There are lots of great movie eras I would have loved a chance to observe up close. The American 70’s renaissance. Akira Kurosawa’s post war Japan. The French New Wave. But right up there with any of those is the 1980s Hong Kong Martial Arts boom. Those boundary pushers like Jackie Chan, John Woo, and Michelle Yeoh helped make a genre I love internationally popular, leading to the great films like Crouching Tiger, Kung Fu Hustle, and Face Off. Though the martial arts genre has moved on from its humble HK roots, the love of action filmmaking never left the city. Enter Soi Cheang, a loyal Hong Kong filmmaker, giving us a long overdue celebration and homage to that great era: Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, for everyone to see hopefully why the HK era deserves to be praised as much as any other.
After a prologue setting up the layout of Hong Kong in the 1980s, we are introduced to an unnamed man (Raymond Lam), a refugee from nowhere, forced into underground fighting to make some extra cash. After snubbing Triad leader Mr. Big (Sammo Hung) and his right hand man King (Philip Ng), the man goes on the run, entering Kowloon’s legendary Walled City, which the Triad is scared to enter. Inside the refugee catches the eye and ear of the Walled City’s leader, AND the reason Mr. Big was scared to enter the Walled City in the first place – Cyclone (Louis Koo).
Director Soi Cheang clearly waxes nostalgic for the Hong Kong of decades past. As such, great effort was spent recreating the Walled City, where most of the movie takes place. That effort pays off and then some. This is one of the great sets I’ve seen built in recent memory. When our refugee enters the city, it feels as small and claustrophobic as possible, filled with narrow passageways, gray stone, exposed wires everywhere, like everyone is breathing down his neck. But as more time gets spent in Kowloon, the refugee finds these wonderful places of respite: a beautiful atrium like open space to look up and out to fly kites, a great little BBQ pork and rice restaurant, and most importantly, a tight knit community willing to help one another as long as you help them out too. Those claustrophobic passages before start to transform into little portals to a new wonderful space where a friend lives around the corner. Most importantly for the movie, it’s also wonderfully designed for crazy chase sequences, close quarters fighting, or big epic confrontations to showcase the incredible action on display here (we’ll get more to that later). Rarely are sets as adaptable and flexible as the Walled City, ready and willing to serve any aspect of the story when the time comes.
But this is a movie called Twilight of the Warriors, so the action better deliver. I’m happy to report that Walled In feels like a time machine putting us in two places at once. There’s plenty of nostalgic HK action in here. We get some incredible wire work when people are getting chased, flying through windows and up and down balconies. The big action set piece here is a wonderful, unique homage to wire work of the past, showcasing a bunch of actors working in harmony to deliver the wire mayhem that made the stars of yesteryear. And yet, this film also has learned from the Indonesian films of the 2010’s, to be a more visceral, bloody affair. I knew I was in on this film because of the unique way shattered glass gets used in the first fight in the movie, as director Cheang clearly finds new ways to deliver classic action that makes the audience ache a little in response to the beating some of the stars take. And even though younger stars like Raymond Lam, Terrance Lau, Philip Ng, and German Cheung take the majority of the hits, legends of HK past like Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, and Richie Jen get big moments in the sun too, as they honorably pass on what they’ve learned to the new generation. So even though bones get broken and blood gets spilled, it’s all happening in a familiar place and plot, leaving a big dumb smile on your face as the crime story battles its way to its big epic conclusion.
So for parents who like martial arts movies but have annoying teenagers who refuse to like your “old movies,” maybe start them off on Twilight of the Warriors. It might spike their interest a bit in old Hong Kong, and lead you into the films of Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, and even eventually Bruce Lee. And finally, a big trip to HK to stay in Kowloon, which doesn’t have the walled city anymore, but does have a LOT of the essence of that place still there. Except the psychotic land battles, thank goodness.