Review: ‘Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In’ an action-packed salute to ’80s Hong Kong (2024)

There are many reasons to love the 1980s and early ’90s, but high on the list is the wave of films that emerged from the small, then-British colony of Hong Kong during those years.

From the spine-snapping stunt work of Jackie Chan (“Project A,” “Police Story,” “Dragons Forever”) to the rapturous early films of director Wong Kar-wai (“As Tears Go By,” “Days of Being Wild”), the wuxia fantasies of Tsui Hark (“A Chinese Ghost Story”) and noirishgangster thrillers from the likes of John Woo (“The Killer,” “A Better Tomorrow,” “Hard Boiled”) and Ringo Lam (“City on Fire”), Hong Kong provided a joyous sense of cinematic discovery for the rest of the world.

Now four decades later, the new martial arts crime film “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In,” an homage to that bygone era, has become the second highest-grossing Hong Kong film of all time. U.S. audiences will find out why when it opens in theaters Friday, Aug. 9.

The action movie is a glorious throwback to those days, both cinematically and literally. Set in ’80s-era Hong Kong insideKowloon Walled City, a crime-ridden high-rise slum full of squalor and misery that was bulldozed in the early ’90s, it is a shoutout to all the Hong Kong films that preceded it. In fact, the film had been in development for years and, as originally conceived, reportedly was to be co-directed by Woo and Johnnie To and also feature an all-star cast of Chinese stars, including ChowYun-fat, Andy Lau and Tony Leung, as well as Nicolas Cage and James McAvoy.

While the end result, now directed by Soi Cheang (“Mad Fate,” “Limbo”), may not be quite as deliriously over the top as that version might have been, it’s nevertheless a solid entry in the ledger of Hong Kong crime sagas and was a huge hit when released in China earlier this year.

Chan Lok Kwan (Raymond Lam) is a wiry, hungry refugee from mainland China who, when viewers first meet him, is trying to score some cash by winning a bare-knuckle brawl match— on a floor covered in shattered glass— in a cheesy club owned by gangster/drug dealer Mr. Big (the legendary Sammo Hung, a frequent Jackie Chan collaborator). Mr. Big decides to not pay Chan and tells him that’s the cost he charges for getting Chan a fake Hong Kong ID, something Chan desperately wants so he can work.

But when Mr. Big, backed by his gang of brutes led by King (Philip Ng), reneges on that promise, Chan takes matters into his own hands by stealing a bag of cocaine from the table, leading to one of the film’s best action set pieces: a chase through the streets of Hong Kong that includes a sublimely choreographed fight on a double-decker bus.

Mr. Big’s thugs eventually pursue Chan to the entrance of Kowloon Walled City, an area in which they are afraid to venture, as it’s controlled by an even more vicious gangster, Cyclone (Louis Koo, “Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong”). Chan, desperate to find something resembling safety, has no qualms about entering this lion’s den.

But soon Chan finds himself at odds with Cyclone, too. To survive, loner Chan is going to have to pledge his loyalty to a mob boss, even though he says he wants nothing to do with the triads (gangs). He’s just trying to find a home, never mind that his search ends up setting off a wider gang war.

Cheang, working from a script based on the comic book by Yi-Yu, takes viewers deep into the claustrophobic world of his re-created Walled City, a place so dark and dank that the sheer vision of a low-flying jet overhead or a child’s kite flying between the buildings is enough to provoke wonder. The film is handsomely shot and the action scenes are well staged. Stunt coordinatorKenji Tanigakideserves applause, but so does 72-year-old Hung, who still has some major martial arts moves.

Beyond the action, there is a whisper of nostalgia throughout “Twilight of the Warriors” that separates it from other films of this type. Background news reports hint at the changes Hong Kong will face over the next decade, including being returned to China in 1997, that will alter everything. Meanwhile, others are eager to carve up the Walled City’s acreage once it’s torn down. (That area is now a park.)

The “twilight” of the title applies not just to the gangsters but an entire world. Stay through the end credits to see Cheang’s re-creations of the Walled City’s dilapidated but homey street culture. It’s a sweet farewell to a way of life that is long gone.

However, not everything works. Apparently, King has help from the supernatural, and that’s never really explained. So, the fights in which he is engaged bear a cartoonish aura that undercuts the seriousness of the rest of the film.

The spotlight that was once on Hong Kong cinema has faded in recent years as other Asian territories— South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, India— have taken its place under the Hollywood glare. But “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” shows that Hong Kong is still a contender.

Cary Darling is the arts and entertainment editor for the Houston Chronicle. Reach Cary Darling: cary.darling@houstonchronicle.com