Flash Point (2007)

You won't be disappointed!

Waste of time

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Flash Point was made to be a prequel to SPL: Sha Po Lang, reusing same actors from SPL. Flash Point follows the story of Inspector Ma's feat on capturing the drug dealers, but his operation went wrong when his mole is discovered.It is no doubt that the extreme violence in this film intensified since SPL. Despite being a law enforcer, Inspector Ma neglect the rules by brutally killing one of the drug dealers with his bare hands. Though justice has been held but it's not his verdict to do so.Although, the story is not as enjoyable as SPL. It still shows significant fight scenes of Yen's potential.--Three brothers Archer (Ray Lui), Tony (Collin Chou) and Tiger (Xing Yu) discusses rival gang leader, Sam (Ben Lam), a rival gang leader on a drug deal.While Inspector Ma Jun (Donnie Yen) and a team of police officers, raids the nightclub for investigation, and fights with Wilson (Louis Koo), who is his undercover agent.Soon, the brothers are betrayed and attacked by Sam and his gang who are impatient on receiving the drugs from Vietnam. Archer and his brothers threaten the elder leaders of their gang when they try to intervene. Tiger is assigned to kill Sam in public but Wilson intervenes.At the hospital, Sam agrees to testify in court against the three brothers. On the night of their mother's birthday, the brothers plan to recover their drug loot, but Archer is arrested by the Hong Kong police. This incident make Tony and Tiger realizes Wilson is a mole.While in court, Archer is forced to turn in his travel documents, so that he will not escape from Hong Kong before his hearing. Tony and Tiger brutally murder Sam along with several other witnesses and crime figures who can testify against them to the police investigation.Their initial plan to kill Wilson fails, Tony and Tiger decide to sneak into a hospital guarded by police. Inspector Ma discovers that Tiger, has disguised as a janitor, is within the building and chase after him, they both end up being in the same elevator where Tiger tries to kill Ma with a silenced pistol.They engage in a fight but a unfortunate female police officer was shot by a stray bullet after hesitating to shoot Tiger. Tony kidnapped Wilson's girlfriend, Julie (Fan Bingbing)and threatens to kill her, because Wilson is the last surviving witness.Inspector Ma chases Tiger when he tries to escape and brutally beats him to death in front of a crowd after Tiger severely injures a little girl by throwing her on the concrete. During the court hearing, Wilson refuses to testify, and the case is dismissed for lack of evidence. Wilson attempts to rescue Julie, but is captured by Tony and his gang.Happily Archer walks free but Inspector Ma holds him captive, and calls his brother, Tony, for an exchange of hostages, at a rural Chinese village. Inspector Ma exchanges Tony for Wilson and Julie, while he and Tiger goes across to Tony's side, to take them all down. Wilson drives Julie to a safe point and returns to help Inspector Ma but he got killed during his pursuit with Archer. The final battle ends with Inspector Ma and Tony, with Tony defeated after a long and tough fight.

Donnie Yen is a cop whose pursuit of three Vietnamese criminal brothers comes at a high price – not so much to him as his undercover partner who is run over by the brothers when his cover is blown and then has his flat blown up by them for good measure and then has his girlfriend kidnapped and then is shot. The film's plot is fairly ordinary, but it's enlivened by some stylishly shot set-pieces and, for the most part, an avoidance of the kind of unlikely plot twists or overwrought emotionalising to which many Asian films are prone.The martial arts sequences – which is presumably what attracts most viewers – don't actually take centre stage until the last third of the film, but as you'd expect, they are choreographed with an incredible intricacy of movement. Too often, though, the action is slowed down so that we can see (apparently) fist or foot making contact with face in excruciating detail, leaving the film open to accusations of the glorification of violence. Naturally, those at whom the film is targeted won't give a jot about that

I've heard that this movie was intended as a prequel to S.P.L., and Donnie Yen plays detective Ma on this movie also (although his given name is different from one in S.P.L.). There's no Simon Yam in this movie, and without the characters of Yam and Sammo Hung, this movie reduces down to a more common action drama between a cop and mob.The movie is good if you're looking for good action, but there's not much else going on asides. There's almost no female character in this movie which turns it into rather boring sequences involving car chase, and fight between Yen's character and the gangs. Yen's dead pan expression all the way doesn't do much to bring any flavor to the story either. If you're a fan of Donnie Yen's action, then this is a good movie to watch. His martial arts skill, and professionalism is evident through out the film. Raw power is one thing he excels into his characters.If you've seen this movie, also check out Fatal Move. I've heard that it was intended to be a sequel to S.P.L., although like this one, story has no real continuity to the original.Not a bad movie, but not in the same league as the venerable S.P.L.

This is your standard issue movie on one level- the cop who is suspended from the case with the love interest making him question his life, a good number of clichés thrown in around it. Internal Affairs breathing down his neck for excessive violence, etc...BUT - what is new is the sophistication of the fight scenes- you will see triangles, arm bars, a few moves that might raise an eyebrow from Jet Li fans and a lot of different guys fighting. The fight scenes more than make up for a cliché script and less than Hollywood quality special effects and acting. I saw the DUB - which I suggest since there's no way in hell you could read the subtitles and keep up with the moves-I especially liked a scene that displayed why you don't bother trying a triangle choke in a cement environment ;-)All in all, I was under-impressed with the script and very impressed with the variety and precision of the martial arts displayed, with an emphasis on brutality and directness instead of a lot of capoeira or wushu junk.PLOT: there's bad guys that are triad, there are some undercover cops- one guys partner has an injury- and then.. it's on! The triad might be able to shirk justice, but they can't shirk vengeance. And of course we have the dumb girl thrown in to go - oh me love you longtime, OH NO! I so scared! Save meeee!