EDDIEWONG

… the latest Hong Kong movie re-uniting director, Wilson Yip, and action choreographer, Donnie Yen.

These were the guys who brought us the awesome Sha Po Lang (known as Kill Zone in the West) a year and a half ago. For those who missed me raving about the movie back then, Sha Po Lang was one of the better movies to come out of HK since Infernal Affairs. OK, it was a martial arts cop flick that was super dark, gritty and violent (how many good HK movies aren’t?) but the story was actually pretty good and the fighting style was breathtaking. Donnie Yen actually went around the world meeting martial artists, researching, , learning and putting together a new style of fighting that was very realistic to watch. Gone are the days where you would get some untouchable kung fu dude knocking out every opponent with a dragon kick or a fist of fury (Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li). Besides punches and kicks, there were lots of combinations of grabbing, pushing, throwing and headlocks. All the fight scenes just seemed somewhat more real like this and it was pretty cool. Oh, and Sammo Hung, he was great!

Flash Point (probably the final title for a certain region. Other titles include: City with no mercy, City without mercy, and some others I forgot. Even the Chinese title has quite a few!), which many have billed as the sequel to Sha Po Lang (confirmed not), seems just as dark, gritty and violent. And again, it is a big budget movie (for HK standards) allowing Donnie Yen to once again fly around, research and develop something new. No wonder many see this as Sha Po Lang 2.

Either way, I’m really looking forward to this movie. Wilson Yip is a director connected with story lines and characters while Donnie Yen is one hard mutha with fight scenes that look nothing short of amazing! The two combined: an awesome martial arts movie with a plot!

PS. Both the official websites for ‘Sha Po Lang’ and ‘Flash Point’ seem rather similar, visually. For starters, checkout the artworks I have used on this entry – they’re literally identical. I guess it is probably from the same design company…