A gritty and violent martial arts thriller directed by Wilson Yip. The film stars Donnie Yen and Simon Yam as cops, while Sammo Hung plays a gangster boss. SPL is one of my most awaited movies of the year. This may turn out to be the best HK action flick in recent memory. SPL will be relesed later this year.
Maybe it will be good, maybe it won’t. I’ve read a lot of controversial things about this movie, and while the athmosphere and the story should be really captivating, the martial-arts scenes shouldn’t be that great, plus there are only a few of them, and they’re supposed to be rather short. But let’s see for ourselves.
Personally, concerning crime-action-thrillers, I doupt “S.P.L.” will surpass the furious action-direction in “Dragon Squad”, but I’ll be most happy to be mistaken.
[quote=“diceman”]
and while the athmosphere and the story should be really captivating, the martial-arts scenes shouldn’t be that great, plus there are only a few of them, and they’re supposed to be rather short.[/quote]
Wow, that’s the exact opposite from what I heard. I heard the story is weak, but the film offers the best action scenes in recent memory.
Wow, this sounds just like some serious excitement. Just considering the style (I know this is an Martial-Arts-Movie, so don’t get me started), would you compare it to “Dragon Squad”? A lot of peope are doing this right now, and I’m kinda curious if it’s even possible. But I wanna see it, too. Next week I’ve got some days of vacation, so what about a Double Feature with “Mannaja” and “Sha Po Long”? The West meets the East? I’ll bring something to eat along . . .
That’s very cool to hear. You know, I love a good Martial-Arts-Scene without too much cuts. It’s just that I also appreciate the staccato-style in certain action-movie, when it’s done in a dynamic way, and I thought the gun-mayhem in Dragon Squad was way furious. But it’s not a classic or anything, just good, plain entertainment.
But let’s talk about “SPL”, everyone who’s seen it. In some reviews people complained about not enough action, or that the fighting scenes were too short in general. What about the characters and visuals? Is it a convincing and captivating plot?
I’m going to see it sometime in the next week, probably together with Tanukihime, a.k.a. CPS. I’m quite new to Sammo Hung. To be honest, the first Sammo-movie I’ve seen was “Dragon Squad”, probably not the best flick to be introduced with him, but he’s got a lot of charisma, that much I can tell. I’m very much looking forward to see him in a real fight (the final fight of “Dragon Squad” was a bit of a mess, as I said before, I don’t like fast-cuts in Martial-Arts-Movies that much. That certain scene looked good on an artistic level, but wasn’t as exciting as it should have been).
[quote=“Hung Fist”]
This may turn out to be the best HK action flick in recent memory. [/quote]
For once I was right. S.P.L is the best HK action movie for a decade. Good casting, pretty good story, stunning visuals and mindblowing action scenes. Donnie Yen vs. Jing Wu fight easily ranks as one of the best fight scenes ever made.
I was also blown away by the sheer power of this movie. I also agree, that the fight scene between Yen and Wu was outstanding. Quite fast and furious, one could say. But it wasn’t the fighting alone, which made this movie so great, rather it’s the superb acting, the tight athmosphere, the shocking turning points (there’re quite a few of them), the slick visuals and a constant feeling of urgency. Some of the surprising twists came so suddenly, I only realized them after the scene was already over. It was like: “What the fuck was that?” and then the whole story has already taken a 180 degree turn. And it was also a good thing that the script writer didn’t bother to explain too much to the audience. Only the bare necessities have been told, quite often with visual means only, everything else has to be put together by yourself. It felt a bit like “Infernal Affairs” then, but with more action. This is indeed one of the best films to come out of HK lately. And I couldn’t believe how violent that scene turned out to be, when Jing Wu attacked that guy with the knife, while being chased by Simon Yam. :o The only sad thing is, that the subtitles on the Deltamac release (which features the only uncut version of the movie) are so fast. And with “fast” I mean almost ridiculously fast. And I consider myself a trained subtitle-reader.
And I still do think that “Dragon Squad” is quite a furious experience. I wouldn’t compare it to “SPL”, though, it’s different, it’s less realistic and has more of a manga-like appeal.
[quote=“diceman”]
The only sad thing is, that the subtitles on the Deltamac release (which features the only uncut version of the movie) are so fast. And with “fast” I mean almost ridiculously fast. And I consider myself a trained subtitle-reader.
[/quote]
Could that be some sort of dvd-player related problem? Bacause I don’t recall any problems with the subs (and I’m not a very fast reader either). I’ll check it again when I get home.
Mmmh, maybe I suck after all? It’s definetely not a DVD-Player problem, but I found them really fast. I mean, I could follow them, and all, but sometimes it was hard to catch up. I also want to follow the visuals, not just the spoken text. I think, the problem was, that the subtitles were only the exact length of time on-screen, while that particular line was spoken, and that’s something you shouldn’t do. If someone says something and his partner answers with “Yes”, the first line of spoken dialogue shouldn’t be abandoned for that line just saying “Yes”. It’s better to put them on-screen the same time like this:
(Example)
“Heya, how ya doing, 'twas nice last evening, had a load of fun!”
"Yes."
They did the same thing on the Korean release of “Musa”. Add incomprehensible grammar and ludicrious spelling mistakes and you’ve got a challenge worse than any chinese puzzle, but I’m digressing. At least grammar and spelling were fine on the Deltamac-Release of “SPL”, but I guess I’ll wait for an european release, after all. But I absolutely have to see it a second time.
I watched the film again (loved it just as much as on the first time). The subs are a bit fast, but I own several dvds that have even faster subs. Personally I don’t think fast subs are any serious problem in a straight forward action movie like SPL…
Hmm. i watched the 1st half w/o glasses during the lunchbreak; the "corrective lenses’’ were still at work. and hadn’t a prob, as mentioned.
if, there’s a freeze image button.
but i get diceman’s point, i also hate it when missing the subs. the context. Thats why i can’t watch Tom Yum goong till now, though everyone else is doing it.
