Last of the Best/Kung Fu Killer/Kung Fu Jungle (一個人的武林, 2014
Dec 14, 2014 5:13:26 GMT
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Post by yenchin on Dec 14, 2014 5:13:26 GMT
This latest movie starring Donnie Yen, set in the modern times, surprisingly is not about Donnie Yen getting another excuse to fight in MMA (though he still does Parkour). Most of the fighting is done by the villain, played by Wang BaoQiang (who also acted with Donnie in Iceman). The choreography is very excellent especially when viewed in HD.
The story starts with a guy getting killed, and Donnie's character, who's in prison, knows about the killings (and later on revealed that he knows even more). He warns the investigating officer (Charlie Yeung) about more killings, and she lets him help the investigation.
It turns out there is this guy who believes that Kung Fu is a "Killing Art" and goes all over the place challenging the best fighters in each level of Kung Fu training (Fist, Legs, Grappling, Weapons...) to death. There is the backstory of the killer being an extreme fan of kung fu, getting totally crazy after his wife dies, and Donnie, a great martial artist himself who used to train police officers and challenge other masters, eventually killing a master by accident and went to prison.
There is some talk about martial arts, and the ways of Wulin in modern days, also most of the martial artists work in jobs which only limited martial arts are required, which I feel seems to be a "old days are dying, ways are changing" approach. There is also this character who works as a martial arts star, hiding the fact that he has great skill. There are loads of cameos in this film, either spiritual (such as posters, scenes shown on TVs...etc) or physical (actually showing up in the film.) and in the end credits these great people are mentioned for their contribution to the Kungfu/Wuxia film genre, shown with the "闖將令" (Daring General) song (which used to be the theme song of the old Buddha's Palm films)
I think some reviewers feel that this is kind of like the martial arts version of Rigid Mortis which pays homage to the jumping zombies genre.
ps. Daring General at its full glory: