SPL: Kill Zone

One of the most important turning points in Hong Kong action in the 2000s. A detective unit decides to fabricate evidence in order to catch a crime boss who appears untouchable. The man leading them has a brain tumour and is days from retirement; the detective arriving to replace him does not approve of what they are doing. So the conflict is not between police and criminal but inside the police. Two sequences made its reputation. One is in an alley: roughly two minutes of uninterrupted, extremely fast fighting between Donnie Yen with a baton and Wu Jing with a knife. The other is the finale between Yen and Sammo Hung. Yen choreographed the fights, and the film steps away from the wire-borne wuxia of the period into a grounded, bone-breaking idiom. The arrival of mixed martial arts in Hong Kong cinema is largely dated from here. Wilson Yip directed, with Simon Yam and Sammo Hung in the cast. An important stop in the genre for anyone who loves action cinema. The story side is bleak and scattered, and the film gives none of its characters a good ending.