Anyone who knows Hong Kong cinema knows that very few worthy films have come from that region in quite some time. Ravaged by triads and piracy, the Hong Kong movie industry all but collapsed during the mid 90's.

SHA PO LANG is an attempt at recapturing those good old glory days. No wire-fu. No CGI people. No flying through the air. Just balls to the walls bloody action with gravity in full force.

There was much hype surrounding this film and it did decent business in Hong Kong and made the rounds at festivals. It can now be had on DVD for under $14 (under $12 for the 1 disc version) and is worth your time and money if you can forgive the highly flawed script.

Shot for about 3 million, the film makes superb use of Hong Kong locations and its stars, Simon Yam, Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (playing the villain). Surprisingly, there isn't much action throughout the film. Three big fights and one beatdown. Everything is really geared towards bringing Donnie Yen against Sammo Hung during the finale and this fight does not disappoint. Yen directed the action with Kenji Tanagaki (who shamefully gets little credit) and it is brutaly real. Just great stuff.

The DVD has a superb transfer that makes many U.S. studio releases look lousy. Why? No edge enhancement or excessive low pass filtering (the trailer is loaded with both and looks like sh!t in comparison).

So that's my mini review. If you can forgive a lame script and huge plot holes, go for it. Otherwise, try and rent it from Nicheflix.

I purchased my copy from CD-wow.com. Use this link to get prices in English:
http://www3.cd-wow.us/index.php?affid=14275&pp_nr=1

http://www.sammohung.ru/images/news/news44-1.jpg

http://www.sammohung.ru/images/news/news44-2.jpg

http://www.loveasianfilm.com/images/spl_stills05.jpg

I bought the dvd last saturday when we were in chinatown. Donnie Yen had 2 great fight scenes, with an assassin in an alley and the final battle with Samo Hung.
The plot was not that bad and I liked the cinematography.
knpm

The cinematography was quite good. I'm trying to find out if it was shot HD or 35mm.

They did have a couple of scenes where they did use wires. You can actually see them on the 2nd disc. Otherwise, they were quite good; especially that fight in the alley. Storywise, it was okay. The scene in the office where they were getting the phone calls was a little sappy.

Matt: FYI; that first link you posted is the one with the discounted price. The second link is $2 dollors more.

My prayers have been answered!

I might have to wait til next week to watch though... tried ordering from an Australian site and their ordering process for mastercard is broken atm... gotta wait til they fix it... sigh.

Now if they would only release a decent version of Drunken Master 2 (aka Legend of the Drunken Master) and Fist of Legend as well.

Cheers...
Duy-Khang Hoang

mrhan, I was aware they used wires. But it wasn't obvious. That's the key. They will always use wires to help with balance and with the more dangerous stunts.

Hoang, you and want the same thing. But I think DMII will forever be ****ed on DVD. :mad:

My prayers have been answered!

I might have to wait til next week to watch though... tried ordering from an Australian site and their ordering process for mastercard is broken atm... gotta wait til they fix it... sigh.

Now if they would only release a decent version of Drunken Master 2 (aka Legend of the Drunken Master) and Fist of Legend as well.

Cheers...
Duy-Khang Hoang

I'll second that. If only they would release a decent version of Fist of Legend, the Legend I & II (aka the legend of Fong Sai Yuk I & II) , Twin warriors and Jet Li's The Master all with subtitles.

oh & SPL is a very entertaining action thriller I hope we see more new and decent Donnie yen films .

mrhan, I was aware they used wires. But it wasn't obvious. That's the key. They will always use wires to help with balance and with the more dangerous stunts.

Hoang, you and want the same thing. But I think DMII will forever be ****ed on DVD. :mad:

Matt, if you watch the last few seconds of the fight between Donnie and Sammo it was totally obvious they used wires. Especially the flying kick he gave Sammo. Maybe it's just me but I really have an eye for these things. I mean they could have done without; like Ong Bak. Even Equilibrium surprised me because there was no wirework involved in that either and Bale who is obviously not a martial artist did all his stunts without wires. The one exception is the jump over the motorcycle which was done by a stuntman.

No, it's not just you. I was able to pick up dozens of shots where I knew that had to use wires. Sammo had to go on wires at times because he is old and fat. Jet Li is always on wires for certain moves because of his old back injury.

