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Kill Zone [2005] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


Our Price: £9.46 (subject to change)

(SPL) Stylish, Potent, Livid action thriller
Review date: 2008-01-10 Rating: 10 out of 10

I just want to back up what Trevor Willsmer and K. Jouni summed up about this movie by going 5 stars too.
This is a serious, gritty "in yer face" violent film that won the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards
* Winner - Best Action Design (Donnie Yen Ji-Dan) as Insp. Ma
* Nomination - Best Supporting Actor (Liu Kai-Chi) as Det. Lok Kwun Wah
12th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards - Recommended Film
It is a very frustrating to get a hold of region 2 or 0, I mean loads of people in UK are missing this. Weinstein or whoever should do something about it.
Because it is unrated, I like to inform potential buyers this film is 18 rated. If you seen "In the line of duty" (Donnie Yen), "New Police Story" (Jackie Chan), "Dragons Forever" (Samo Hung), "Election" (Simon Yam) or "Infernal Affairs" (Andy Lau and Tony Leung), you will feel right at home watching this high-octane crime thriller.
Seen em all? Wan mo action?
Try Donnie Yen's "Flash Point". Same director. Same role for Donnie as "Invincible Inspector Ma".


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Reviews


SPL/KillZone - the best action film from Hong Kong in years!
Review date: 2006-11-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

SPL aka Saat Po Long/Sha Po Lang aka Kill Zone is the best Hong Kong actioner in years, featuring superb performances from Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and Simon Yam and some seriously vicious I'm-not-showing-off-I-really-want-to-kill-you fight scenes.

The plot is fairly standard, with Yam's dying cop on the verge of retirement crossing the line to put away Hung's very unpleasant gang lord (there's NOTHING loveable about Sammo here), implicating his replacement Yen and dooming his men as everything goes seriously wrong, but it's the execution that raises it above the norm. Aside from the brutal and convincing fight scenes superbly staged by Yen, Wai-Sun Yip's direction of the film around them is particularly strong, managing to balance a stylish but not overpowering visual sense with a gravitas and grasp of character that gives the inevitable violence more weight. That's not to say there aren't plotholes - in one scene Hung's wife is incapable of having children and in the next she's got a one-month old child, while no police force in the world would release a criminal when they have video footage of him playing golf with an undercover cop's head even if he doesn't deliver the coup de grace - but there are fewer than usual for the genre, and if you can make allowances the strengths far outweigh them. Very, very impressive.


Does what it promises!
Review date: 2006-11-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

After some excess hyping of the film (more well known as "Sha Po Lang") I thought that we are going to get a movie that has some subtle Hong Kong 'hokey' feel to it and some cool fights. I was quite right.

The plot in Kill zone is gritty and has almost hauntingly isolated feel about it; while there is enough character development here, I felt that it wasn't the main point in the film. In the end, it's your less ordinary cop movie with some great american night cinematography (I love it) and some cool plot twists. Simon Yam is a great actor and seeing him here just act was a nice move. Music fitted the mood very well as well. A watchable movie in it's own right, but nothing I'd watch up from scratch anyday.

Then the action. Much of this was hyped by it's collaboration with action aficionados/veterans like Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung and a wushu protege Wu Jing (aka Jackie Wu). There is not a lot of it, but what's there is spectacular. Some short showcases from ever so cool Donnie Yen are a treat as always, yet I think that it's the bad guys that still manage to steal the show somewhat; Sammo has some real charisma here and he can move very well. Wu Jin is a tour de force with his trusty killer knife. A great part from him as well as a psychopathic killer.

The real beef comes towards the end, when Donnie and Wu Jin duke it out at an alley at night. Donnie swings a metal baton against Wu Jin and it's a four minute spectacle that has to be seen to be believed. A much better fight than almost anything Tony Jaa's newer films have in terms of intricate choreography. Everything is excellent from editing to camerawork. One of the best and most mesmerizing fight scenes of the decade by far.

The final encounter with Donnie and Sammo is expectedly very good as well, with some UFC-style ground fighting and brutal thwows. Donnie even seems to have perfected his spectacular triple side jump kick, of which seeing was easily worth the price of the movie alone. Hwang Jang Lee would have been proud.

I was satisfied. The movie is OK like i said, yet the fighting and things based on it worked great. Less quantity, great quality. Let's hope that contemporary Hong Kong cinema does not die, when they still have skills to produce action with some real soul in it. As Donnie Yen said in an interview, HK people still do the best in choreography department.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Kai Chi Liu
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Donnie Yen
Jacky Wu
Simon Yam

Creators:
Donnie Yen (Primary Contributor)
Simon Yam (Primary Contributor)
Wah-Chuen Lam (Cinematographer)
Wilson Yip (Writer)
Ka-Fai Cheung (Editor)
Carl Chang (Producer)
Kam-Yuen Szeto (Writer)
Wai Lun Ng (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: The Weinstein Company Home Entertainment/Geni
Manufacturer: The Weinstein Company Home Entertainment/Geni
EAN: 0796019795753
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2006-09-12
Universal product code (UPC): 796019795753
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 93 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: Cantonese Chinese (Original Language)

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