Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #101914 in DVD

Customer Reviews

A great Hong Kong cop movie
So if you are familiar with Hong Kong action movies then you know they can be quite hit and miss. Really a lot of miss with the occasional hit. But S.P.L. is on a level of it's own. A gritty bad cop drama at it's best. Sammo Hung stars as Tong Po, the triad kingpin. Donnie Yen comes in as the new chief that will replace Simon Yam who is retiring. Simon Yam plays the bad cop along with his other cop buddies who have to take Togn Po down before Simon retires. With only a couple of days to do this they have to go to drastic measures.

I really don't want to give anything away about the story because it is truly one of the best Hong Kong action movies ever. Don't expect to laugh, expect to cry. I would put this right up there with The Killer, The Longest Nite, and On the Run as one my absolute favorites in the dark thriller genre. And oh yeah, the action features some of the best choreographed fights in recent Hong Kong history.

CHeck out the Dragon Dynasty release called Killzone, it has a ton of special features that are not to be missed by any fan of the martial arts genre.

Awesome
DAAAAMMMMNNNN!!! That's my review of this film. No, seriously, if Michael Mann stole Quentin Tarantino's brain and then took a time machine back and hijacked Steve McQueen's coolness and then made a film, it still wouldn't be as cool as this. Many action fans have long known that Hong Kong kicks America's but when it comes to making action films. Many have also thought that the days of Hong Kong action were pretty much over. This film proves otherwise. Though it is not overly action heavy, it is nevertheless extremely fast-moving, an out-and-out action masterpiece, and quite a film to be reckoned with all around. Sha Po Lang is a challenging film. Being way more than a mere action flick, SPL is almost more akin to an epic Greek tragedy, and tragic it surely is. Many of the scenes in this film are poignantly sad, and could easily move the viewer to tears (such as the disturbing scene of a retarded man being harrassed by the police). The film centers on the interactions of three men, two of them cops, one of them a crime lord. The three men are played by three of China's greatest screen talents: Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, and Donnie Yen. As mentioned during the opening credits, "Sha Po Lang" refers to three stars in Chinese astrology, which are each capable of producing good or evil depending on their position. This also, metaphorically, refers to the three leads. Each of these men is capable of both good and evil. This being so, none of them really is the "good guy." Like all film noir, and this film could almost be called Chinese noir, there is no black and white, just gray area. This is a film about nonduality. There is no good vs. evil, only people conflicting. The labels one might put on them, such as "good guy" or "bad guy" are really meaningless. As one man says in the film when asked to describe some of the movie's characters, "Words are empty. You'll get to know them." In fact, the "villain" is played so brilliantly by Sammo Hung that you shouldn't be surprised if you at times end up routing for him to win. By contrast, the "good guys" stoop to stealing drug money in order to obtain their goal, and will even kill witnesses in order to frame their targets, and Yen's character puts his loyalty to the force above his own honor it seems, as he is all too easily guilt tripped into helping the other corrupt "protagonists." As said before, this is challenging stuff, and those who want a real hero to simplemindedly route for will likely be disappointed here. Especially of note in SPL is the cinematography, which just simply exudes a sense of cool equaled by few other films (and is very reminiscent of Mann's Heat with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro). The music is just about the best music I've ever heard in a martial arts film. (One musical montage in particular, towards the beginning of the film, is just about one of the coolest freakin things I've ever scene in a movie.) So what about the action? After all, this film was touted as Hong Kong's answer to Ong Bak. Well, many martial arts fans have at sometime asked themselves what they think it would be like if two greats faced off, like when Yen fought Li in Hero. What if Jackie Chan fought Jet Li? What if Steven Seagal fought himself, would he finally lose to someone? No, seriously, this film gives us just such an epic square off, and coming at a time when we really haven't seen a decent mano-y-mano fight in a martial arts film in quite some time (including the Ong Bak films), it comes as quite a refreshment. At the end of SPL, Donnie Yen fights Sammo Hung, and boy is this a GOOD fight (and ends with a scene that'll have you yelling out loud in disbelief.) It relies less on fancy kung fu moves (thankfully) and more on serious grappling, some Chin Na, and throws. (Yen wanted the fight to have a slightly "UFC" feel to it, making it more contemporary and less traditional like wushu). Though Hung is still a very big man, and though he's getting on in years, the man can still seriously move. The scene where Donnie Yen fights the film's knife-wielding assassin with a baton is also jaw-dropping, and allegedly much of the fight was improvised! If you have been wanting to see a SERIOUS action film, the likes of which America can't seem to make anymore, then SPL is for you. It's a winner all the way to the closing shot. Why there isn't an American release of this masterpiece is far beyond me! SPL was EASILY the best film of 2005!

the screenplay sucks, but the fighting scenes are fantastic
the storyline about the guy who led other three as crime fighting unit really sucks. unless you were undercover, the regular plaincloth detectives should still be respectful, so the guy with the extreme long hairs was definitely not allowed by the force. these unit should not have the privilege to do whatever they liked to do. it's simply ridiculous, because they were like a bunch of thugs. the screenwriters should not take everything for granted and tried too hard to copy the crap from hollywood, i.e., everything is possible as long as you're playing cops.
but the ridicule was fairly compensated by the fantastic fighting scenes directed by donny yen. almost every fighting in this movie was great. i really enjoyed it a lot. so i still want to give it a 4-star rating.