Back in Time
The closest you ever got to the Walled City was the park? No problem. Soi Cheang has brought it back to glorious, grotty life.
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
Director: Soi Cheang • Writers: Au Kin-yee, Chan Tai-lee, Shum Kwan-sin, Jun Li, based on the novel and manhua by Yu Yi and Andy Seto
Starring: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Lau Chun-him, Richie Jen, Philip Ng, Sammo Hung, Aaron Kwok
Hong Kong • 2hrs 5mins
Opens Hong Kong May 1 • IIB
Grade: B
Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In | 九龍城寨之圍城 starts with a recap of what was going on in Hong Kong and its notorious Kowloon Walled City in the 1980s, much of which was not good. We’re told that after warring gangs finally had it out in the cramped streets, and a boss called Cyclone (Louis Koo Tin-lok) killed off a rival’s hit man, a relative kind of peace descended on the Walled City. There were few outsiders (though we’re reminded Hong Kong was freshly anointed a port of first asylum) and fewer cops, but there was a balance that all residents respected. Also because Cyclone and his right hand, Shin (Beyond the Dream’s Terrance Lau Chun-him, having a moment), kept a lid on the perpetual powder keg of lawlessness and violence. If it sounds like there’s some Hongkong-ified western iconography in there that’s not far off the mark. Walled In starts with a gloriously brutal gang fight and show down, rolls in a few interloping business types that want to get their hands on the land, and ends with a new sheriff in town, keeping the peace – at least until the city is razed to the ground in 1993, just a few years away.
With the exception of the opening sequence, a few choice fights in between and the closing throwdown (duh), Cheang’s HK$300 million (!) adaptation of, in ways, both Andy Seto’s manhua City of Darkness and Yu Yi’s novel Kowloon Walled City, is a remarkably low-impact affair. Odd considering Cheang’s filmography (Motorway, Shamo) but not unexpected considering the director’s lingering fixation on slow burning character drama (Limbo, Mad Fate) and conflicted men (yes men, look at that cast). Make no mistake: every penny of that fat $300M is on the screen – and not just in salaries. Cheang tapped his favourite production designer Mak Kwok-keung for more Limbo-style layers of claustrophobic decay for an immersive, tactile recreation of the old Walled City, one that also acknowledges the lives that were inside it – inside the slum. Sure, it’s a crime-fantasy-western-actioner, but it’s also a reminder that there was humanity and kindness and a micro-economy inside the walls, something that’s often overlooked when the enclave is recalled now. It’s too bad there wasn’t a bit more narrative heft to go with it.
Almost wall-to-wall
After the opening fisticuffs, we meet Chan Lok-kwun (singer-actor Raymond Lam Fung, Detective vs Sleuths), an undocumented refugee trying to lay low, avoid the po-po and cage fight his way to a fake Hong Kong ID card. When Mr Big (Sammo Hung Kam-bo), the triad boss running the illegal fights double crosses him, Chan grabs a bag of money from his lair and runs like hell. Big sends his own psychotic right hand, Wong Gau (Philip Ng Wan-lung, Chasing the Dragon), after him – right up until Chan flees into the Walled City. End of pursuit; not Big’s turf. Long, familiar story short: one thing leads to another and Chan winds up under the wing of Cyclone, Shin, the mutilated former triad and sort-of-a-doctor AV (German Cheung Man-kit, Warriors of Future) and the muscle for one of Cyclone’s sworn brothers, Master 12 (Tony Wu Tsz-tung), and welcomed into the community. While Chan is making himself useful by delivering propane tanks and beating the shit out of prostitute abusers, Cyclone is conferring with his aforementioned sworn brothers Chau (Richie Jen Hsien-chi) and Tiger (Kenny Wong Tak-ban), who are both still seeking revenge on Jim (Aaron Kwok Fu-shing) for murdering their family and blinding them in one eye respectively. They want his son dead, but he vanished as an infant. Dun dun dun! This is an urban martial arts crime thriller from Hong Kong. If you think there won’t be a slew of deep dark secrets, lies and betrayals that threaten the very fabric of the Walled City and the bonds of the brothers high and low, you haven’t seen enough urban martial arts crime thrillers from Hong Kong.
Now, when we say Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is a bit thin narratively, it’s not because it lacks “stuff”. Plenty happens. But four writers (Au Kin-yee, Chan Tai-lee, Shum Kwan-sin and Jun Li) forgot to drop hints about the fantastical elements of the story early on, so when the big fight comes with Wong Gau, his “protective spell” is news to us. They hired the always welcome Fish Liew to… cradle a toddler? There’s life inside Cheang’s Walled City, but so much time is spent on Chan’s mysterious past and the requisite brotherhood drama the film missed its chance to dig deeper into all the people around them, even after hinting at those stories. Those more dramatic bits are abandoned for third act goofiness.
But, once again, we can’t talk about the film we think it should be. The real stars are the fights, the space itself and the “picture” part of motion picture. On those fronts it delivers. Cheang dips into comics for some of the imagery, and like all the other visuals in the film, they work every time. Jen’s silver fox hair and the stylised colouring gives him a Storm Riders vibe, juicing his few scenes for real visual impact. The traditional Hong Kong movie estate shot – the one that points the camera straight up to be enveloped on all sides by concrete and laundry – has an extra-constrained feel when jets en route to Kai Tak block out the light. Every prop is evocative of time and place (Leslie Cheung’s “Monica” is also having a moment), and DOP Cheng Siu-keung’s camera positively drowns in rusty iron, tangled wires and bare lightbulbs; you can almost smell and feel the pork chop grease. Garrett Lam, Jules Lin and Yu Kwok-leung’s VFX are seamless, and action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki (Sakra) makes even the pretenders look good in their fights. I never knew how badly I wanted a Hung-Koo dust-up. Walled In has a vivid recreation of a curious and unique slice of urban history, popular veteran movie stars, popular emerging movie stars, and some bonkers martial arts wirework reminiscent of the good ol’ days. Is this going to land with Hongkongers? Short answer: Hells, yeah. — DEK