Review of the film "SPL Stars of Destiny 2" from Ravenside

03.09.2015Ravenside

Film released in 2005 "SPL Stars of Destiny" с Donnie Yen, Sammo Hungg and Simon Yam starring was an unconditional hit and one of the best works of this trio of actors. Therefore, the appearance of some kind of sequel was quite expected (surprisingly, ten years later, and not a year later). And, despite the fact that “SPL Stars of Destiny 2” is not a direct continuation of the film with Donnie Yen, it has some similarities in the presentation of material, in drama, in the soundtrack, in visual solutions and even uses some references to the formal first part, especially in climax. And even the cast, enhanced Tony Jaa, has in itself Jackie Wu и Simon Yam, participants in the first film, but now playing completely different characters.

The plot of the film is exaggeratedly dramatic, full of many events and sub-events, a jumble of parallel actions and lines to heat up the atmosphere and keep the viewer in suspense and, it must be said, that the type of suspense is reminiscent of South Korean cinema, only in the Chinese it is much more naive and straightforward. And most importantly, this film is a classic. Classic heroes, classic schemes, totally classic villains that look like they came out of comic books, classic boss and sub-boss systems. And with all the twisted plot - naivety, concentrated theatricality, simplicity of dialogue. In general, traditional Chinese things.

But in general, this is not a big disadvantage, as in most Chinese films, and we need to get used to the fact that this is their style and specificity, this is their coordinate system. The reason these character archetypes aren't funny is because of the quality of the acting. In general, both films from the “SPL” series are a good example of how to play fighting games (“Hello to the Savior” with Zaror). In every scene that required real acting effort, even the extras had it. All close-ups or dramatic moments were played very well, and I will mention the acting in duels below. In general, it is the actors who bring out the frequent naivety of what is happening on the screen. In other cinematic circumstances, for example, the same police operation at the airport would have seemed to me just a monstrous failure, but when watching it, I somehow closed my eyes to it.

In addition to strong acting work, the obvious advantage is the picture, work with color and light, and camera work. There are some really beautiful shots and shots in the film. The obvious highlight is the soundtrack - it's very good. And by the way, it is also quite typical - the Chinese love to use symphonic music in films of various genres, and even more so in action films, especially in battle scenes or rapid firefights.

Now let's talk about fights.

Here we again have the classic genre fighting game schemes - crowd against crowd, crowd against one, two against crowd and two main characters against one main villain. There are two central characters, each of whom is given ample screen time. They are full-fledged, equal, and no one pulls the blanket over themselves. Jackie Wu uses such a tough police style with elements of wushu, Tony uses his classic, somewhat modernized Muay Thai. And from each of them you know approximately what to expect.

There is no point in dwelling in detail on the numerous small battles “heroes against the crowd”; there is nothing very interesting there. The fights in the prison scenes are such a bustle of combat, which is quite logical, but in the scenes where Tony fights against several opponents it is, in fact, the same "Tom yum goong", the opponents attack one at a time, and Tony gives them an audience and breaks their limbs. The only thing is the stage "Simon Yam and Jackie Wu vs. the Gang" was interesting in terms of the contrasting soundtrack. Yes, you may have seen such techniques more than once, but it was still very good.

And by the way, fight "Jackie Woo vs Tony Jaa" Don’t wait either, one might say he’s not here. And Ken Lo is once again mercilessly leaked.

The main fighting game moments of the film are: "Jackie Wu vs. Zhang Chi" and "Tony and Jackie vs. Max Zhang."

And here everything is ambiguous. As I already said, the film, like most Chinese films, is pathetically dramatized and hypertrophied. But at the same time he strives for the reality of what is happening. However, it is fights that often destroy this reality, because all the heroes have the habit of flying. When the fighters stand firmly on the ground, there are no problems, but as soon as they try to make a jumping kick, they immediately begin flying in their dreams and in reality. Sometimes it seems to me that no matter how hard the Chinese try to make films, they still make wuxia.

In battle "Jackie Wu vs. Zhang Chi" everything is very good. There is drama, there is support in the form of an intense soundtrack, good pacing and editing, everything is tough, sharp and readable, although there are cropped heads, but this is not critical. But the knife-throwing scene was completely unnecessary, because it seemed as soon as you started watching the hard and tight fight, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon started again. I was waiting for the hero Jackie to jump onto a floating knife and fly on it to the enemy like Marty McFly on a flying board.

But in the final scene against Max Zhang, the cables spoiled our blood. And what’s most interesting is that many scenes could have been filmed with minimal use of them. Well, that is, in most cases, ropes are completely useless. Many may remember Jackie Woo’s knee injuries, but he started flying in movies almost immediately, and in “Stars of Destiny 2” he was not required to do somersaults at all. In this film, he looks much more interesting in this ascetic manner: striking techniques, working with weapons, throws, grabs, painful locks.

Tony was in his traditional manner - elbows, knees, grips and work on the upper tier, again with elbows and knees. And he, of course, also flew often.

But who is our champion in flying is Max Zhang. And again the question is, why?

In short, it is the inappropriate use of ropes that is the main drawback of the final fight. Plus some silly slow-motion close-ups of punches to the face (so 80's style) and some potentially good punches ruined by editing. And the parallel scene with the girl in the forest was unnecessary. It is clear that this was done for tension and some symbolism, but it didn’t look very good. As a last resort, you could have another attack, it would look a little more sane.

But it is not all that bad. What's good? A charismatic villain, good communication, the simultaneous attack of two fighters on one was quite well coordinated and almost did not sag. There were moments when Jackie and Tony acted very synchronously, and their opponent did not wait for their attacks, carrying out defensive or counterattack techniques. In general, I thought that everything would be much worse.

And most importantly, every shot and movement is well executed. That is why this terribly ancient scheme of “an unkillable main boss and two heroes” does not look trivial. Because everything is shot at a good pace and with good acting.

"SPL Stars of Destiny 2" turned out to be an average picture. Definitely not a flop, but not a super hit either. Normal, strong, traditional work. It won’t show Tony Jaa and Jackie Wu in a new light; in the film they perform exactly what you’ve seen them do before, but the combination of all the elements makes this film better than most of the Chinese action productions released. In my opinion, it turned out better than, for example, “Special Person,” “The Ice Comet” or “The Last of the Best” with Donnie Yen. So, it’s worth watching once, but re-watching is at the discretion of the pious public.

Author: Ravenside

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Tags: SPL 2: A Time For Consequences, Jackie Wu, Max Zhang, Simon Yam, Tony JAA

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