One of my best friends is a former Hong Kong martial arts actor (you would know him if I said his name) and believe me, he said he would need to be on wires for a lot of moves simply for safety's sake. Hopefully we'll find out later this year if a certain film project is greenlit. I can promise you, no obvious wires. No "Wire-Fu" will be used. It will have the quick brutality of Segal's Above The Law and Jackie Chan's Police Story 1 & 2. :cool:

The key is to do moves that do not look like they are impossible in the real world.

ONG BAK had twice the shooting schedule as SPL, not to mention a younger actor who has truly turned out to be young Jackie reincarnated. The man has the gift.

Loved Equilibrium. Hoping Ultraviolet is a step up and not down.

WHere are you located mrhan?

Matt, check your PM. As for Sammo he use to not use wires in his younger days. ETD is a good example. ---but yeah, I agree he may need some help now; he is pushing past 50 and he is fat.

As for Tony Jaa; isn't he pushing 30 by now? I know he's been a stuntman for much longer than he's been an actor. Have you seen Tom Yum Goong yet? He takes it to the next level in that one. The fighting style looks similar to Ong Bak in the beginning but by the end it is totally different. Same lame story, though.

Edit: Have you seen the trailer for Ultraviolet? I thought it was pretty good and I'm looking forward to seeing it next month. I've heard there was some disagreement on the final edit between Wimmer and the studio and that's why it sat on the shelf for over a year.

Yeah, I saw the trailer. Didn't care for it at all. I'm not into trailers with rock and teckno music.

Have not seen Tom Yum Goong yet. Is there an NTSC version that is subtitled and of decent quality?

Not yet but the storyline of the current VCD isn't hard to follow. The pic quality isn't that great, either. Some of it is actually in english since it was filmed in Australia. HKL/PremiereAsia is coming out with a 2 disc version soon but it's in PAL. The Weinstiens already have the U.S. rights but knowing them it will be a cut version. I've read that they will cut some of the fight scenes due to too many bone breaking scenes according to the director. I think if there is going to be an uncut NTSC version it will likely be coming from HK but won't have English subs; similar to the HK Ong Bak release. PAL maybe the only way to go with an uncut version when it is eventually released.

I can do native PAL on my projector. :)

As for Sammo he use to not use wires in his younger days. ETD is a good example. ---but yeah, I agree he may need some help now; he is pushing past 50 and he is fat.

He was fat when he was 20. :)

He was fat when he was 20. :)

LOL. Yeah, he was but he did things a lot of stunts that a fat guy couldn't possibly do.

HKL/PremiereAsia is coming out with a 2 disc version soon but it's in PAL.

Where did you read about this?

Finally caught this a little late. Wow, this movie kicked serous ass! Yes, a ho-hum plot with some holes in it, but man was this entertaining!

What's with the scene where Simon Yam shoots Sammo in the head and then in the next scene it never happened? I guess it was a fantasy, but the movie wasn't edited clearly enough to establish that.

The DVD picture quality looked fantastic. As Matt said, almost no vertical filtering. This means there are some minor compression problems visible that would normally be filtered out, but the image was sharper and more detailed than the vast majority of DVDs. It looked great.

Where did you read about this?


http://www.hongkonglegends.co.uk/index.php?category_id=30



Tom Yum Goong Uncovered 27/09/05



The Premier Asia film crew spent a wonderful day yesterday as guests of the Baa Ram Ewe production staff in Bangkok, Thailand. For our forthcoming 2-Disc Special Edition DVD release, we filmed interviews with leading-man Tony Jaa, director Prachya Pinkaew, martial arts and stunt choreographer Phanna Rithikrai, co-lead Petchtai Wongkamlao and beautiful co-star, Bongkod Khongmalai. Tony, who kindly donated a day from a holiday visiting his parents, blew us away with a full-on martial arts demonstration which showcased his unmatchable Muay Thai and kick-boxing skills, a series of one-on-one fight demonstrations, and the re-creation of action-sequences from Tom Yum Goong. All coming soon exclusively from Premier Asia...

