SPL 2: A Time for Consequences doesn’t actually have much to do with the 2005 film SPL. Only Simon Yam returns from the cast of the original movie, and he’s not even playing the same character. But it does operate under the same shaky logic. This film, like its predecessor, sketches out a world of manly men operating in an unjust world, trying their best to do right by their families, which tends to involve making tough choices and kicking people in the face. SPL 2 doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but like the first film, it’s loads of dumb fun.
Kit (Jing Wu) is an undercover cop working for the Hong Kong police. He’s infiltrated an organ-harvesting ring, and he’s tasked with getting to the mastermind of the operation. But his cover is blown in the middle of a botched rescue mission, and he is thrown into a Thai prison secretly run by the ring. Meanwhile, prison guard Chai (Tony Jaa) is just trying to raise enough money to help treat his Leukemia-stricken daughter, but he soon gets caught up in the intrigues of his job. He and Kit become unlikely allies in the fight against the criminal ring.
And that’s not all of it. There is the matter of a possible marrow donor for Chai’s daughter, which involves a contrivance so huge the film writes it off as destiny. There are the issues of Kit’s Uncle Wah (Simon Yam), who is quite possibly the worst police officer of all time. And there is a subplot concerning the criminal boss and his brother. The film has a lot of moving parts, and when viewed from far away, it all looks like a load of nonsense. It doesn’t help that the film is dubbed in English here, making the more intricate details of this crisscrossing plot even harder to grasp at times.
But while you’re in it, it kind of works. The film just keeps on moving forward, just forcing all these disparate elements to converge. And really, even if you don’t pay attention at all to the plot, the martial arts filmmaking is strong enough that it almost doesn’t matter. This film features some of the best fight sequences in recent memory. It mostly keeps things simple, eschewing the bombast of big crazy stunt set pieces in favor of just people throwing punches and kicks and each other.
And when you assemble a cast like this, you can afford to keep things that simple. Tony Jaa remains a questionable presence when he’s made to emote, but he is a constant joy to behold when he’s inflicting bodily harm. His elbows and knees are brutal. Wu Jing doesn’t have a very distinct fighting style, but he makes up for it with better acting. But the real revelation in this cast of fighters is Zhang Jin, who plays one of the villains. The actor displays effortless cool in scenes where there’s just talking, before unleashing viciousness through his impressive kicks.
SPL 2: A Time for Consequences loses major points for a bit involving characters communicating through emoji. It’s a distinctly goofy, almost insensitive choice given the weird seriousness of the material. It also loses points for being dubbed in English. Given that so much of the film involves people being unable to talk to each other because of a language barrier, the dubbing makes the movie lose some of its flavor. But having said all that, this is not a bad film for people who just want to see a lot of kicking and punching. There is a lot of that in here, and it’s all performed by some really great talent.
My Rating:
