others may claim Sha Po Lang is not up there with the best HK movies of it's kind made during the golden period of the 1980s, when the likes of Jackie Chan, John Woo and Ringo Lam were in their pomp. In fact, there have been better cop films than SPL released in more recent times in the territory, Infernal Affairs and Running Out of Time to name just two. What SPL does do successfully is tap into the style and tone of the type of films that made Hong Kong action film popular with western audiences during the 80s and 90s. In SPL, the line between right and wrong, good guys and bad guys, is blurred to the point of it almost becoming invisible (often a feature in John Woo's output). The fact that the film's most likable(?) character is a brutal mobster shows how there is no black and white in the world of Sha Po Lang, just differing shades of grey. It's Sammo Hung's excellent performance as gangster Po, committed family man yet also a ruthless, violent crime boss, that is at the heart of the film. Against him all the traditionally good cop characters seem to have to sacrifice their innate sense of right in order to achieve what they see as justice being done; resulting in them becoming more like the man they're trying to bring down. It all leads to regret, violence, death and a shocking finale that should live long in viewers memories. As for the action sequences, they are well executed if a little too brief, but none of them would make it into a ten (or twenty!) best HK fight scenes list. Simply put, Sha Po Lang is a well put together police thriller with decent action and a satisfyingly bleak, film noir-esquire tone. It's well worth seeing and if it kick-starts a return to the classic action style of Hong Kong cinema, even better!