#40 — SPL II: A Time for Consequences/Kill Zone 2

This is an illustrated countdown of my 49 1/2 most essential action movies, which always features one drawing and lots of me explaining myself. Last week I talked about an explosive action comedy called True Lies.

The first Kill Zone features Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, two cherished icons of action cinema. They’re not back for this one, on account of entering the kill zone. Man, it’s crazy what happens when you go in there. I guess that’s what sequels are for — and I actually like this one more. The story is unrelated to part one, but we get to have Simon Yam and Wu Jing return (they’re playing different people). We also get Luis Koo, Max Zhang, Ken Lo, and Tony Jaa (!) — as a treat. This is cool for a couple different reasons. Not only do we have a massively retooled roster of martial arts legends spanning multiple regions and eras, but some of that diversity is integrated into a spiderweb plot about organ harvesting and undercover cops.

Hong Kong cinema really leans into melodrama, and sometimes it pulls me out of the experience. They go full bore here, and I agree with the choice. Language barriers, familial bonds, and meditations on mortality all play a role. The music swells during fights in a way that gets my fist pumping, and the final conflict resolution somehow matches the surreal nature of the first entry (which I think you should watch). I’m not going to explain the story, but an unexpected amount of it involves characters translating different languages with phone apps. It gets a little hard to keep up with at times, but it pulls together in a way that’s coherent. If characters gotta read subtitles in their own movie, I figure we can do it too.

My main draw for this feature is Tony Jaa, an actor I needed to have on this countdown for athletic feats that surpass any superhero. In fact, he carries his sick daughter’s knock-off Iron Man mask (it’s the same mask, just repainted) on his belt during the climactic fight — and things get so operatic that I honestly expected him to put it on. I wish The Protector came anywhere close to telling a lucid story, and I almost included it anyways because the stunts are incredible. It’s a meandering, tonally confused experience. Kill Zone 2 doesn’t suffer from the same ailments, embracing its identity as a sprawling crime drama told through action. The heroes are underdogs, boxed in and fighting for their lives in a world of evil. Every story beat seems to come with a sense of desperation. When Tony Jaa and Wu Jing team up for a 2-on-1 fight at the end, it’s really everything I watch these movies for.

Jaa’s shockwave inducing elbow’s and flying knees haven’t lost their power, and he’s in really great form here. Pretty much everyone is. There’s some occasional wonky-looking wirework, but the fights are often ambitious. Many of them spill into multiple rooms, and involve large groups of combatants. Not only are they choreographing expert martial artists, but they’re controlling space. This is when hand-to-hand fight scenes really come alive, and I think it’s one of the reasons they often get compared to dance. You can dig through classic Hong Kong action cinema and find stuff like this, sure, but it’s much more rare for a 2015 release. Kill Zone 2 does a pretty good job of achieving that elusive blend of old-school trademarks with a more modern approach. It’s a really nice looking film.

The varied cast is also terrific. Ken Lo, a legendary contemporary of Jackie Chan, assists Jaa in a support role. Max Zhang gets to be an evil prison warden, flexing three-piece suits with a graceful fighting style to match. In my experience, movies with evil prison wardens are usually worth watching, especially if they know kung fu. Wu Jing is a disgraced cop trying to survive and redeem himself while Simon Yam plays his watchful superior. Luis Koo is an EVIL overlord, pulling strings and generally being ruthless. You’re getting a little bit of everything here.

Now if you’ll excuse me for a second, I’m just going to slip on this bullet-proof vest before continuing. *steps into the kill zone* In a lot of ways, this feels like a more successful version of what The Raid 2 was trying to do, and I think it’s the better sequel. The fight scenes might not feel quite as fresh as Gareth Evans offerings did at the time, but they’re driven by more emotion and character — holding up to repeat viewings better, in my mind. Brutality can energize a story, or become a slog. What if your hero could ice skate with his daughter AND seismically crush an opponent with his elbow? This is a complicated crime story that somehow covers more ground in a shorter time, without compromising on the action. It’s even got its own version of the knife-wielding henchman (no car chase, but you can’t have everything). Really, the only thing holding it back is Tony Jaa not putting on that Iron Man mask. Woulda been the ultimate Make-A-Wish granted for all those kids looking for an organ donor.

This movie makes me think of SEGA’s popular Yakuza video game series in how it juxtaposes brutally violent depictions of organized crime with heartfelt and sometimes humorously saccharine themes of love, sacrifice, and hope for a better tomorrow. That’s why the ending elicits guffaws, only to make me stop and think “wait, you know what, I love this”. I am officially going on record as saying Kill Zone 2 is essential.