It is 1997, the final days before the handover of Hong Kong back to China. Tensions are running high, the criminal element scrambling to bank as much money as they can in advance of the anticipated crackdown that will come with the return of communist rule. It is a wild, anarchic time in the criminal underworld, old alliances abandoned in the name of quick profit. And when the criminals are hard the police must be harder if they are to catch them. Enter Donnie Yen as Inspector Ma, a gruff and ruthless officer known both for his exceptionally high arrest rates and the rate Ma-inflicted injuries associated with those arrests. Ma’s partner is Wilson – played by Louis Koo – a deep cover operative currently infiltrating a ruthless gang run by three brothers smuggling goods in and out of Vietnam. A takedown is coming soon but can the police bring down the gang before the gang realizes that there is an informant in their midst?
Yen fans will have recognized this film the moment they saw his character’s name. Flash Point is the third consecutive collaboration between Yen and director Wilson Yip, the film that began life as a sequel to their first collaboration, SPL released on these shores as Kill Zone. The film marks a definite return to the gritty style that drove SPL after the highly stylized comic book adaptation Dragon Tiger Gate but the initial plans to make a true sequel had to be abandoned when it turned out that they couldn’t get clearance from that film’s producers. Some elements – such as Yen’s character name – stayed, but others had to be changed and the result is a film that is a bit muddled on the narrative end, with the better developed earlier-written material sitting uncomfortably alongside the later revisions, but one which also includes arguably the finest martial arts work of Yen’s career to date.
One of the great strengths of SPL was its ability to fuse strong character work with the heroic bloodshed and martial arts elements and those looking for Flash Point to do the same will leave somewhat disappointed. Yen’s Inspector Ma has survived the script revisions fully intact and is thoroughly engaging – a character tailor made for Yen’s strengths as an actor, one he performs very well, with the script providing just the right grace notes to supply him with depth and a surprising touch of comedy – but others have not fared so well. Louis Koo’s Wilson, in particular, feels badly under developed, the character working as a shell built of stock ideas and scenarios lifted from scores of other films. Koo has proven in his recent work with Johnnie To that he is a more than capable performer when given good material to work with but he doesn’t have nearly the natural ability or screen charisma to elevate weak material with his performance and Wilson comes off as stock and by the numbers, a major flaw considering just how much screen time he is given. As a consequence the front half of the film, while not really bad per se, feels far too familiar and like a step back from better work presented by the duo of Yen and Yip not so long ago.
Any feeling of disappointment in the first half disappears quickly in the second.
And why is this? Simple. While there are a couple decent fight sequences in the opening acts it is in the back half that the action takes over. Yen is a ferocious talent, not only as a screen fighter but also as a choreographer and over the past few years he has proven that he is arguably the best fight director in the world if what you’re looking for is choreography that doesn’t feel like choreography. If what you want is bone jarring action that plays and feels like it could actually happen this way in the real world there is nobody better than Yen and this is his finest hour on that front. A conscious decision was made early in production to abandon typical kung fu styles in favor of techniques that would actually work in a street fight and to that end Yen recruited a large team of international screen fighters, several other recognized choreographers, and even some UFC fighters to tailor his action to the real world. The experimentation with Brazilian jujitsu that Yen began with SPL has become a full on love affair here, the film loaded with punishing take downs, grappling moves, and disabling joint locks played out at insanely high speeds. The back half of the film is packed to the gills with fight and action sequences and they stand as the most diverse and punishing sequences of Yen’s career.
Helping greatly to that end is the presence of Colin Chou in the lead villain role. Chou is one of those great, overlooked treasures of the martial arts world, a man with good on screen charisma and huge fighting skills who, strangely, doesn’t seem to get a lot of work despite high profile parts against Jet Li (Bodyguard From Beijing) and as Seraph in the second and third Matrix films. Over the course of his career Yen has too seldom had the chance to face opponents that matched his own skill level but having Chou in this film gives him his third such opportunity in his past five films, each of which plays to fantastic – and fantastically diverse – effect. There is the classic, wire-oriented high end wuxia battle with Jet Li in Hero. This was followed by a display of kung fu virtuosity against Wu Jing in SPL. And now, with Chou, Yen delivers a very lengthy, bone crunching, no holds barred, knock ‘em down and drag ‘em out brawl. Which of these three you will prefer depends largely on your own tastes but there is no doubt that this period will stand as the pinnacle of Yen’s fight career.
The fusion of quality character work with a hard edged style and intense action sequences made SPL a much needed and heartily welcomed shot in the arm for Hong Kong film, the film was a reminder of what made Hong Kong action so beloved by so many in the first place while reassuring that they hadn’t lost it just yet. The significant flaws of Flash Point prevent it from reaching the same heights as its predecessor, it is much less satisfying on a narrative and character level, but it is nonetheless a worthy showcase of on of the world’s most compelling physical talents at the peak of his ability.