Dragon Dynasty is the new US DVD label to release HK movies. The most interesting aspect is that the creative people who have been responsible for the DVD releases of HKL for many years are now the heads of Dragon Dynasty. Their first DVD release is this 2-disc edition of probably the best HK martial arts action film in years, which is Sha Po Lang, retitled as Kill Zone for the US market.

Full movie and DVD review inside...

Alternative Titles: Sha Po Lang, SPL, Saat Po Lang
Director: Wilson Yip
Main Stars: Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Jacky Wu
Production Year: 2005
Studio: Dragon Dynasty
Packaging: Amaray
Extras: Audio commentary with HK cinema expert Bey Logan, Behind-the-scenes footage (with optional commentary by Donnie Yen and Bey Logan), Interviews with: Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Simon Yam, Wilson Yip, Jacky Wu, Making Of featurette, Trailer gallery
Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio Tracks: Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, Cantonese DTS, English dub Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Regional Coding: Region 1 NTSC
Running Time: 93 minutes
Rating / Certificate: Not Rated
Release Date: September 12th 2006

The Film

Director Wilson Yip, known for his wonderful collaborations with actor Francis Ng in such films as Juliet in Love, Bullets over Summer or The White Dragon, wrote and directed this action piece. And if you ask me it is the best collaboration between a director and actors that has occured in recent HK cinema. We all know Sammo Hung can be a very good character actor if he is given a decent script. His action abilities are very rarely doubted by people. As an actor however, he is very underrated even though he has proven his acting abilities in films such as Island of Fire, To Err is Humane or Heart of the Dragon. In SPL he plays the villain, triads boss Wong Po and fans will be pleased by both his acting and the action he performs in this film even at the age of 53. And you should not expect the same kind of action by him which he performed in Dragon Squad. It seems that Sammo has given all the power he got left for SPL. And I am sure that he is still full of energy.



When Wong Po (Sammo Hung) is released from prison, due to the lack of evidence, Detective Chan Kwok Chung (Simon Yam) and his team plan to bust him for good. The lack of evidence was due to the killing of the main witness who leaves behind a 7-years-old daughter. Chung is now taking care of her. Three years later Chung is still working on the case, but he only has three days left as he is retiring. Enter Ma Kwan (Donnie Yen) who is assigned to take over the lead of Chung's team. During the three days Chung has left to bust Wong Po, Ma Kwan helps out with the investigation. Their main lead is a video tape which holds evidence to put Wong Po into prison. Wong Po finds out about that tape and organises a counter-attack.



His henchmen are down-and-dirty and they do not hesitate to make use of machetes and knives which basically makes the fight scenes in SPL so interesting. Donnie Yen going against Jacky Wu is probably the best fight I have seen in a recent HK film. Donnie fights with a cudgel while Jacky Wu slices around with his big knive.
So without a doubt, the fights in this film are first-class and without an equal example from any other recent HK film. In fact as the action scenes in this film were directed by Donnie Yen they sometimes reminded me of the action in In the Line of Duty IV which might have been directed by Yuen Woo-ping, but it is obvious that Donnie Yen has learnt a lot from him, too. In SPL you'll see martial arts movie legends going off on each other. Donnie Yen vs. Jackie Wu. Donnie Yen vs. Sammo Hung (twice) and good guy Simon Yam beating the crap out of suspects. On top of that the fights are really brutal and bloody, too. What else could one ask for?



So while we have great physical action in this film, the storyline has not been neglected. This is a Wilson Yip-film after all. The subplots in this film are really touching and they successfully contribute to the main storyline. You sympathise with the characters which is also due to the great performances of the actors. I think that I have never seen Donnie Yen act so well in a film before. Wilson Yip must have really pushed the acting of all the actors in SPL. Sammo is rarely seen as a bad guy in his films. In fact I can only remember him as a bad guy in a supporting part in The Valiant Ones, an old but very good old-school kung fu flick. While I used to think of him as Sammo in this old-school flick, I thought of him completely different in SPL. Sammo did such a great job as the bad guy that I wanted his character to be killed by the cops as quickly as possible. I'm sorry to say this, but you'll hate Sammo's character in this film which I admit is hard to imagine. Wilson Yip has done a really good job in shaping his characters.
The film's soundtrack, composed by Chan Kwok Wing (Infernal Affairs) is also really good and it adds wonderfully to the dramatic moments. Lighting and cinematography have been handled really well, too, so this is an overall great experience of a film. If you are looking for a new and decent action film with a solid storyline and great actors, then get SPL.



Action
Suspense
Story
Humor
Romance
Drama Level
Eroticism
Music
Cinematograhy
Total

This film could appeal to you if you liked:

Dragon Tiger Gate or One Night in Mongkok

The DVD

The Dragon Dynasty DVD does not lack behind the HK DVD in terms of picture and audio quality. The image is just as clear as one could expect from a recent film and it honestly looks cleaner than a lot of recent Hollywood films that have been released on DVD.

