fludd.org - Movie Review

By looking at the movie’s cover, many people might certainly be tempted to say: “Oh no! Another mindless martial arts flick from Hong Kong set in our time!” Although SPL, an appreciable martial arts movie featuring an all-star Hong Kong cast, might certainly not be an eligible candidate that can claim the top ranks of the best martial arts movies occupied by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero and House of Flying Daggers, it is nonetheless a movie that attempts to be extremely serious as opposed to many of its predecessor of that kind.

The expectations for SPL, this movie directed by one of Hong Kong’s new generation of talented movie directors Wilson Yip (White Dragon), were extremely high not just in the old British colony, but also in the world. Before, SPL got released, its main actor Donnie Yen proudly affirmed that the fight choreographies (which combine simultaneously kung-fu, wushu, hapkido, judo and even fighting techniques seen in UCC matches) will represent, in the public opinion worldwide, the pinnacle of his career as a fight choreographer. Moreover, SPL went on to win the Hong Kong Movie Awards for the Best Fight Choreographies.

The movie SPL should make breakthrough in North America, because it truly delivers what Westerners enjoy watching from a martial arts movie made in Hong Kong: realistic fight scenes. As opposed to Jackie Chan’s choreographies, Donnie Yen doesn’t rely on innovative and breathtaking moves that are so flamboyant. As we say in Shakespearian English, exeunt stunt moves; enters simplicity. In fact, all Yen is trying to show us are actually realistic techniques that can be seen in real fights. These are definitely not the most exciting fight scenes I’ve seen in my life, but Donnie Yen’s simple and sober approach gives us a nice set of realistic brutal fights in a stunningly natural form. People are really going to love this movie, because the knocking sounds are extremely strong and exaggerated at times. In short, we have a feeling that we are watching real martial arts fights live on cable or satellite!

At the first look, SPL is a movie that tries, without any pretence, to put the fight scenes at the service of the script written by Wilson Yip. Does SPL, a movie that has almost nothing to see with the French thriller 36 Quai des Orfèvres, succeed into doing it? Well, if you lazily scroll down to the bottom of the page, you might probably cheer up if you look at the movie’s rating. However, despite the noticeable passion of Wilson Yip for cinema, some flaws are still present in the movie. After all, even though SPL is a rather pleasant flick for entertainment, it’s certainly not going to beat Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

In this modern-time martial arts flick, Wilson Yip used the trick that many scriptwriter in Hong Kong always do, which means creating a very effective and simple storyline. As a result of that, we get to be heading for a ride, if you know what I mean, that has a rather quick pace. Some people might certainly appreciate that, because the movie nicely looks like a piece of crescendo that brings the viewers to stronger feelings (from the characters) and to the rough scenes that define SPL. Nonetheless, Wilson Yip’s SPL, on a second thought, is way too quick for its own good!

The fact is not that movies with quick pace deserve to be blasted. What I’m trying to say is that SPL has such a quick pace that this flashy quality, that also turns out to be an annoying flaw, is a nuisance to the development of some characters (I’m talking about the ones played by Simon Yam and Sammo Hung) as they evolve in the storyline. While the movie director perfunctorily explores the roots of the personal anthropology that are supposed to define the characters played by Simon Yam and Sammo Hung through their deeds and thoughts, he also leads us so quickly to the finality of these characters’ own anthropology it becomes a little bit hard to discern any potential depth in these characters with their one-way psychological evolution. In short, Simon Yam, as Detective Chan Kwok-Chung makes the movie work very well with an unsullied mastery of his acting arts and Sammo Hung, who can still perform in fight scenes, mind you, is so unrecognizable with his acting parts as Wong Po.

In spite of the one-way evolution of the psychological evolution of most characters, the all-star cast of SPL doesn’t really have to receive any acting lessons from a star in the likes of Chow Yun-Fat (The Killer) or even Nicolas Cage (Face/Off). Donnie Yen (Hero ; Shanghai Knights), as, besides having the occasion to showcase his unquestionable fighting skills in hand-to-hand combat scenes, receives an occasion to prove us that with his acting skills that the members of the new generation of actors in Hong Kong are certainly not going to be able to eclipse him.

Had it not been for his patent lack of margin of manoeuvre in the development of his own character, many of us would straightforwardly uphold that Yen’s acting in SPL would have been better. By making some clarification, we can see that Donnie Yen’s acting in this appreciable movie has two facets: the oral acting parts and the parts in which he solely relies on his eyes to make his character emote. I found Donnie Yen quite good in the movie, but his lack of margin of manoeuvre undermines a little bit his oral acting parts due to the fact that he has played so many one-dimensional characters in his career. Hopefully, Yen succeeds more with expressing many nuances with his eyes just like most talented Asian actors that we, as Westerners, know.

Finally, although SPL is led by a smart and passionate young movie director along with an all-star cast that really surprises at any moment, it will certainly not beat a masterpiece in the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Still, SPL goes further than most of its counterparts in this genre by trying to put the fight scenes at the service of the script that could have had more dramatic depth if the actors had a better margin of manoeuvre. After all, by looking at the final result, many people will certainly find it hard to complain about what has been done in SPL. Obviously, this rather sombre and entertaining movie directed by Wilson Yip resets the standards of modern day martial arts movies even though the movie suffers a little bit because of its lack of common sense in the script at times.

Site menu:

Movie Review