"Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In" ("九龍城寨之圍城"): review

(L) Louis Koo as compassionate crime boss Cyclone, and (R) Raymond Lam as Chan Lok-kwan

"Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In" is a 2024 action drama directed by Soi Cheang and starring Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, Richie Jen, Raymond Lam, Terrance Lau, Kenny Wong, Philip Ng, Tony Wu and German Cheung. Basically a nostalgia piece that recalls a fantastical, funky version of the Hong Kong of 40 years ago, from the look of the complicated, over-the-top fights to the look of the city, which is a character unto itself, the story is about Chan Lok-kwan (Lam), a man with a murky past and few prospects who finds himself back in Hong Kong after some years away, making money by fighting in underground bouts. He wants a legitimate ID card, so he wins a fight and the attention of gangster Mr. Big (Hung, looking both big and old), who wants Lok-kwan to join the Triads. Lok-kwan wants nothing to do with the Triads, so Mr. Big refuses to pay Lok-kwan his fight purse and gives him the lamest possible fake ID—handwritten, poorly laminated, and painfully fake-looking, i.e., worthless. Lok-kwan fights his way out of Mr. Big's headquarters while stealing a bag of something that he hopes is money. He runs from Mr. Big's turf to the so-called Walled City of Kowloon (apparently the Chinese for Kowloon is 九龍, which in Korean is pronounced Guryong and means "nine dragons"), also called the "City of Darkness," where he discovers his randomly grabbed bag contains nothing but drugs. Lok-kwan wants money. Kowloon used to be a place of constant violence, but the current boss there, Cyclone (Lam), once killed a rival gang boss's deadly henchman named Jim (Kwok) and took over the Walled City, dethroning the previous boss, Lui Chen-tung. In a soap-operatic twist of fate worthy of any Asian drama, our protagonist Chan Lok-kwan is the son of Jim, the henchman killed by Cyclone.

Lok-kwan isn't initially aware of this connection. Grudgingly taken in by Cyclone after escaping Mr. Big, Lok-kwan works honest jobs, scrimping and saving and paying off his debts. Meanwhile, Cyclone's friend and comrade-in-arms Chau (Jen) has learned that Lok-kwan is back in the Walled City. Believing that the son of Jim owes a debt of blood because Jim had killed Chau's wife and children, Chau is now in conflict with his former comrade-in-arms Cyclone who must choose whether to honor his friendship with Chau or defend Lok-kwan, who has become like an adopted son to him.

Most kung fu films are structured like long-form porn films, i.e, what plot there is is merely an excuse to get from sex scene to sex scene (for porn) or from fight scene to fight scene (for kung fu films). "Twilight of the Warriors" is plenty ridiculous in terms of its intricately choreographed fights, but it has more of a plot than the average kung fu film. Always in the backdrop is the prospect of the Walled City's imminent demise as Hong Kong is handed back to China by the British, which will mean mass razing of buildings, government payments to uprooted residents and merchants, and a total change in terms of lifestyle and ambiance as Kowloon gets a radical makeover. Lok-kwan, loyal to Cyclone, claims he wants to stay in Hong Kong as long as he can, but the coming changes will eventually sweep over him as they will over everyone else in the area, big and small.

One thing this movie lacks is training montages, normally a staple of kung fu movies. But in "Twilight of the Warriors," everyone is already fully formed in his personal style of fighting, and no one teaches anyone else anything about life and the cosmos through kung fu. This isn't that kind of movie. Mr. Big's hyena-cackling right-hand man, King (Ng), has mastered qi manipulation to the point that he is impervious to blades, flame, and major blunt impacts—something that Cyclone's underlings soon discover to their own detriment. These underlings, who start out as Lok-kwan's adversaries when he first runs away from Mr. Big and into the Walled City, eventually become Lok-kwan's friends and brothers-in-arms.

One thing this movie has in spades is people spitting out blood for various reasons. When we meet Lok-kwan, he's in the middle of an underground fight on a floor covered in broken glass; he spits out blood after a kick to the chest. Later on, Cyclone, who is older now, coughs out blood as he suffers from lung cancer and other ailments. Mr. Big, during a fight with Cyclone later in the film, gets hit in the chest with a thrown sledgehammer and also ends up spitting out blood. And King, who is forced to swallow part of a broken blade during a climactic fight scene, ends up spitting out blood as the blade, now working its way through his insides, disrupts the flow of his qi, making him vulnerable to Lok-kwan and his friends' attacks.

Modern Asian dramas, both the TV and the movie types, do a lot in terms of complicated character interactions, constantly shifting motives and loyalties, and ever-present ambiguity. This sometimes makes them hard to watch, hard to follow, and the over-complexity is often a replacement for true character development, but I was able to follow the plot of "Twilight of the Warriors" just fine. The translated dialogue (in subtitle form) could have used some improvement, though: gangsters calling a victim "egghead" doesn't sound particularly malevolent. There were also a lot of cultural tropes whose significance I obviously missed because I have little familiarity with Chinese culture.

The film's sets were a combination of obvious soundstages and CGI cityscapes, but the result was, in its own way, weirdly and awkwardly beautiful, evoking a past Hong Kong full of dank, narrow alleys; drooping wires; close-together balconies that one could parkour across; and various shops, restaurants,  blade-scarred walls, shrines, and temples that gave the story atmosphere. The city was peopled with colorful minor characters; alas, one was a very beautiful woman (Fish Liew) who doesn't end up romantically involved with anyone (which may be a reflection of my own Western expectations).

In all, "Twilight of the Warriors" is something of a sad drama that nevertheless delivers a great deal of action. This action often strays into the comical, but the fight scenes do their job at furthering the plot, and the more-than-subtextual message is that this movie is praise for a Hong Kong that no longer exists, or perhaps that never existed except in the imagination. I wonder whether that praise is meant to be a slightly subversive dig at the current Chinese government, but I'm sure none of the actors or filmmakers would ever admit that. Whatever the subtle or unsubtle politics, "Twilight of the Warriors" is worth a watch at least once.