Fridae

SPL is one of the best action films to come out of Hong
Kong this year. For those of you who're been disappointed with much
of Hong Kong's output lately, SPL should give you a renewed
sense of hope. The action sequences are supremely gritty and realistic.
And the characters are unusually well-drawn for an action movie.

Simon Yam plays Detective Chan, a law enforcement agent who is
obsessed with bringing down an infamous triad boss Po (Sammo Hung).
When one of Chan's officers is murdered, Chan tries to frame Po
for the crime. Into the picture comes ace police officer (Donnie
Yen) who believes in doing everything by the book. Tension and rivalry
ensue.

Working on a good script by Ng Wai Lun and Szeto Kam Yuen, director
Wilson Yip is clearly interested in delivering not just the action,
but the drama as well. During the shoot, he sometimes stood back
and told Sammo, Donnie and Wu to go at each other — which
resulted in some impressively raw fighting sequences.

If you appreciated Johnny To's triad drama Election, which
was nominated for a few Golden Horse Awards recently, you'll enjoy
SPL too.