Kill Zone

Foreign Film from China - Chinese Title: Saat po long [also known as Sha po lang or S.P.L.]
Language - Mandarin with English Subtitles or Dubbed in English

Genre - Action/Martial Arts - Crime Drama
Year Released - 2005
Running Time - 93 minutes
Directed by Wilson Yip (who also directed Flash Point)
Written by Wilson Yip, Kam-Yuen Szeto, (who also wrote Flash Point) and Wai Lun Ng (who also wrote Vampire Effect)
Cast Includes:
Simon Yam (Once Upon a Time in China)
Sammo Hung (Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Project A, No More Mr Nice Guy, Zu Warriors, The Hand of Death, and The Magnificent Butcher - he also played Sammo in the short-lived television series Martial Law)
Donnie Yen (Iron Monkey 1 & 2, Once Upon a Time in China 2, Blade II, Highlander: Endgame, Flash Point, and Hero)
Jacky Wu (Zu Warriors)


Rating: 4 Skulls


Plot Summary:
Diagnosed with a brain tumor, a police detective decides that, after years of failure, he will do anything it takes to put a notorious crime boss behind bars, even if it means breaking the law.
Joined in his mission by Officer Ma Kwan, veteran cop Chan sets out to snare the gangster Po, leaving a trail of badly beaten henchmen along the way.


Review:
This is a great film! I rented it primarily due to Sammo Hung & Donnie Yen being in it and I was treated to so much more - a deeper story than I was expecting, about the consequences behind our actions. . .

It starts off with a car accident involving a key witness to a criminal's [Po, played by Sammo Hung - who plays a great bad guy in this one] case. The only survivors are the main detective on the case [Det. Chan, played by Simon Yam] and a young girl, who the detective ends up adopting, as both of her parents were killed in the accident. Due to his injury in the accident, the detective finds out that he has an inoperable, malignant brain tumor. He decides to go after Po - the criminal who he has been unable to put away - before he dies.

Soon, a video tape surfaces of Po beating someone with a golf club - after he is finished beating the guy, one of his lackeys shoots the guy in the head. Chan alters the tape, erasing the last part, and arrests Po for the murder - he and the other officers working with him on the case then track down the real killer and mercilessly beat him, until he ends up falling to his death.

Donnie Yen plays another cop, who is an outsider to this group, yet working with them to bring Po down, even though he doesn't agree with the way they are going about it.

While Po is incarcerated, he sends an assassin [played crazily by Jacky Wu] after the other cops.
Ever since the arrival of the assassin, you can't wait for him and Yen to get down to what they do best, which also leads to the inevitable showdown between Yen & Hung:

Like I said though, there is way more to this movie than the sporadic martial arts action - the story runs deep and my jaw hit the floor during the last few minutes of the film - a shocking ending!

Here's the trailer:



Jason