Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 29, 2024

A winning documentary recently reviewed here about an iconic English movie house and performance venue called Scala!!! gets into the somewhat troubled history of the London neighborhood called Kings Cross, which, in my Scala!!! Blu-ray review, I mentioned had at least some similarities to the equally troubled history of Times Square in New York City. Both of those urban environments underwent significant "clean ups" over the course of several years, and neither really fundamentally resembles their "former selves", aside from immutable things like building architecture and the like. Add the fraught enclave known as Kowloon Walled City to London's King Cross and New York City's Times Square, and there's a somewhat disturbing historical trifecta of sorts, and in this particular "competition", Kowloon Walled City would probably easily have won in terms of its chaotic environment, rampant crime and incredibly dense population. Like both Kings Cross and Times Square, Kowloon Walled City underwent a complete transformation where the ghetto (because that's in essence what it was) was completely torn down, a process that took over a year (!), which may in and of itself indicate just how huge and labyrinthine Kowloon Walled City had become. If there is therefore an understandable lack of nostalgia for this overcrowded and often violent neighborhood, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In virtually wallows in another kind of nostalgia, namely a love for gonzo 80's Hong Kong action features, which may make the point that John Woo was at one point announced as the potential director of this enterprise somewhat salient (Soi Cheang ended up helming the film).

In an intentionally ironic turn of events, a down on his luck undocumented immigrant named Chan Lok Kwan (Raymond Lam) has managed to scrape together enough cash by engaging in "fight club" skirmishes to buy a fake ID which will enable him to potentially legitimize his arrival in Hong Kong and maybe ultimately be able to escape his current predicament. Unfortunately he has more bad luck when he attempts to purchase that ID from local crime lord and fight promoter Mr. Big (Sammo Hung), who of course double crosses Chan. Chan ends up stealing some cocaine from Mr. Big on his desperate run out of Mr. Big's cash and drug handling facility, and it's then that Chan just kind of defaults to hiding out will be within the confines of Kowloon Walled City. It's a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Chan suddenly finds himself surrounded by characters potentially at least as underhanded and violent as any of Mr. Big's henchmen.

The film has already provided one pretty major information dump courtesy of a series of text cards over illustrative depictions that offer the following salient background tidbits:

In 20th century Hong Kong, there was once an anarchic enclave that attraced immigrants from all over. A melting pot of people from all walks of life, it was a hotbed of crime, plagued by narcotics, prostitution and illegal gambling. It was also fiercely contested territory for gangs, leading to constant violence.

The violence turned this battlefield into the world renowned "City of Darkness": Kowloon Walled City.

Among the gangs, Lui Chen-tung's gang was the most powerful of them all.

With the help of "King of Killers" Jim Chan. . .Lui sat on the Walled City's throne as its "Dragon Head". . .

Until a man named Cyclone came to the Walled City. Cyclone united those who opposed Lui's rule and fought a battle of resistance. Some say that Cyclone, Lui and Jim shared an enigmatic past because of the Walled City. But in the end, they also slaughtered each other because of the Walled City.

In a fierce battle, Cyclone defeated Jim. Jim's death brought an end to the warring era.

Somewhat hilariously that's not the only involved info dump the film engages in, as there's a flashback around an hour into the film (recycling some of the imagery accompanying the above verbiage) where that "enigmatic past" is explored and unsurprisingly ends up involving Chan. By that point, though, Chan has somewhat unexpectedly been able to at least partially matriculate into the wild and woolly world of Kowloon Walled City courtesy of his almost Deus ex Machina encounter with none other than a now aged Cyclone (Louis Koo).

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In spends a good deal of time exploring the somewhat fantastic "found family" that suddenly surrounds Chan as part of Cyclone's cohort. The film offers both a claustrophobic production design that kind of echoes some of the favelas seen in Black Orpheus, but tonally it may try too hard to straddle a line between threatened chaos always on the cusp of erupting and a kind of almost genially loving laissez faire attitude on the part of many of the denizens of the walled city. Tone is also perhaps further stretched with some frankly kind of gonzo elements that start showing up later in the story as Chan's new "team" (literally) kicks into action, which may be the most obvious example of this property having been sourced from a comic book.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Captured with Arri Alexa cameras and finished with a 2K DI, this is generally stunning looking presentation from start to finish. Detail levels are typically excellent throughout on all the practical items like costumes and especially sets. As is gotten into in at least two of the supplements on this disc, production design is an integral part of this story, and fine detail on some of the elaborately decorated sets tends to be fantastic, even in less than fulsome lighting conditions. The palette is nicely suffused throughout, even though there is an obviously intentional choice to a lot of the walled city material, which is almost monochrome at times, emphasizing grays and other dark tones. That can make sudden pops of color, like an almost absurdly orange-pink-ish jacket Sammo Hung wears in one scene only look more vivid by comparison (see screenshot 3).

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As I mention in the Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In 4K Blu-ray review, Well Go USA has made the somewhat odd choice to not only not offer supplements on their 4K release, but to "up the ante" sonically by including a really boisterous DTS:X mix in Cantonese in addition to the Cantonese Dolby Atmos and English DTS- HD Master Audio 5.1 options available on this disc. (Somewhat hilariously, if understandably, Well Go USA's 4K release does not include the Dolby Digital 2.0 options available on this disc.) The Atmos track on this disc is wonderfully immersive a lot of the time, even if I felt amplitude was a bit anemic (something that only becomes more obvious when comparing it to the DTS:X track on the 4K disc). That one qualm aside, there is consistent engagement of all of the surround channels in virtually all of the crowded, cacophonous scenes in the walled city, and some of the blistering action sequences provide wallops of discretely channeled effects surrounding the listener. Some of the fun if scary scenes featuring zooming motorcycles careening through narrow alleyways also offer some great panning effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes

  Inside Look (HD; 1:37) offers some action choreography rehearsal footage.

  
  

  Shin's Bike Ride (HD; 1:30) shows some perhaps comical learning curves on motorcycle riding.

  
  

  Walled City Tour (HD; 5:44) is a kind of joking look around the set.

• Making Of

  Action Unleashed (HD; 3:58) has more fight and stunt footage.

  
  

  Emotions Explored (HD; 3:15) looks at the human side of the story.

  
  

  Artistry in Focus (HD; 5:05) addresses things like production design and authenticity.

  
  

  The Four Sons of the Walled City (HD; 4:42) profiles the focal quartet.

  
  

  Set Design Showcase (HD; 5:37) has more information on the really expressive production design.

• Trailer (HD; 1:43)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that supplements follow one another automatically, so that clicking on Inside Look is essentially a Play All button. The disc is also authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the Trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's already been announced in the wake of the overwhelming box office this film achieved that it's going to be (at least) a trilogy, so get set for more adventures, though the fact that this film ends with yet another text card mentioning Kowloon Walled City was torn down in 1993 may obviously hint that at least one of the films is evidently planned to be a prequel. I'm not quite sure some of the more fantastic quasi-fantasy laden elements really end up gelling with the rest of this story, but there's a lot of visceral action in the film, and the setting is certainly unique and memorable. Technical merits are solid, and this is the rare Well Go USA release that offers relatively substantial supplements. Recommended.