Rating: B+
Dir: Soi Cheang
Star: Raymond Lam, Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen
The Walled City in Kowloon was one of the more intriguing places in the world. Originally a fort, it became a “sanctuary city” for refugees, illegal immigrants, criminals and other non-people. Up until it was demolished in the mid-nineties, it was the most densely populated area in the world, cramming 35,000 people into an area only about that of four football fields. This film unfolds a few years earlier, when Chan Lok-kwun (Lam) comes to Hong Kong as a refugee. He gets scammed by Mr. Big (Hung), and in retaliation steals a bag of drugs from him. To escape, Chan runs into the Walled City, off limits to Mr. Big since it’s run by Cyclone (Koo).
Chan becomes part of Cyclone’s gang, and builds a life for himself inside its confines. However, the imminent redevelopment of the area poses a threat to Cyclone and his ally on the outside. In addition, it turns out that Chan’s past will have a part to play, as Mr. Big prepares to make his move into the Walled City. It’s tempting to read a metaphor there, for the Chinese take-over of Hong Kong, which was beginning to loom over the colony at this point. But I’m not going to get into the weeds there, and instead revel in what feels like a throwback to the “heroic bloodshed” films of the nineties – albeit largely without guns, to the point I was genuinely shocked when somebody opened fire.
This instead relies on people whacking each other, hard, with fists, feet or whatever happens to be within reach. The labyrinthine passages of the Walled City provide a claustrophobic environment for these confrontations, and the production designers have done a bang-up job of creating the setting, combining CGI with sets, crammed to the rafters with everyday objects – mostly suitable for the previously mentioned whacking. I don’t know how “accurate” it is, yet the results feel credible, and that’s what matters. It reminded me of both Dredd and The Raid: Redemption, in its recreation of an urban environment where the law is whatever the inhabitants decide it should be. However, the drama here is more between insiders: the authorities here are notable by their absence.
The film does a good job of balancing these elements with its action sequences, as things build to a climax which… Well, let’s just say, they’ll help address the overcrowding problem. You may be a little surprised by the way things unfold, with a relatively minor character suddenly coming to the fore in the final act. They also possess indestructibility at a level the T-800 would admire, in a rare diversion from the gritty realism which is the film’s stock in trade. I’d be hard-pushed to complain about the results, and the film had me exclaiming audibly on a number of occasions. This has been chosen as Hong Kong’s Oscar entry, which just goes to show they have far better taste than most countries.