been wanting to see this one for a while but just haven't been too excited after a friend gave a lukewarm review. you guys seem to be on the same page, ho hum story, huge plotholes, +spare action? isn't that a recipe for the ff button through most of the movie?


tom yum goong is ok. action is brutal(so wrong that alot of the enjoyment is based on how much i think the stuntman got hurt doing the scene) but the martial arts style looks very similar to ong bak. kinda gives me the feeling that it's gonna get old soon.
story is as basic as ong bak , not much to say about it. maybe an ff candidate.


if you guys haven't seen "one night in mongkok" and "double vision"

i would recommend those. (not martial arts)

As for Tony Jaa; isn't he pushing 30 by now? I know he's been a stuntman for much longer than he's been an actor. Have you seen Tom Yum Goong yet? He takes it to the next level in that one. The fighting style looks similar to Ong Bak in the beginning but by the end it is totally different. Same lame story, though.

You're not kidding about the lame story. Here's the whole script for Tom Yum Goong:

"Give back elephant is belong to mine or I will kick ass of you!!!"

And that's just about all there is for plot.

Tony Jaa certainly has some moves, but I don't feel that his choreography is as polished or inventive as Jackie Chan at his prime. There's a big fight where he takes on hundreds of combatants, and he uses basically the same 3 or 4 moves on all of them, over and over again. With Jackie, a fight scene tells a whole story, complete with beginning, middle, and end. There's humor, there's suspense, there's emotion. Jaa's fights are mostly just a lot of kicking and punching. He's got amazing dexterity and stamina, but I don't think he is (yet) able to take it to that next level.

And man, when those Thai actors try to speak English.... :shudder:

That said, there's a great scene where Jaa is attacked by "extreme sports" punks on rollerblades and dirt bikes, and the 5-minute Stedicam shot through three floors of the restaurant was certainly a piece of bravura showmanship.

been wanting to see this one for a while but just haven't been too excited after a friend gave a lukewarm review. you guys seem to be on the same page, ho hum story, huge plotholes, +spare action? isn't that a recipe for the ff button through most of the movie?

The story is nothing special but it is efficient and serviceable. There may not be wall-to-wall action, but when the action comes it's really friggin' good!

if you guys haven't seen "one night in mongkok" and "double vision"

I've seen One Nite in Mongkok and thought it was just 'OK'.

You're not kidding about the lame story. Here's the whole script for Tom Yum Goong:

"Give back elephant is belong to mine or I will kick ass of you!!!"

And that's just about all there is for plot.

Tony Jaa certainly has some moves, but I don't feel that his choreography is as polished or inventive as Jackie Chan at his prime. There's a big fight where he takes on hundreds of combatants, and he uses basically the same 3 or 4 moves on all of them, over and over again. With Jackie, a fight scene tells a whole story, complete with beginning, middle, and end. There's humor, there's suspense, there's emotion. Jaa's fights are mostly just a lot of kicking and punching. He's got amazing dexterity and stamina, but I don't think he is (yet) able to take it to that next level.

And man, when those Thai actors try to speak English.... :shudder:

That said, there's a great scene where Jaa is attacked by "extreme sports" punks on rollerblades and dirt bikes, and the 5-minute Stedicam shot through three floors of the restaurant was certainly a piece of bravura showmanship.

Yeah, that thing w/ the news was so stupid. Why didn't they just hire an Aussie actor to do the news? I mean your suppose to understand the guy giving the news.

I've seen One Nite in Mongkok and thought it was just 'OK'.

you obviously don't enjoy looking at cecilia cheung as much as i do :)

i thought the tone of the movie, cinematography was exceptionally well done. you don't often see the serious side in most hong kong movies without the silly stuff intruding in. maybe i haven't been watching the right films. this one i thought walked a line and never crossed over into silly land although there were funny/humourous elements in the story. never got overly sentimental or melodramatic either. if you know of more like this i'd like to know.


forget the title but there was a johhny to film where a cop loses his gun and we follow him as he tries to retrieve it. that one was enjoyable and like "onim" doesn't cross into corny terrritory.

forget the title but there was a johhny to film where a cop loses his gun and we follow him as he tries to retrieve it. that one was enjoyable and like "onim" doesn't cross into corny terrritory.

I was about to recommend that one. The title is PTU. I can see it being similar in tone to Mongkok, but I prefer PTU.

