Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In by Soi Cheang (2024)
Originally intended to be a John Woo/Johnnie To co-production starring Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, and Tony Leung, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In fell into development hell for a couple of decades until it was resurrected by director Soi Cheang. And I’ll be honest, knowing something of the film’s backstory, I can’t help but imagine what might’ve been. Cheang’s film clearly seeks to recapture the glory days of Hong Kong cinema, but its tale of rival gangs battling over Kowloon Walled City, and the mysterious young refugee who sets in motion calamitous events, is ungainly and over-stuffed. There’s plenty of action, and some of it’s pretty awesome, but the setting of Kowloon Walled City — at one point, the world’s most densely populated spot — is so fascinating that I was more curious about the stories of the side characters inhabiting its labyrinthine corridors. (On a sidenote, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is a masterclass in set and production design.) Indeed, the movie’s final scenes of its inhabitants going about their jobs and daily routines sans any gang violence or wire and CGI-enhanced martial arts proved much more interesting than the action sequences.
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