City of darkness: Hell fight! [critique]

The new film from the director of Limbo is a live-action arcade machine: a stunning fighting film in a Dantesque setting, where old HK legends face off against hungry challengers.

Funny fight: that of an 80s fighting film in a dump town, like in Limbo, this dump town that obsesses Soi Cheang. Funny fight and funny contrast, yes, but ultimately, the result is very coherent. It seems that for the director, it is not a question of shooting a servile best of HK, an opportunistic thing or a parody: let's not lose sight of the fact that the filmmaker's priority remains to make a fighting film that hits hard. On that side, the contract is perfectly fulfilled. Soi Cheang strips its source material (a very colorful comic strip full of more or less sexy fighters) of its fluorescent tinsel, and locks its characters in a very “Soi Cheangian” setting that is another character: the “walled city” of Kowloon, an enclave within an enclave (the city of Hong Kong before the recession), a concrete labyrinth ruled by super-powerful fighters driven by tragic impulses. It's the story of a starving illegal immigrant (the amazing Raymond Lam), lost in Kowloon, who clashes with heroes named Cyclone (hairdresser and elite fighter), Mr Big (the legendary Sammo Hung himself, tired but very present) or King, an amazing big bad guy with a mullet capable of blocking saber blades with his teeth… The purgatory of Limbo has been ordered (and slightly colored), to become much more than the setting of an arcade machine beat them all: a new cinema horizon for Soi Cheang. Fight!

By Soi Cheang. With Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Sammo Hung… Duration 2h05. Released on August 14, 2024