To's recent film Election is also very good. Here's a review:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=19986

forget the title but there was a johhny to film where a cop loses his gun and we follow him as he tries to retrieve it.

Was that a remake of Kurosawa's "Stray Dog"? How does it stack up?

I've been hearing about "Sha Po Lang" for awhile now and decided to order it, thanks for the link Matt, great price! Since I first heard about this film the title has always reminded me of that kung fu movie they made in the original Macross series with Minmei's cousin in the lead, I think it was called "Shao Pai Lon", is it just me? "Shao Pai Lon is a very Messiah" as the lyrics go :D

I had such a lust for Minmei when I was 12. :D

Was that a remake of Kurosawa's "Stray Dog"? How does it stack up?

It's not a remake, but it does sort of riff on that movie. I liken it more to Scorsese's After Hours but with cops.

Just got "Sha Po Lang" today and watched it. First the good, yeah, the transfer was great. That's about it for me.

I just did not enjoy this film at all. I was really looking forward to it, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung - martial arts movie with a pedestrian story - what could go wrong? Well, a lot actually. I can sum up the film in two words:

Everone dies

I usually don't get in to that type of film unless there is a point to it, this one seems to have none. It is a brutal film, and I certainly don't mind that, but it seemed to me there are more times when a knife slices someone than when a fist or foot whacks them (more my type of fights).

This is the type of film where the good guys NEVER win. Sure they throw a guy off a building, but that is about their only victory during the film. So, identifying with the "good guys" (if anyone at all) we are "treated" to each one of their deaths and basically just watch helplessly thinking that in the end justice will be done (ala "New Police Story"), but it isn't. EVER. It's very unsatisfying to watch. Now I'm sure someone will say "that's the way it is in the real world", or "what? you need a happy ending every time?" No, but if you're going to deliver a downer of a film at least have a point behind it, give me a message to chew on other than "that's life."

There are so many one-note, throw-away characters in the film that don't really seem to serve much purpose like the undercover cop that is in two scenes, the guy that Donnie socked in the head, or the guy with the video camera. More plot-devices than characters really.

I watch martial arts films for fun, not to be depressed. If there were a great story here, or even some great fights I might've overlooked these things, but this film didn't really provide either. Good thing it was cheap :)

Just got "Sha Po Lang" today and watched it. First the good, yeah, the transfer was great. That's about it for me.

I just did not enjoy this film at all. I was really looking forward to it, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung - martial arts movie with a pedestrian story - what could go wrong? Well, a lot actually. I can sum up the film in two words:

Everone dies

I usually don't get in to that type of film unless there is a point to it, this one seems to have none. It is a brutal film, and I certainly don't mind that, but it seemed to me there are more times when a knife slices someone than when a fist or foot whacks them (more my type of fights).

This is the type of film where the good guys NEVER win. Sure they throw a guy off a building, but that is about their only victory during the film. So, identifying with the "good guys" (if anyone at all) we are "treated" to each one of their deaths and basically just watch helplessly thinking that in the end justice will be done (ala "New Police Story"), but it isn't. EVER. It's very unsatisfying to watch. Now I'm sure someone will say "that's the way it is in the real world", or "what? you need a happy ending every time?" No, but if you're going to deliver a downer of a film at least have a point behind it, give me a message to chew on other than "that's life."

There are so many one-note, throw-away characters in the film that don't really seem to serve much purpose like the undercover cop that is in two scenes, the guy that Donnie socked in the head, or the guy with the video camera. More plot-devices than characters really.

I watch martial arts films for fun, not to be depressed. If there were a great story here, or even some great fights I might've overlooked these things, but this film didn't really provide either. Good thing it was cheap :)

Maybe, you would have liked the mainland China version instead; it ended w/ Donnie having a drink and then cuts to the beach scene. :)

Just got "Sha Po Lang" today and watched it. First the good, yeah, the transfer was great. That's about it for me.

I just did not enjoy this film at all. I was really looking forward to it, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung - martial arts movie with a pedestrian story - what could go wrong? Well, a lot actually. I can sum up the film in two words:

Everone dies



I'm guessing you probably didn't like Above the Law either (Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock version, not the Steven Seagal one) :)

Love that movie. Wish there was a good DVD of it out there.

