A Hong Kong cop named Kit busts a major gangster only to find his cover blown and his main witness gone. The gangster, in retaliation, has him kidnapped and put in a Thai jail with a false criminal identity. Lowly prison guard Chai, with his extraordinary fighting skills, guards Kit and prevents his escape. The prison guard’s daughter suffers from a rare form of leukemia and Kit is the only donor who can save her. The prison guard discovers Kit’s real identity and helps him to escape in return for his agreeing to save his daughter. Together, Kit and Chai must face and take down the gangster and his minions.
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This is more proof that the Asian masters of martial arts cinema are on another level. Because, holy s#%!, these fights scenes are spectacular.Everything from the choreography, to the martial artist actors, to the stunt performers, to the camera-work excel. You'll see none of that standard Hollywood style excessive shaky-cam and rapid editing here.Even as a lifelong martial arts movie fan, there are sequences in this movie where I was genuinely blown away by the quality of the action, in particular the big prison riot fight, featuring very impressive looking long unbroken shots, and, of course, the ultimate showdown fight with the villain. I love the martial arts movie trope of the overpowered main bad guy who dominates the fight, despite everything the heroes throw at him. You'll find yourself asking, how can they possibly take this guy down? I love it, this kind of stuff never gets old.Good to see these martial arts movie heroes I've been a longtime fan of, Tony Jaa & Wu Jing, still as awesome as ever, despite getting older.
Kit is a Hong Kong detective working undercover in the black market organ business which includes the kidnapping and killing of Hong Kong citizens. For some reason there just don't cut out the organ, put it in an ice cooler and travel around the desert for a few days like in US films. In a subplot, Chai (Tony Jaa) is a Thai prison guard whose daughter has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. He is given money by his warden to help her.Kit is discovered as a plant and winds up in the same prison as our two protagonists collide as enemies. Meanwhile there is a rich man who needs a heart transplant and his brother is the only person in the entire world who can supply him with one. Needless to say this all ties in together.Chai is torn between doing what is right and saving his daughter's life. While the film has tons of action, it hasn't lost its oriental touch of combining ethic complexity into the script. I liked what they did with the relationship of Kit, Chai, the telephone, and coincidences.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. English subtitles.
I'm guessing a lot of hate for the movie is coming from western audience (although I'm reading Slavs like it). First, the good news. Hong Kong movies are infamous for mediocre and derivative stories. SPL 2 is an attempt to be more, and I think it succeeded for the most part. Was the narrative unnecessarily convoluted? A little bit, but the overall motivation somewhat justified the plot. It can feel long-winded but not insufferable.The action is top class. Tony Jaa, Wu Jing and Zhang Jin all displayed some real top class martial arts choreography that would humiliate feeble Hollywood action sequences. The reason is, Hong Kong movie industry understands pain and violence; every hit an actor gives or receives is expressed with realism through their motion and their countenance. Every facial feature is captured so that the audience can see that our hero/villain is suffering, and we love it. Special mention must be made to the Knife Assassin for a great knife scenes in the stairwell and his fight with Wu Jing at the hospital reception. In fact, the best thing about SPL 2 are the bad guys. Zhang Jin is just delicious as the Chief Warden of Thai Penitentiary, portraying the final boss with great relish and panache as well as even learning Thai language to make his role more authentic. His final fight scene with both Tony Jaa and Wu Zhing, in an all white hall room with dramatic classical music playing, is masterfully executed.Yes, I also have to mention the really good stages and locations. Scenes from the airport, the prison riot in Thailand and the Hospital are all very well built and captured. All in all the production quality here is also solid. Now the not-so-good news.The pacing could've been better. The beginning and middle of the film was devoted to plot and if it wasn't for the action scenes, it would've been completely boring. The editing and screen write could've have been more polished, considering that they had a budget of USD 23 million, but like all Hong Kong films, they never take put in the effort to make a cohesive fluid narrative. Which is why I think many Westerners won't like this show, especially with IMDb's snobby, pretentious reviewers who think they are Roger Ebert. But screw 'em. The show is a good Asian action film, and Asian action films are like Marvel summer blockbuster films. You want to see people kicking butt, this is well recommended.
The movie has more plot twists than a twister. I can't believe what I saw. And everyone looks the same *no racist*. In the middle of the movie when all the main actors met in one room I thought it is going to end, but unfortunately it didn't and I wasted more time to see the end *no spoiler intended* Not mentioning the classic music in the back ground which simply doesn't fit with the scene!!! I'm writing this text to fill more lines so my review can be submitted. From here and on stop reading there nothing important to read. Just wordings. Sorry if there is any typo but I'm not a native speaker. My conclusion watch another movie
