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Hong Kong is a vastly different city now then it was in the 1980s. Its most notorious landmark, Kowloon Walled City, no longer stands, but scores of luxury brand retail showrooms have subsequently opened, reshaping the financial hub. Sadly, freedom of the press and rule of law are also endangered, if not already extinct in Hong Kong. The sense of community has also grown scarce. Despite its danger and vice, the fortress-like enclave still offers a recent asylum-seeker the feeling of belonging he craves. That is why he fights the rough-and-tumble neighborhood in Soi Cheang’s action spectacle, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, which is now playing in theaters, following several high-profile festival screenings (including this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival).
Chan Lok-kwun is like a lot of immigrants. He just wants to work hard and be left alone. However, Chan handles himself better in a fight than most unemployed migrants. Consequently, he won a small purse in one of the underground fights hosted by Mr. Big, a ruthless HK crime boss (and not Carrie Bradshaw’s late husband on Sex and the City). Ill-advisedly, Chan agrees to use his winnings to buy a fake ID through Mr. Big’s organization. Predictably, what they deliver is not worth the paper it was badly printed on. As retribution, Chan flees with a bag he assumes is stuffed with cash, but turns out to hold serious narcotics instead.
Chased by Mr. Big’s lieutenant King, Chan takes refuge in the one place Mr. Big’s men cannot enter. Kowloon Walled City has been the exclusive territory of Boss Cyclone ever since he defeated his former ally, Jim Chan, in a legendary gang war. Bringing a duffle full of drugs into the Walled City could get Chan killed, but Cyclone admires his ability to take a beating and his willingness to work, so he offers the fugitive sanctuary.
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Soon, Chan befriends Cyclone’s protégé, Shin, as well as the crime lord’s swordsman enforcer, Twelfth Master, and “AV,” the proprietor of Walled City’s combined medical clinic and adult video store. When vulnerable residents are threatened, the four pseudo-vigilantes mobilize to protect them. However, Cyclone protects Chan at a potentially ruinous cost, when his political patron, Chau, discovers the immigrant happens to be the long-lost son of his old nemesis, Jim Chan. Of course, Mr. Big and King would happily kill Chan on Chau’s behalf, especially if it means taking over Kowloon Walled City.
Twilight of the Warriors offers plenty of martial arts action, mildly peppered with fantastical elements, thanks to the “spirit power” that renders King nearly invulnerable to conventional methods of gangster combat. However, a wistfully nostalgic atmosphere also surprisingly permeates the film. The loyalties of Chan and Cyclone extend beyond their friends and their gang, encompassing the entire hardscrabble, working-class Walled City community as well.
Perhaps the film was intended as an indictment of pre-1996 lawlessness, but the finished product often feels like a love letter to the old school Hong Kong of family-run stores and cottage industry. In a strange way, Twilight of the Warriors would make a perfect pairing with Alex Law’s 1960s coming-of-age drama, Echoes of the Rainbow, which captured the bittersweet flavor of the time when life in Hong Kong was largely defined by neighborhood blocks.
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Nevertheless, the action, dazzlingly and often brutally coordinated by Kenji Tanigaki, will pull in the audience for Cheang’s film. It was a potentially intimidating gig, considering co-stars Sammo Hung and Philip Ng are accomplished fight choreographers in their own rights. This time around, they both also make decidedly dangerous, yet compulsively watchable villains. Hung lives up to his character’s name, “Mr. Big,” in pretty much every way, while Ng has a flamboyant 1970s throwback vibe that appropriately oozes sleaze and treachery.
Shrewdly, Raymond Lam tacks in the opposite, steely and reserved direction as the world-weary Chan. Louis Koo shows off some of the best moves of his career as Cyclone, but also convincingly depicts the crime boss’s growing awareness of his mortality. Terrence Lau, Tony Wu, and German Cheung all acquit themselves well, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Chan. However, if fans blink twice, they might almost miss superstar Aaron Kwok in a near-cameo, portraying Jim Chan in flashbacks.
Appropriately, Kowloon Walled City overshadows everyone. The production faithfully recreated the razed landmark at great expense, but that money was well spent. Cheang and company definitely transport the audience to a Hong Kong that no longer exists, where they stage some amazing martial arts sequences. Easily recommended for action fans, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is now playing in theaters.
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Grade: B+
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Here’s the trailer of the film.