I'm guessing you probably didn't like Above the Law either (Yuen Biao, Cynthia Rothrock version, not the Steven Seagal one)

Never seen it, nor heard of it.

Maybe, you would have liked the mainland China version instead; it ended w/ Donnie having a drink and then cuts to the beach scene.

I was already thinking "that's it?" when Donnie was pouring his drink. What followed just made things worse. No offense to anyone who liked the film, but I just don't see why it's been so highly praised online. I haven't seen a single dissenting opinion on it, other than my own. Am I really the only person who doesn't like this film?

I'm not about to say that you have to like the movie, but your reasoning for disliking it has me rather confounded. So, any movie with an unhappy ending is lousy in your book? I don't get it.

There was much hype surrounding this film and it did decent business in Hong Kong and made the rounds at festivals. It can now be had on DVD for under $14 (under $12 for the 1 disc version) and is worth your time and money if you can forgive the highly flawed script.

I can't so it SUCKS IMO! BAD plot with tons of hole, and some acting is really POOR IMO! The DVD looks and sounds great though! But it is still a very BAD movie!

regards,

Li On

So, any movie with an unhappy ending is lousy in your book? I don't get it.

Well then either you didn't read my whole post, or you didn't read it very carefully.

Selected portions of my original post:
I usually don't get in to that type of film unless there is a point to it, this one seems to have none.

It's very unsatisfying to watch. Now I'm sure someone will say "that's the way it is in the real world", or "what? you need a happy ending every time?" No, but if you're going to deliver a downer of a film at least have a point behind it, give me a message to chew on other than "that's life."

I watch martial arts films for fun, not to be depressed. If there were a great story here, or even some great fights I might've overlooked these things, but this film didn't really provide either.

This film didn't leave me with a feeling that I had just seen something profound. I didn't identify with the characters at all, the fights were nothing special and

they kill off everybody just because they can

I don't find it entertaining at all, and I don't find any message in the film other than "life is brutal", or something to that effect. So yeah, if there is no real meaning to the message of the film and/or it isn't entertaining then normally I don't like it. I need one or the other to feel like my time wasn't wasted.

Edit: Just wanted to add that my favorite action film of all time is "The Killer", which also has a sad ending. That movie got it right, it's entertaining, it had great characters that I can empathize with, and a tragic ending.

The PQ and Sound are fine, but the movie is only good for a rental. Paid too much for it. Would have like Mrhan's version better.

BTW, it's a very very short movie that got extended with some needless clips. My version was about 90 minutes long.

The R1 version is up for pre order.
BTW, it's been retitled "Kill Zone". Kind of lame 'cause it doesn't reflect what the movie is about.

http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.538573/qx/details.htm

I think it reflects exactly what the movie is about, though I'm against retitling in general.

This one of the better movies that has come out in awhile. I've turned a few people onto this one. :)

I enjoyed this too...a little silly and over-the-top.
But that is typical of this genre.
Good popcorn fun. :)

For those that aren't region free and wanted to see this.

The Hong Kong disc is all-region NTSC and will work in any American DVD player. It has an excellent, razor sharp transfer (for standard-definition) and a rocking DTS track.

The Hong Kong disc is all-region NTSC and will work in any American DVD player. It has an excellent, razor sharp transfer (for standard-definition) and a rocking DTS track.



Your right. I rarely look to see what region coding a DVD has. I just assumed it was R3. Being all my players are region free I barely give it a thought. Fixed original post.

I am very late to the game. The first time I heard of "Kill Zone" was through a trailer in the "The Protector" aka Tom Yum Goong. I just got around to picking this movie up yesterday and watching it. What I liked about the movie was the use of the music for the various scenes. I also enjoyed the extra's on how they filmed the Alley fight scene. If I got time tonight, I will view the 2nd disc bonus materials. As mentioned previously, an excellent video transfer with very clear audio although maybe a bit over use of the surrounds.

if you guys haven't seen "one night in mongkok" and "double vision"

i would recommend those. (not martial arts)
watched one night in mongkok and running on karma just because Im kinda hot for cecelia cheung. well one night in mongkok was disappointing but running on karma was just flat out retarded.