Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Director Soi Cheang channels the frantic energy of classic Hong Kong action movies with Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. It’s a bombastic martial arts epic filled with impossible choreography that’s set within the crime-ridden streets of the notorious Kowloon Walled City. As enthralling as the insane fight scenes are, though, this flick is let down by an unfocused and bloated plotline.

When refugee streetfighter Chan Lok-kwan (Raymond Lam) is swindled by a cigar-smoking gangster named Mr Big (genre veteran Sammo Hung), he’s chased by his henchmen after stealing what he believes is a sack of money in retaliation. Following a phenomenal fight sequence on a bus that puts similar scenes from Nobody and Shang-Chi to shame, he finds himself in the lawless walled city ruled by powerful crime boss Cyclone (Louis Koo). The pair soon form a kinship, but an unexpected revelation finds Lok-kwan in the centre of a decades-long feud between rival triad gangs.

With no shortage of action scenes, this film is full of characters being thrown across the screen and slammed through concrete like video game characters. While the choreography is fantastically inventive, the combat doesn’t carry the same level of visceral grit of similar genre outings like Ip Man or The Raid. However, what the action lacks in impact, it makes up for in sheer madness. This is best exemplified through a mullet-wearing henchmen named King (Philip Ng) who constantly giggles maniacally and can kick a speeding motorbike into pieces and bite swords in half without so much as flinching. Combined with the melodramatic music that accompanies these moments, there’s a gleeful campness to this feature that genre fans will appreciate.

It comes as a disappointment, then, that a substantial chunk of the fun factor is dampened by an uninteresting plot that has far too much going on for its own good. From the moment the protagonist arrives in the Walled City, viewers are hurled from one plot point to the next without there being sufficient time to digest anything that’s happening or to better understand the relationships at the centre of the conflict. Pivotal moments consequently fall flat, ending things on an underwhelming note.

Although the over-encumbered plot leaves something to be desired, there’s no shortage of entertainment to be found within Twilight of the Warriors‘s myriad of over-the-top action scenes and impressive set pieces.

Andrew Murray

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is released in select cinemas on 24^th May 2024.

Watch the trailer for Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In here: