3. Paradox
Led by Louis Koo, Paradox follows his Hong Kong inspector Lee Chung-chi as he travels to Thailand to rescue his kidnapped daughter. Bringing back Tony Jaa from SPL 2: A Time for Consequences in the new role of Lee’s friend and local Thai cop Tak, Paradox was also the first blip on the radar for rising star Chris Collins. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and well-versed martial artist, Collins is a coolest in his action scenes. The movie builds up to a show-stopping battle between him and Tony Jaa, pitting the two fighters against one another in the film’s highlight one-on-one battle.
Koo admittedly isn’t the martial artist that his nimble co-stars are, but the film nevertheless adapts his strengths to its needs with the leading man performing quite admirably, taking on henchmen in a battle of machetes and cleavers, with Gordon Lam also getting in on the fun with some blade work of his own. Paradox’s dark ending may be a hard pill to swallow for some, but its excellent action scenes, orchestrated by the great Sammo Hung.
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2. Sha Po Lang (Kill Zone)
Until 2006, Western audiences knew Donnie Yen mainly from films such as Iron Monkey, Hero and Once Upon a Time in China 2, and although he played some memorable roles in Highlander: Endgame, Blade 2 and Shanghai Knights, he has not yet become a martial arts film icon as popular as Jackie Chan or Jet Li. Things started to change in Sha Po Lang, and it was Yen’s revolutionary approach to fight scenes that made Sha Po Lang such a huge game changer in the industry. In Sha Po Lan, released in Hong Kong in 2005, Yen plays Hong Kong police detective Ma Kwun, who decides to take down crime boss Sammo Hung Wong Po.
Showdown with Sammo Hung was the clash of Hong Kong icons fans had waited decades to see, made that much better by Yen’s adeptness in merging chokes, throws. Yen fully pushed action-movie MMA through the roof with 2007’s Flash Point, before finally achieving international fame in taking on his most famed role of Bruce Lee’s mentor in 2008’s Ip Man, which elevated martial arts films even more with his use of Wing Chun. Sha Po Lang was still the point where the world finally began to seriously take notice of Yen’s talents. Fast-forward a decade, and subsequent appearances in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and xXx: Return of Xander Cage show how much Yen’s legacy as a martial arts legend and action innovator has been solidified.
1. SPL 2: A Time For Consequences (Kill Zone 2)
2015 was the Year of Tony Jaa. Following a sabbatical from movies after the Ong Bak sequels. Skin Trade and Furious 7, and made his Hong Kong debut in SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (released in the West as Kill Zone 2). Jaa portrays Bangkok prison guard Chatchai, who finds himself the reluctant guard over Wu Jing’s Chan Chi-kit, a Hong Kong cop sent undercover to stop an organ-harvesting operation in Thailand. Director Cheang Pou-soi was obviously aware that SPL 2 was never going to get away with having Tony Jaa and Wu Jing in the same movie without having them go head-to-head, allies or not, and the movie satisfies that quota as soon as they cross paths.
SPL 2’s singular goal is to outdo itself every chance it gets, thrilling viewers with action scenes like a prison riot worthy of The Raid 2 and a stick and knife duel that cleverly flips Wu Jing’s weapon of choice and villainous role in Sha Po Lang to the stick-wielding hero. Jaa and Jing are everything fans of Asian action movies want in a pairing of heroes, their mutual distrust thawing into a warrior duo viewers are invested in on both individual and collective terms.
The finale is simply full-blown kung fu and Muay Thai pandemonium with Chi-kit and Chatchai battling a swarm of henchmen before
taking on the emotionless Ko Chun in a two-on-one showdown that’s a personal best for each of the three stars involved. Wu Jing and Max Zhang had similarly big years as Jaa in 2015, Jing starring in and directing the Chinese Rambo-style hit Wolf Warrior, with Zhang also becoming the breakout star of Ip Man 3. With SPL 2: A Time For Consequences, audiences saw all three at their absolute pinnacle in some of the most dynamite action scenes they’ve ever done, with the movie itself being the reigning champion of the Sha Po Lang series.