Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is a mega-budget martial arts spectacle that emphatically delivers on its two main promises: an exhilarating display of bone-crunching violence and an immersive recreation of the sights and sounds of the Kowloon Walled City, the fabled slum area in Hong Kong that was demolished in 1993.
Soi Cheang Pou-soi’s 1980s-set film is one that he is perfectly equipped to make at this point of his highly versatile career.
It blends the dark, primal edge of his early films (Dog Bite Dog and Shamo) and the scale of the well-funded Hong Kong-China co-production model with which he got acquainted making the Monkey King trilogy. The result is a stylish action showcase – one that’s reminiscent of his SPL 2: A Time of Consequences – and has a faint echo of the social zeitgeist he alluded to in Limbo and Mad Fate.
Leading the all-male ensemble cast is the former TV actor Raymond Lam Fung, who made a refreshing impression in the 2022 thriller Detective vs Sleuths but really comes into his own here as Chan Lok-kwun, a Chinese man who has just illegally smuggled himself into Hong Kong in search of a better life.
The thrilling opening of Twilight of the Warriors follows Chan as he takes part in a brutal underground fight; robs the gang boss responsible, Mr. Big (Sammo Hung Kam-bo), who has scammed him out of his earnings; makes his escape in a marvellously staged fight scene on a double-decker bus moving along Nathan Road, Kowloon; and stumbles into the rabbit hole that is the Kowloon Walled City.
Raymond Lam in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.
From there, the film offers a fascinating glimpse of life inside the enclave, as Chan works multiple jobs to save up for a fake Hong Kong ID card under the benevolent eyes of the reigning mobster Cyclone (Louis Koo Tin-lok), while striking up friendships with his three assistants, played by Terrance Lau Chun-him, Tony Wu Tsz-tung and German Cheung Man-kit.
A technical masterpiece that should become a strong favourite for the best art direction, action choreography and visual effects prizes in next year’s Hong Kong Film Awards, Twilight of the Warriors nevertheless underwhelms on the narrative front – albeit it is adapted from a novel, Yu Yi’s City of Darkness.
It is disappointing that the requisite source of conflict, involving Richie Jen Hsien-chi’s vengeful landlord, should come courtesy of a most improbable coincidence.
(From left) German Cheung, Terrance Lau and Tony Wu in a still from Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In.
On top of that, the themes of brotherhood and loyalty are rather unconvincingly presented, and the story’s comic-book logic ultimately takes over with the emergence of Philip Ng Wan-lung’s unhinged and literally indestructible villain.
In a sense, Cheang’s film could be described as this year’s Warriors of Future: a years-in-the-making passion project that most Hong Kong film-goers would love to love for its flag-bearer role in the city’s film industry, but which is let down by a mediocre story more befitting of run-of-the-mill genre productions.
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