Apart from a Cantonese 5.1 and Cantonese DTS track, it also features an English 5.1 dub.

Special Features:
The extras on disc 1 start with a feature length audio commentary by Bey Logan. Most HK movie fans in the West will know him from the days he has been recording audio commentaries for Hong Kong Legends. Logan again does not fail to entertain. Apart from providing us with information on actors, crew members and locations, he also notes minor movie mistakes and tells us some anecdotes that are connected to the film.
The other extras on the first disc are two behind-the-scenes featurettes. The first one features on-set footage from the alley fight between Donnie Yen and Jacky Wu. The second featurette is on-set footage from the final fight between Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung. Both of the featurettes run about 30 minutes and whatever the cast & crew are saying on the set is being subtitled in English. These featurettes are really awesome to look at. Filmmakers can certainly learn a lot in terms of fight choreography and others will get a glimpse of how much hard work is being put into a HK action flick.
As if this wasn't enough, both featurettes can be played with with a team commentary track by Bey logan and the actor/fight director Donnie Yen himself. They talk about a lot of thoughts and interesting aspects of the circumstances when shooting these fight scenes.
The other extras on disc 1 are the Original Theatrical Trailer and the US Promotional Trailer. Sadly, the US Promo Trailer on the DVD is not the same one that is featured on the official Dragon Dynasty website. (http://www.dragondynasty.com) That's a shame really, because I think the trailer on the website has a bigger impact and fans of the HKL label should be more familiar with the voiceover man.
There are also 4 original HK TV spots.

Disc 2 has the following extras:
Interviews
All the interviews intertwine between film or on-set footage not seen elsewhere. This is quite relaxing, because it can get tiresome if you have a 40-minutes interview with only the same person talking and talking.

Sammo Hung: Sammo talks about the character he plays in this film and about his view on the current state of the HK film industry. The interview runs for nearly 15 minutes and he talks in Cantonese which is subtitled in English.

Donnie Yen: In Donnie's 39-minutes interview he talks about how the whole concept of the film started. He continues to talk about the style of action he has used in Kill Zone and explains why his way of making action scenes is more exciting than the MTV-style we are getting in almost every actionfilm these days. This might sound cocky, but he is absolutely right and reflected my thoughts exactly. He talks in English throughout the whole interview.

Simon Yam: Simon talks about what attracted him to making this movie: The fact that SPL combines action with drama more relating than usual actionfilms do. He says that history has shown that this formula has created some of the best action films and the examples he gives are the John Woo-films and Ringo Lam's Full Contact. You'll also notice how humble Simon is when he says that he couldn't teach Donnie a lot in terms of acting as he had already known so much. At another point, Donnie emphasises on how much he has learnt from Simon. And admittedly, I think SPL is Donnie's best acting effort so far. His interview plays for almost 14 minutes, is in Cantonese and features English subtitles.

Wislon Yip: First of all the director explains the Cantonese title of the film Sha Po Lang. He then goes on to explain how it was working with the cast. He talks about certain scenes and the film's message. Yip talks in Cantonese and his interview is subtitled in English.

Jacky Wu: You'll notice right away that Jacky Wu talks in Mandarin. Don't worry, the interview features subtitles. He talks about his martial arts background. What is really interesting is his anecdote of how he came from China to HK in order to work on movies and how he got his first leading role. If you only know him as the bad guy, you won't believe how nice he comes across in this interview. He even says that he had long discussions with the director about how he could look more sadistic and fiercly, fitting into the profile of a violent killer. Furthermore, he talks about his relationships with cast & crew and about movie fighting. His interview lasts for 22 minutes and a half.

Last but not least there is a making-of documentary which is the same one that can be found on the HK 2-discer. It runs for 10 minutes and features the usual interview snippets and on-set footage.

Overall, this is probably the best way to kick off with a new DVD label. What other film could represent the theme of a martial arts movie DVD label to a Western audience without letting down the die-hard fans. It features awesome action and fight choreography, takes place in a modern setting and is a police thriller on top of all that. The DVD release itself brings back the memories of how innovative HKL used to be with the extras and the extras on Kill Zone even top that. Every single feature is subtitled, no matter if it is in English, Cantonese or Mandarin and the subtitles are of supreme quality. Keep up the great work and I am really looking forward to their next release that will be Police Story. The only drawback I see in this DVD release is certainly what most fans of the film will agree on which is the title change from Sha Po Lang which has a philosophical meaning to a Seagal B-film title that is Kill Zone.

DVD Menus
Picture
Audio
Subtitles
Special Features
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