646f9e108c A cop goes undercover in a ruthless underworld organization to stop a gang leader, only to put himself in great danger after being exposed by his former protégé and best friend. Chan Chi-Lung has been an infiltrator in Cheung Mo-Hung's Hong Kong triad gang for many years. After a failure of a recent negotiation by Lung with the other three local triad gangs on behalf of Hung makes the latter suspicious of Lung's identity. Hung sets to wipe out every undercover cop in his gang and as a result many cops are caught and wiped out. Sensing the danger, Lung requests to put an end to his undercover career from his captain, Cheung. However, Cheung sends Lung to Mainland China to infiltrate a business of "Special Identity" trading instead. The business is run by Hung's best protégé, Sunny, who was Lung's previous buddy in the gang. Cheung promises to reinstate Lung's police identity in conclusion of the mission once Sunny's business breaks down. Lung agrees, and joining him are local police officer Fang Jing and her chief Lei Peng from the Mainland Chinese police force. But before they can get to Sunny, the latter suddenly vanishes leaving Lung exposed and in great danger. As a long time fan of Hong Kong movies, it's nice that in recent years Donnie Yen has finally come out on his own as a leading man. While Special ID is not a movie of the same quality as the Ip Man movies starring Donnie or Kill Zone(SPL), I did still enjoy it quite a bit. Directed by Clerence Fok, who is best known for the erotic action cult classic Naked Killer. Donnie is a cop who is deep, deep, deep undercover who wants to be a regular cop and regain his identity. Of course his superiors want him to keep feeding them information and when the crap hits the fan, Donnie Yen fights everyone. To be honest, the story and most of the acting in this action packed thriller is average, but adaquite. Donnie, however is great and the fights are awesome. Donnie makes the combo of stylish martial arts and gritty streetfighting work. I can't regard Special ID as an instant classic, however it is a pretty solid action movie with some great fight scenes. I look forward to see more asskicking from Donnie Yen in the future. I'm always surprise that Donnie Yeh has not exploded onto America like Jackie Chan or Jet Li. I saw a biography on the man and learned that he spent a lot of his childhood in the states and as such speaks better English than the average Chinese action star who basically just learned how to read lines in English. Kind of Ironic, and added to the fact that The Don is more attractive than his peers you would think Hollywood would be knocking on his door, Or maybe they are and Donnie chooses to stay away from the headaches the ones that came before him had to go through.<br/><br/>Special ID shows the kind of hands-on film making Donnie gets to do in his native land. The action sequences are long and energetic like I would expect from a Kung Fu flick, and never let down. What I love best is the martial arts sequences are very contemporary with what's going on today. The Don does the traditional high speed flying kicks that are trade mark in Kung Fu, but I noticed that Donnie is using the rapid punches that remind me of his role as Ip Man. I also notice that mixed martial arts seems to have influenced the fights in this movie with a lot of low to the floor fighting which actually made the conflicts realer for me. Outside the fight choreography, there was also an awesome chase scene as well.<br/><br/>Donnie plays a police officer who wants to take down China's most ruthless crime syndicate. In order to do this he has to go deep undercover, but when the mob boss suspects a traitor in his ranks, Don as "Dragon" Chan, is in trouble of getting his cover blown and his life ended, which puts him in conflict with his duty as a police official. His best ally is Fang Jing, an officer who puts herself on the line and in the action. I love noting more than to see a woman who is more than just eye candy to the action hero (but she does do eye candy very well).<br/><br/>Another highlight for me is one of The Antagonist's henchmen Sunny played by Andy Oh. He spoke a lot of English in the film for reasons I did not fully get, but this may have help with me relating to the character, as I did not have to read what he was saying, but the fight scene between he and The Don was brilliant.<br/><br/>Once again the Don delivers a worth wild Action flick, to add on to the many reasons why Hollywood does a disservice to itself sleeping on his skills, but it's probably for the best as an American made Special ID just would not be the same. The lens work by "Crouching Tiger" cinematographer Peter Pau looks super slick; and the film's conformity to trends in regional commercial cinema yields respectable results. But Special ID truly comes alive when it busts out the good ol' fashioned Hong Kong daredevil stunt work.
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293 weeks ago