S.P.L. (Sha Po Lang)
1 February 2008, mid-morning
SPL is in many ways a precursor to Flash Point. In the few fights featuring Donny Yuen you can see where he wants to go with martial arts fight sequences. Moving beyond the fights, SPL is a very gritty and dark film. It is pretty bleak. I love hard boiled cop movies, and this one doesn’t disappoint in that regard either. Simon Yam, who is in every god damn movie to come out of Hong Kong, does a great job as the leader of a group of hard-ass detectives. Sammo Hung plays the villain in the film, an evil mob boss Yam is trying to bring down. The movie works well. It’s a classic Hong Kong action film everyone needs to see.
This comment from IMDB sums up the film nicely:
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.
SPL was awesome. Overall, I think it was better than Flashpoint. Action, acting and story wise was better. However, I enjoyed both. Donnie Yen is ridiculous!
by Eric on February 3 2008, 4:40 am #