Concurrent with the unveiling of a meticulously sculptured (by a top Chinese artist) statue of Bruce Lee in town, it is exciting to see screening of the best martial arts movie in recent memory.
SPL, or "Saat", "Po" and "Long" stands for the three most belligerent stars in Chinese astrology. These, as far as I can surmise from the story line, represent respectively the characters played by Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen and Simon Yam.
The gripping tension is expected. The first rate, real-stuff martial art is also expected. What is a little unexpected is an above-average story line, not particularly inspiring but certainly sufficient to carry the movie. But it's the action that is the main draw for this movie and in that department, out goes Simon Yam and in comes Wu Jing.
The two top martial art stars today are Donnie Yen and Jet Li. In some ways, Yen is even better because Li is at times too cool. Yen, on the other hand, has that fierce intensity in his eyes that none can match. Coming up fast is Wu Jing, Jet Li's "see dai" (younger brother in the martial art school) who came to the cinematic martial art world through the same route, by winning the national competition. Sammo Hung is a veteran martial art actor, but had his training through the Peking Opera acrobatic style school 9AS jackie Chan), rather than the "real thing" as Yen, Li and Wu did. Still, he can hold his own in front of a camera against these true experts.
If there were only one reason to see this martial art movie, it would be the duel between Yen and Wu. Observe the complete lack of camera movement during a good part of this sequence. Nor is there any of the usual choreography you see and many Hollywood (and Hong Kong) action movies. The two simply combine their talent and years of training and show the audience what they are capable of under the ruthless scrutiny of a stationery camera. Martial arts filming does not get better than this.
By comparison, the grand finale bout between Yen and Hung, while the climax in terms of the story line, is a bit of an anti-climax in terms of martial art excellence, although it is still quite watchable. To add more for the enjoyment of the audience, Yen brings in Jujitsu for this sequence, the Japanese martial art style that many consider to be the predecessor of Judo.
A must-see for lovers of the martial art genre, SPL has been given a Categoty III violence rating locally, not without reasons.
SPL, or "Saat", "Po" and "Long" stands for the three most belligerent stars in Chinese astrology. These, as far as I can surmise from the story line, represent respectively the characters played by Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen and Simon Yam.
The gripping tension is expected. The first rate, real-stuff martial art is also expected. What is a little unexpected is an above-average story line, not particularly inspiring but certainly sufficient to carry the movie. But it's the action that is the main draw for this movie and in that department, out goes Simon Yam and in comes Wu Jing.
The two top martial art stars today are Donnie Yen and Jet Li. In some ways, Yen is even better because Li is at times too cool. Yen, on the other hand, has that fierce intensity in his eyes that none can match. Coming up fast is Wu Jing, Jet Li's "see dai" (younger brother in the martial art school) who came to the cinematic martial art world through the same route, by winning the national competition. Sammo Hung is a veteran martial art actor, but had his training through the Peking Opera acrobatic style school 9AS jackie Chan), rather than the "real thing" as Yen, Li and Wu did. Still, he can hold his own in front of a camera against these true experts.
If there were only one reason to see this martial art movie, it would be the duel between Yen and Wu. Observe the complete lack of camera movement during a good part of this sequence. Nor is there any of the usual choreography you see and many Hollywood (and Hong Kong) action movies. The two simply combine their talent and years of training and show the audience what they are capable of under the ruthless scrutiny of a stationery camera. Martial arts filming does not get better than this.
By comparison, the grand finale bout between Yen and Hung, while the climax in terms of the story line, is a bit of an anti-climax in terms of martial art excellence, although it is still quite watchable. To add more for the enjoyment of the audience, Yen brings in Jujitsu for this sequence, the Japanese martial art style that many consider to be the predecessor of Judo.
A must-see for lovers of the martial art genre, SPL has been given a Categoty III violence rating locally, not without reasons.